Author Jon Meacham has a new book out on Thomas Jefferson. It is reviewed in the
New York Times:
Cultivating Control in a Nation’s CrucibleBut this book does not address its principal concern, power, until Jefferson has accrued some. When it comes to the force that he wielded as a slaveholder, Mr. Meacham finds ways to suggest that thoughts of abolition would have been premature; that it was not uncommon for white heads of households to be waited on by slaves who bore family resemblances to their masters; and that since Jefferson treated slavery as a blind spot, the book can too.
[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns
on Dec 3, 2012 -
44 comments
On August 19, 1969, the (prime time ABC version of the) Dick Cavett show featured several popular musicians.
pt 1 -
pt 2 -
pt 3 -
pt 4 -
pt 5 The Jefferson Airplane, David Crosby and Stephen Stills had rushed back from a show they did at a festival. Jimi Hendrix couldn't get back in time, but
appeared later. The third guest, Joni Mitchell, skipped Woodstock to make sure she was on time for
this broadcast, but a month later she wrote
a cool song based on what she saw on TV and heard from friends.
[more inside]
posted by msalt
on Dec 7, 2011 -
16 comments
The Declaration of Independence is perhaps the most masterfully written state paper of Western civilization. As Moses Coit Tyler noted almost a century ago, no assessment of it can be complete without taking into account its extraordinary merits as a work of political prose style. Although many scholars have recognized those merits, there are surprisingly few sustained studies of the stylistic artistry of the Declaration. This essay seeks to illuminate that artistry by probing the discourse microscopically -- at the level of the sentence, phrase, word, and syllable. The University of Wisconsin's Dr. Stephen E. Lucas meticulously analyzes the elegant language of the 235-year-old charter in a distillation of
this comprehensive study.
More on the Declaration: full transcript and
ultra-high-resolution scan,
a transcript and scan of Jefferson's annotated rough draft,
the little-known royal rebuttal,
a thorough history of the parchment itself,
a peek at the archival process, a reading of the document
by the people of NPR and
by a group of prominent actors,
H. L. Mencken's "American" translation,
Slate's Twitter summaries, and
a look at the fates of the 56 signers.
posted by Rhaomi
on Jul 4, 2011 -
72 comments
Feeling like you need something to balance the scent of sandalwood and musk after reading this list of
famous man caves (including Jefferson's study, Douglass' office, Edison's library, and Roosevelt's trophy room)? If so, you may be interested in seeing the inner sanctums of some of history's most influential women. Check out Eleanor Roosevelt's living room (
picture/
info), Marie Curie's laboratory (
picture/
info), Margaret Mead's room in Samoa (
picture/
info), Maya Angelou's parlor (
picture/
info), Susan B. Anthony's
study and
bedroom (
more pictures and info), Georgia O'Keefe's sitting room (
picture,
info), Helen Keller's childhood bedroom (
picture,
info), and Frida Kahlo's studio (
picture 1,
picture 2/
info).
[more inside]
posted by emilyd22222
on Jul 28, 2010 -
23 comments
On the day that
John Adams thought would be celebrated as the birth of the United States of America, the
Library of Congress reveals that in an original draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson referred to "Our fellow
subjects," not "Our fellow citizens."
posted by TrarNoir
on Jul 2, 2010 -
65 comments
Thomas Jefferson's cipher message from Robert Patterson For more than 200 years, buried deep within Thomas Jefferson's correspondence and papers, there lay a mysterious cipher -- a coded message that appears to have remained unsolved. Until now.... To Mr. Patterson's view, a perfect code had four properties: It should be adaptable to all languages; it should be simple to learn and memorize; it should be easy to write and to read; and most important of all, "it should be absolutely inscrutable to all unacquainted with the particular key or secret for decyphering." [more inside]
posted by caddis
on Jul 2, 2009 -
22 comments
"The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion."
~
George Washington / "I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature."
~
Thomas Jefferson / "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion."
~
Abraham Lincoln / "A just government has no need for the clergy or the church." ~
James Madison / "I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end... where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice." ~
John F. Kennedy / "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus --
and nonbelievers." ~
Barack Obama
posted by 0bvious
on Jan 20, 2009 -
270 comments
Thomas Jefferson so wanted to fix what he thought was wrong with religion that he
rewrote the Bible.
He went through and cut out the parts that he liked most and pasted it to a fifth volume. He cut out Miracles. He cut out the Christmas story. He cut out most of the Easter story. Resurrection is gone.
Wikipedia.
previously
posted by nax
on Mar 16, 2008 -
64 comments
The paper analogue of the blog is not the diary, but rather
the commonplace book. With the availability of relatively cheap paper beginning as early as the 14th century, people began to collect knowledge in commonplace books. Bits of quotes, reference materials, summaries of arguments, all contained in a handy bound volume.
This merchant's commonplace, for example, dates from 1312 and contains hand-drawn diagrams of Venetian ships and descriptions of Venice's merchant culture.
An English commonplace dating to the 15th century, the
Book of Brome,
contains poems, notations on memorial law, lists of expenses, and diary entries.
John Locke devised a method for
keeping a
commonplace.
Thomas Jefferson kept both
legal and literary commonplaces, and owned a copy of
Sir John Randolph's legal commonplace, published in 1680.
posted by monju_bosatsu
on Nov 18, 2005 -
23 comments
Dreams of Liberty Who Are Americans to Think That Freedom Is Theirs to Spread? Op ed from
Michael Ignatieff, Carr professor of human rights at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; an edited version of which appeared in Sunday Observer 03 July. Ignatieff previously mentioned
here.
posted by adamvasco
on Jul 4, 2005 -
10 comments
Those OLD states are totally 2004.
I should wait until
Thursday, but: If you're fed up with the idea of living in America OR Canada, consider moving to
The State of Jefferson, a county on the Cali/Oregon border with big dreams and a kickass
flag.
Of course, they haven't seceded
yet, but when they do, it's only going to be a matter of time before we can all live in the utopian
Republic of Cascadia, where, as Jefferson residents, we'll run on Metric Time and help
strengthen Cascadia's southern border against Californian incursions.
And hey!
Public radio!
posted by dougunderscorenelso
on Jan 29, 2005 -
20 comments
