In this interview with Jean Yarbrough, author of American Virtues: Thomas Jefferson on the Character of a Free People, Douglas Murray explores Thomas Jefferson’s life and legacy, and dissects the modern-day assault on Jefferson’s reputation.
A Powerful Defense of Thomas Jefferson
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30 responses to “A Powerful Defense of Thomas Jefferson”
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re: ” the modern-day assault on Jefferson’s reputation”
the modern day refusal to continue with the whitewashing of his history. People want the truth about him not some idealized myth. A great man of tremendous contributions to our country but also a flawed man and we need to know the whole man – which really is more powerful than the myth. Flawed men can be and are great also, The country was founded by flawed men and changes needed ongoing to actually realize their visions.
Reputations based on revised and altered history are not real.
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I have no recollection of what I was “taught” in moronic high school classes 50+ years ago, but nothing I’ve read since and in no visit to historical locations including Monticello has slavery been ignored, the obvious contraction of the country’s founding declarations ignored, and in Jefferson’s case the way the issue festered in his own life (taking incoming fire from Adams and Lafayette) ignored. Whole books on just that topic. Another good example with a wide distribution, the stage play 1776. So the full picture is there to see.
What you and your friends want, Larry, is to rub him out in a manner Orwell would recognize and warned us about. You will deny it but you are a fellow traveler on that crusade.
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You’re totally wrong and ignorantly so in my view Haner.
You must have missed this part:
”
A great man of tremendous contributions to our country but also a flawed man and we need to know the whole man – which really is more powerful than the myth. Flawed men can be and are great also, The country was founded by flawed men and changes needed ongoing to actually realize their visions.”you read that and still say this ignorant blather: ” What you and your friends want, Larry, is to rub him out in a manner Orwell would recognize and warned us about.”
You say you don’t “remember” taught history but you have these myopic views of it?
geeze..
A history that can be taught in schools that is just as relevant to black folks as white folks would be a good start but not to be with Conservatives in charge, yet again.
Ya’ll just love your white supremacy but please don’t call it that.
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What Monticello says to be true is getting to the truth but note the folks who revere Jefferson but then say Monticello is not telling the truth.
So is Monticello also trying to “rub him out in the manner of Orwell”?
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Orwell? Nah. Orson Wells. Or, maybe Orson Bean. Or, Mister Bean.
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Bean there done that, got the T(J) shirt…
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I enjoyed Yarbrough’s commentary. She correctly points out that Jefferson was the ultimate progressive for his times. Progressive in the sense of limited government action and empowerment of the individual to improve society.
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When the legend becomes the fact…
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One way to uncancel Jefferson and Madison is to reduce ticket prices at Monticello and Montpelier. 42 bucks to tour the mansion on the hill and 35 bucks for the one in Orange.
George Mason’s Gunston Hall is most definitely uncancled at just 10 dollars for a tour.
Patrick Henry’s Red Hill is a Feline’s Basement bargain of 8 dollars.
Washington’s Mt. Vernon is a bit steep too. 28 dollars. But at least the tour guides do not drown you in the sins of slavery. Superior museum as well.
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Once had a yearly membership to Mt. Vernon, it came with access to other events at the Mansion.
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About 15 years ago I convinced the tour guide to let me climb the ladder and look out the cupola on the roof. So cool.
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And yet what you could see was just Maryland. Spectacular site, but a questionable view.
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Yet my steenkin’ high school changed its name from George Mason to Meridian in a woke frenzy to cancel Mason. Grrr!@#$%^
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Conservatives should LIKE Monticello’s fiscally responsible approach to maintaining a non-govt-funded history museum for the public.
Perhaps Monticello should also provide fair warning that they’re going to tell the true history and if you can’t handle it , don’t do it, keep your money!
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Monticello is sitting on a mountain of grant money. Tens of millions of dollars. 42 dollars is ridiculous. Very unlike the famous hospitality offered by Thomas Jefferson. The man would let anyone knock on his door, spend the night, and eat for free. Did you know that Monticello’s visitation as drastically dropped in the past 10 years? The tour is now a depressing mouth washing of the sins of Jefferson. Montpelier is in danger of going broke thanks to their overindulgence in Little Jimmie’s sins. Visit Gunston Hall and Red Hill and you are rewarded with an even-handed tour at a bargain price.
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Montpellier?
How can Monticello go broke if they are awash in grants?
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Montpelier the home of JM
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looks to need money also.
also tells the slave story…
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“Patrick Henry’s Red Hill is a Feline’s Basement bargain.” Brilliant dual purposing! Not just a memorial, but a cat shelter, too.
Wow! Even as the SCOTUS rips Madison apart.
Jefferson hasn’t been cancelled. And I would feel a lot better about this effort to rehabilitate Jefferson if it wasn’t boosted by a white nationalist. Doesn’t give me great confidence that this is an honest academic exercise.
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I believe you may be thinking of Charles Murray.
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This is the guy, right? https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/09/taking-white-supremacist-talking-points-mainstream
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Yes. You were referring to the “right” guy after all.
However, if you expect me to just take on faith the things said about a man in a publication which unashamedly states its intent to “usher in a glorious era of democratic socialism”, and which clearly and proudly proclaims it’s lack of objectivity, then you must think I am a fool.
How about a critique from someone with some small shred of credibility?
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It’s just one of the first things that came up on the search. If you google his name, there’s quite a bit more. Cheers!
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Thanks.
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Feet of clay. Maybe a feat of lay…
Whenever a Liberal mentions Jefferson and slavery in the same breath, Conservatives squeal, “You cannot judge him through a liberal lens of modernity!”
The humor being that if Conservatives would do just that, not judge him through a modern lens but with a conservative’s early 19th century lens, they’d dig ‘im up and pillory the bones for having indebted the government to give Napoleon all that money for something the French were in no position to defend.
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“Maybe a feat of lay…”
Zat a Hemmings joke, or just a Haw?
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Sure, we could have just taken it, and there’d have been very little Napoleon could have done about it. But then our schools would have to teach our kids about the “Louisiana Land Grab”.
And the bad feelings between the U.S. and France might have lasted into the mid-2oth century. And if that had happened, then Americans might have been deprived of the joy of owning a Renault or a Citroen or a Peugeot, or a Motobecane motorcycle. And then where would we be?
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Okay, fine, we should have just taken it…
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