Setting out to measure the debt Jefferson owed to French thinkers, the French-born scholar Gilbert Chinard concluded that his subject’s ideas were rooted far more in English law and Virginian experience. The study follows Jefferson from boyhood and his legal career through the Declaration, the revision of Virginia’s laws, the Notes on Virginia, diplomacy in France and the presidency.
A landmark intellectual biography for readers who want to understand what Jefferson actually thought, and why. Download the free EPUB.