Historical interpretations of Thomas Jefferson's presidency, including progressive, counter-progressive, and republican views.

Historian Gordon Wood writes in 1993, Jefferson scarcely seems to exist as a real diachronic person. Almost from the beginning he has been a symbol, a touchst one, of we as a people ar, somewhat invented, musical compositionipulated, rancid into something we Americans like or dislike, fear or hurt for, inwardly ourselves - whether it is populism or elitism, agrarianism or racism, atheism or liberalism. In verbalise this, Wood strikes on one of the main problems in historical writing, the tendency to use history to further ones make ideas. almost historiographers do not do this consciously, but each historian has an agenda which, consciously or not, he slips into his work. Because of this, roughly every piece of objective history fuck offs an outlet for one persons political, ethical, or religious point of view. The various interpretations of Thomas Jefferson be ideal examples of this historiographical agenda-pushing. Thomas Jefferson has ceased to be a real man to Americans, if he ever was. He has become instead a unreal entity: the author of the Declaration of Independence, a founder of our nation. Jefferson has become larger than life, a giant among men, in our nations collective memory. In truth, Jefferson was ripe one man with many qualities, both advanced and crappy.

He had both solemn and ignoble intentions, made level-headed and bad decisions, had practical and utopian dreams for the new republic. Unfortunately, few historians are adapted to express Jefferson in these terms. They take the good or the bad, the noble or the ignoble, the practical or the idealistic , rarely both. They stick Jefferson as a l! iberal, moral, inspired leader, or as a power-hungry, half-baked elitist. This sort of historical writing perpetuates the nations view of Jefferson as a caricature, a symbol, rather than a man. Many historians portion these same(p) qualities to... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

If you want to get a full essay, visit our page: write my paper