Jefferson, Nationalism and the Enlightenment

Blurb

History should not be written with one eye cocked on the passing scene. These essays, written over a period of years, were not designed as current commentary; they attempt, rather, to recreate and if possible illuminate the American past in its own terms. But an introduction may be indulged in greater latitude than the essays themselves, for it is an amiable literary fiction that introductions are prefatory rather than conclusive. Here, then, I can ask more explicitly questions the essays themselves merely suggest.