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Thomas Jefferson's writings hold endless fascination for Americans and, as the international perspective ending this volume suggests, for thoughtful people worldwide. Here, Liu Zuochang's assessment of Jefferson's relevance to contemporary Chinese thinkers joins essays by American scholars on topics such as education, slavery, and the preparation for citizenship that underlies a free society as Jefferson perceived it.

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CHOICE Review

Authors of these essays commendably construe education broadly. A major theme is Jefferson's preoccupation with republican citizenship and how men's, women's, and children's natural aptitudes, social determinants, and education bear on that citizenship. Among topics treated are hereditary privilege, primogeniture and entail, childhood education, Scottish moral philosophy, religion, race (blacks and Indian), civil liberties, and communication, as well as obligatory topics like literacy, school curricula, and professional legal education. Sometimes contributors have had to tease Jefferson's attitudes out of oblique writings. Many of the essays are gems, crisp and succinct, containing information and interpretations that all American historians and all professional educators should know. Readers caught up in the "culture wars" debates of the 1990s, the role of religion in public schools, or the teaching of morals should read this volume. In one commendable essay, Eugene Sheridan explains the development of Jefferson's deism but also explains how Jefferson adjusted it to the need for harmony and improved morals among Americans after 1800. Religion had to be free, but virtue was needed as well. All levels. J. D. Marietta; University of Arizona