In the Hands of the People, Jon Meacham
In the Hands of the People, Jon Meacham
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In the Hands of the People
Thomas Jefferson on Equality, Faith, Freedom, Compromise, and the Art of Citizenship

Author: Jon Meacham

Narrator: Fred Sanders, Edoardo Ballerini, Various

Unabridged: 2 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/30/2020


Synopsis

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Jon Meacham offers a collection of inspiring words about how to be a good citizen, from Thomas Jefferson and others, and reminds us why our country’s founding principles are still so important today.

Thomas Jefferson believed in the covenant between a government and its citizens, in both the government’s responsibilities to its people and also the people’s responsibility to the republic. In this illuminating book, a project of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, the #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham presents selections from Jefferson’s writing on the subject, with an afterword by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed and comments on Jefferson’s ideas from others, including Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Frederick Douglass, Carl Sagan, and American presidents.

This curated collection revitalizes how to see an individual’s role in the world, as it explores such Jeffersonian concepts as religious freedom, the importance of a free press, public education, participation in government, and others.

Meacham writes, “In an hour of twenty-first-century division and partisanship, of declining trust in institutions and of widespread skepticism about the long-term viability of the American experiment, it is instructive to return to first principles. Not, to be sure, as an exercise in nostalgia or as a flight from the reality of our own time, but as an honest effort to see, as Jefferson wrote, what history may be able to tell us about the present and the future.”

Read by Fred Sanders and Edoardo Ballerini, with Paul Boehmer, Mark Bramhall, Amanda Carlin, Janina Edwards, Robert Fass, Jim Frangione, Dion Graham, Johnny Heller, JD Jackson, Arthur Morey, George Newbern, and Christine Rendel

About The Author

Jon Meacham is the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning biography American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He holds the Rogers Chair in the American Presidency and is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University. A trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello and a fellow of the Society of American Historians, Meacham lives in Nashville.Annette Gordon-Reed is the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and a professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction for her book The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. She lives in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts.John A. Ragosta is the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation Senior Historian at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and has taught law and history at the University of Virginia, Hamilton College, Oberlin College, and others.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Raymond on November 21, 2020

A good little book of quotes said or written mostly by Jefferson, there are also a few historical and contemporary quotes from people who referenced him and his ideas too. Check out my highlights and notes for some excerpts. I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway. Thanks to Goodreads and Rando......more

Goodreads review by Bob on June 10, 2020

Summary: A collection of the sayings of Thomas Jefferson, reflecting his belief in the critical responsibility of the people to the health and growth of the new Republic, with commentary by the author. Thomas Jefferson was the optimist to the pessimism of a John Adams. He once remarked in their corre......more

Goodreads review by Christy on June 15, 2020

.I had no idea when I started "In the Hands of the People" that it was a book that consisted only of quotes by and about Thomas Jefferson. At first I found this disconcerting and was totally turned off by the book but as I continued I realized that what I was reading was adding to my knowledge about......more

Goodreads review by Stephen on September 26, 2020

This was a quick and enjoyable read overall. As far as the content goes, it is basically five stars. Meacham's selections of quotes showcase the brilliance and forethought of Jefferson clearly throughout a variety of political realms. However, the drawback of the book is just that...it really is jus......more

Goodreads review by Peggy on August 22, 2020

Interesting book. Gives the sense of what Jefferson aspired to be, not necessarily what he always achieved. The quotes chosen, unfortunately, are jumbled in time to meet the authors intent. Jefferson himself did change goals throughout his political career. He seemed to be more idealistic as a revol......more