What Is Still American in the Political Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3136636 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joyce Appleby (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1982 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 287 |
| Publication date | 1982-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The William and Mary Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-5597 • E-ISSN: 1933-7698 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1918754 |
| OpenAlex | W2319791455 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 23 |
S HORTLY after leaving presidency, Thomas Jefferson undertook translation of a manuscript by French philosopher Antoine Louis Claude Destutt de Tracy. At same time he prevailed on his friend William Duane to publish it anonymously, and in due course Tracy's Commentary and Review of Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws appeared in Philadelphia.1 For Tracy this American imprint offered his ideas safe conduct into hostile territory of Napoleonic France. For Jefferson Review of Montesquieu became a new weapon in his old war against pernicious ideas. He sent copies to friends and got book adopted as a text at College of William and Mary while venturing hope that it might be placed in hands of every American student as the elementary and fundamental work on science of government. Such an outcome, Jefferson confided to Lafayette, would more than repay five hours daily he had expended on Tracy's manuscript over course of three months. To Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours he revealed more clearly his motives: The paradoxes of Montesquieu have been too long uncorrected.2 Probably not many young men in America still read Montesquieu, but Jefferson's unabated desire to combat his influence offers us an Ariadne's thread through ideological labyrinth of early national period. In addition, Jefferson's endorsement of Tracy's economic theory gives us an idea of his mature thinking on commercial development and its moral implications. These well-documented reactions to work of Montesquieu and Tracy raise serious doubts about wisdom of
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| Unique citing works | 23 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,55 |
| Citation span | 1984 - 2017 (34) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 19 |