To Begin the World Anew (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: Bernard Bailyn
- First Published: 2003
- Type of Work: History
- Time of Work: The eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
- Setting: The original American colonies and Paris
- Principal Characters: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison
- Genres: Nonfiction, History
- Subjects: Freedom, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Politics, Colonies or colonization, Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Paris, Eighteenth century, Political science, Politicians, Idealism, Government, Presidents, Geopolitics, Statesmen, Republics
- Locales: Paris, France, American colonies
The five essays in this small book are based on various addresses to scholarly audiences—author Bernard Bailyn does not specify the occasions—which have been tailored to suit the needs of a more general readership. Two of them seem particularly suited to this wider audience. The first of these, “Jefferson and the Ambiguities of Freedom,” presents not just the ambiguities of freedom but also the ambiguities in the complex being who was Thomas Jefferson. Of course, the record of Jefferson’s life, unusually detailed for his time, has given critics ample opportunities to discover...
[The entire page is 1915 words long]
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