Thomas Jefferson (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Silvio A. Bedini
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Work: Scientific biography
- Time of Work: 1700-1827
- Setting: The United States, France, and England
- Principal Characters: Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Science and technology
- Subjects: Revolutionaries, Colonies or colonization, Government, Democracy, Enlightenment, Humanism, Presidents, Inventions or inventors, Technology, Statesmen
- Locales: France, United States, England
At a dinner for American Nobel laureates, President John E Kennedy remarked that he was with “the most extraordinary collection of talent” ever assembled at the White House, “with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” This widely circulated anecdote testifies to the reputation of Jefferson as the American Renaissance man par excellence, a reputation that Bedini’s book seeks to enhance by calling the attention of scholars to Jefferson’s achievements in science and technology. The previous neglect of his scientific contributions may have been the result...
[The entire page is 2532 words long]
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