Notes on the State of Virginia : With Related Documents

Thomas Jefferson published one book,Notes on the State of Virginia;and ever since, it has been the touchstone for understanding Jefferson's ideas about Republican government, the environment, education, race and slavery, and Native-white relations. The author's unique analysis of Jefferson's thoughts on these crucial issues and their impact on the formation of the United States make this edition of the Notes the first to present these issues as fundamentally inseparable. A collection of lively letters and other documents related to the Notes accompanies them, and charts the evolution of the book in the revolutionary crucible and during the heady early days of the new nation. An introduction by David Waldstreicher places the work in the contexts of the Revolution and the social and cultural history of Jefferson's Virginia, with particular attention to developing ideas about race and nature. A chronology of the life and career of Thomas Jefferson and selected bibliography also add to the pedagogical benefits of this volume.

David Waldstreicher has taught at Bennington College and Yale University and is now associate professor at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776–1820 (1997), which won the Jamestown Prize of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, and most recently has published The Struggle Against Slavery, 1619-–1863: A History in Documents (2001). A fellow at the New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Writers in 2001–2002, he is writing Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution.