Repairing Jefferson’s American: A Guide to Civility and Enlightened Citizenship
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the greatest idealist of the Founding Fathers of America. He believed that average citizens are up to the challenge of governing themselves. He envisioned a republic of well-educated, well-informed, engaged, and vigilant citizens. Jefferson’s dream of a semi-utopian American republic has nearly been swallowed up by cynical partisanship, government gridlock, consumer materialism, and the corrosive power of money in American politics. Jefferson believed in civility, majority rule, the primacy of science and reason, and harmony in all of our public and private relations.
Public humanities scholar Clay S. Jenkinson believes we can return to Jeffersonian principles both in our private lives and the public sphere. Repairing Jefferson’s America is a clear and concise guide for those who wish to live more rational, purposeful, and enlightened lives.
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Clay Jenkinson is a public humanities scholar. His degrees are all in English. He has a BA from the University of Minnesota, and an MA from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes and Danforth Scholar. He is the author of nine books-several on his beloved North Dakota, several on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and two on Theodore Roosevelt. He has made four documentary films about Great Plains subjects. He has been in three of Ken Burns' documentary films and appeared on a range of television shows, including The Today Show, Politically Incorrect, and Fox and Friends. He is the creator of the Thomas Jefferson Hour, a weekly NPR radio program and podcast. He has won humanities scholar of the year awards in Kansas, Nevada, and North Dakota, and has received the National Humanities Medal for exemplary work in the public humanities. He is one of the founders of the modern Chautauqua movement and the founder of the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University in western North Dakota.