Thomas Jefferson's Enlightenment : Paris - 1785

Readers who are familiar with Thomas Jefferson may not recognize the man pictured in the pages of this colorful magazine . Not only is the man in the picture different, the picture itself is different. Thomas Jefferson's Enlightenment is a new kind of history a non-fiction narrative. It does not describe what Jefferson did in France. It takes the reader along as Jefferson does it. Everyone knows that no man is a hero to his valet. The reader observes in these fascinating conversations the Jefferson his valet would have seen a man, not a monument While accompanying Jefferson and Pierre Cabanis on a series of excursions through Paris in 1785, the reader sees how a real person reacted to real events. Jefferson learned things during these outings that allowed him to become a political leader after he returned home. With Cabanis help, he grasped the French concept of Progress and came to see himself as its agent. This prepared him for the con-test that lay ahead. Ten years later, he teamed with James Madison and led a new party through America s first national political campaign. The political solipsist who drafted the Declaration of Independence by himself in rented rooms was gone, his place taken by the future President of the United States of America."