Thomas Jefferson: Politics And Power (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

Interview:
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/11/13/thomas-jefferson-politics-and-power


Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham on lessons from the politics of Thomas Jefferson. What we can learn now.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the radical document at the heart of the American experiment.  The Declaration of Independence.  “All men are created equal.”  And he kept slaves.  He argued mightily against a too-powerful central government, and he led the federal government as the nation’s third president.

He was a planter, a scientist, an historian, an Enlightenment-smitten philosopher, and – says biographer Jon Meacham – a surpassing politician.  With a flexibility that our politicians today could use.

This hour, On Point:  Thomas Jefferson, the philosopher politician.

-Tom Ashbrook