The editors (professors of history at Rice U.) present seven essays originally presented at a February 2007 symposium dedicated to historical exploration of Thomas Jefferson. The symposium was subtitled "In His Time and Ours" to indicate the organizers' wishes to examine the relevance for today of Jefferson's ideas and practices and to use the latest scholarly discoveries to better place him in his historical context. The papers discuss Jefferson's political ideas about democracy, the shifts in Jefferson's strategies as a politician to gain popular support, Jefferson's ideas and actions toward the American West(s), the attachment of the slaves of Monticello to the land as contrasted to Jefferson's ideas that emancipated slaves should be colonized outside of the United States, his relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and his changing ideas about women and gender, the influence of his education in the home of Reverend James Maury on his ideas about the relationship between church and state, and the complex scientific and social ideas that influenced Jefferson's sexuality. Annotation 2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
