| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Thomas Jefferson and the Rhetoric of Virtue. By James L. Golden and Alan L. Golden. (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. xviii, 522 pp. $40.00,ISBN 0-7425-2080-3.)

Is there anything new under the sun in Jefferson studies? The authors of this book, James L. Golden, emeritus professor of rhetoric and political communication, and his son, Alan L. Golden, who, before his untimely death in an automobile accident in 2001, was associate professor of history, argue persuasively that there is. They bring their joint expertise to bear on Thomas Jefferson's use of rhetoric to advance what they see as his "primary concern in life" (p. 18), the promotion of virtue. In so doing, the authors raise a number of important questions: What did Jefferson mean by rhetoric, and what is its relationship to the truth? Did Jefferson deploy different rhetorical strategies for public and private discourse? What were the political principles on behalf of which Jefferson deployed his rhetorical skills? Was he a "classical republican," a Lockean liberal, or some combination of both? Although the authors take note of this last possibility, they ultimately side with the "classical republican" school, which elevates virtue above all other political principles, including liberty or rights.

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