Jefferson's Empire: The Language of American Nationhood (Jeffersonian America)

Thomas Jefferson believed that the American Revolution was a transformative moment in the history of political civilization. He hoped that his own efforts as a founding statesman and theorist would help construct a progressive and enlightened order for the new American nation that would be a model and inspiration for the world. In Jefferson's Empire, Peter S. Onuf traces Jefferson's vision of the American future to its roots in his idealized notions of nation-hood and empire.