Garry Wills' Inventing America is clearly a labor of love. Its learned, precise, and passionate scholarship effectively skewers much of the scholarship that preceded it. Wills forcefully repudiates the common assertion (derived largely from Carl Becker's important work) that the Declaration of Independence is an utterly Lockean document. Instead, Wills shows that Thomas Jefferson was only slightly influenced by Locke, and was instead completely a product of the Scottish Enlightenment. By placing key terms and phrases in the context of 18th century America, Wills brings the meaning of the Declaration to life, and alters its existence from a vague philosophical statement that we merely "see" rather than "read" into a specific political document with very particular meanings and functions.
It is a shame that this book is out of print; it should be required reading to students of the history of American Independence.

While being an intellectual tour-de-force, the book is at the same time something of a detective novel, as Wills traces Jeffeson's ideas expessed in the Declaration of Independence back to the Scottish Enlightment. Not only is it intellectually exciting, it also explains what Jeffferson probably meant by such terms as "all men are born equal" and "the pursuit of happiness." Without this understanding, I doubt if we can honestly make sense of one of the most important documents in American, and perhaps one should say, Scottish, history.

The plays in the History's Project's "Character in Time: The US Presidents" series are interesting and informative and, above all, very readable. People unfamiliar with reading plays should not be put off by the format -- after a few minutes time, it seems perfectly natural to read dialogue instead of normal prose. Students, especially, will appreciate the playwright's artful distillation of the subject's ideas and philosophy, as well as the lively presentation of his character -- there's really a lot of information packed into these small volumes.

After reading this brief one-act play, I envy today's high school and college students whose teachers elect to use this gem as a teaching strategy. Cox adroitly weaves the many complex facets of Jefferson through the warp of late 18th century and early 19th century American political history and sets the stage for subsequent history. He grabs adolescent prurient interest and attention by kicking off the drama with a hearty ditty that satirizes Jefferson's relationship with his slave Sally Hemings. What student could nap after that?

The play covers a time frame of a few hours between House of Representatives debate about selection of a president to break an electoral tie between Jefferson and Burr and Jefferson's ultimate victory. However, the dialog covers a wealth of concepts from which the teacher can select to base his/her focus for one class session or a series of sessions.

For many if not most high school and college students, history is a necessary evil, an ordeal to be lived through with no expectation that it will be fascinating or that it will leave a lasting impression beyond a grade on a transcript. Through this deceptively simple dramatization, Cox raises the possibility that interest in history can be stimulated early and form the basis for continued lifelong interest.

Reviewed by Pauline Ellen Lee, EdD., RN

Murder. Intrigue. Tragedy. This is a little known book, but it is the true story of a branch of Thomas Jefferson's family which moved to frontier Kentucky at about the turn of the 19th Century, 200 years ago. The book is a marvelous exposition of late 18th Century plantation life in Virginia, of the sort that Jefferson and his peers enjoyed. But a branch of Jefferson's family fell into deep debt and sought to rebuild their fortunes on the frontier. The story of their travel with furniture and household goods to Kentucky is fascinating, and even more fascinating is the story of what happened once they got there. Suffice to say that a horrendous murder took place. Its backdrop was the devastating earthquake of 1812 which actually caused the Mississippi River to run backward. The earthquake also revealed the murder in a most bizarre manner. Tragedy ensues on a lonesome Kentucky hilltop with two men killing each other It's all true. A friend of mine found the hilltop and the graves during a recent summer vacation. Thomas Jefferson was alive during this period and must have known about the horrible crime his relatives committed. A real page-turner of a book. Compelling picture of early frontier life in the wilderness by an author (now deceased) who lived in the immediate neighborhood where this story takes place. Too bad it's out of print. If you get a copy, hang on to it.

Boynton Merrill, Jr.'s book Jefferson's Nephews: A Frontier Tragedy is a compelling story about the Lewis family and their move from Virginia gentry to the hard forntier life of Western Kentucky. This story is engaging and a real page turner, not only from the historical stand point, but a powerfull story as well. This book has all of the components of a real life Greek tragedy set in Kentucky in the early 1800's.

The author gives us a real look into life in early Kentucky frontier and the society with social status of the time. Fraught with hardness of life and little pleasures, families seemed destined for struggle.

Lilburne and Isham Lewis are brothers and are the nephews of the President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, but even at that the Lewis's life still takes a downfall as mounting debt and land disputes keeps the family desperate and in moral decline.

Now, a black slave of Lilburn's is murdered, and the tale that ensues is very compelling. The reconstruction of the crime as told in the book is excellent, aborbing, and tragic. I found the book to be impressive, and historically correct. The scholarship is of first quality and is eminently readable.

A book worth reading more than once... audacious, and fascinating with real life characters... better than fiction.

This guide is a great book. It offers off the beaten track places, and always includes places for the budget traveler. Seemingly geared toward the student traveler, I found it great for the young-at-heart as well.

In my travels around eastern U.S. over the last year I have been amazed at the unusual, off the beaten path things Let's Go USA consistently includes. Unlike other travel guides I've seen, this guide bypasses the ordinary tourist traps in favor of the spots only longtime residents of the area would seemingly be aware of. Also, using the guide for months, rarely did I spend more than $10-15 a day. This guide caters to the low-budget traveler, offering such suggestions as getting a college dorm for $15/night, eating huge $2 BBQ dinners and seeing impressive, but free (or dirt-cheap) sights. I was also very impressed with the accuracy of the guide. Very rarely did I find misinformation, which meant I did not have to make endless calls shopping around for the cheapest place to stay or ask around for a good place to eat--it was all right there in the guide. Within all of this, the guide is enjoyable to read. I would often find myself reading sections in the guide that I had no intention of going to, just for a fun read. For anyone traveling in the US on a tight budget or not, young or old, as a rambling backpacker or with the family, Let's Go is an invaluable companion.

As a 1995 graduate of UVA, I found this book to be extremely educational. I only wish I had purchased it as an undergrad so I could have wandered the Grounds finding the areas Mr. Dabney wrote of. Mr. Dabney was an expert on UVA and Mr. Jefferson. I look forward to reading more of his work.

As a faculty brat in the 1930s,I literally grew up on the UVA grounds. On reading my first copy of Mr. Dabney's book (he was a close personal friend of my parents) I was struck by the rich lode of information verifying much that had been rumor during my teens. My dad, Dr. James C.Bardin a medical doctor, opted to teach Romance Languages. He is mentiond in the book. Mr. Jefferson's University sparkles with vivid memories of a delightful time in my youth. It is a wonderful historical document written so as to interest just about anyone who likes Virginia, and especially the UVA.

This book recounts Jefferson's travels and passions for wine. It is a fact that many of his favorites are still famous today. (Hermitage La Chappelle, Yquem, Lafite) Seeing these names through his eyes is fascinating, and reading about his difficulty with storage and shipping sounds all too familiar. The book gets off to a very slow start; too much statistical detail on each dinner. But it gradually becomes absorbing, and charming. A quaint historical document.

Author Jim Gabler does Jefferson wine evenings at Monticello on occasion. I have yet to catch him there, but not for trying. It is my understanding that he has a passionate hobby in the historical antecedents for wines and from this standpoint, this book succeeds remarkably. Extremely well documented - he has found items as obscure as the inventories of not only the wines Jefferson ordered during his travels, but sometimes the exact foods he ordered for specific evenings....(50 oysters and a half bottle of wine at the Amsterdam Arms...and repeated the feat the next night with a friend). There are maps, engravings, modern photographs, historical details.....a wonderful book detailing a great wine connoisseur's travels in search of the meticulous details of the art. And it's all laid out for you to enjoy or replicate as you may....or imagine what it would be like to travel, explore, dine, and taste as Jefferson or Gabler.

Resistence trough rituals is fundamental to culture and identity studies in A-level sociology, gread for exam and coursework references,and also a good read

This book is a must read for students of fashion, subculture, identity, and pop culture. Although the style of writing and some of the conclusions read as somewhat "old-fashioned", it was ground-breaking work at the time, one of the first serious scholarly treatments of youth and pop culture. More importantly, many of its arguments are still very relevant and need to be reconsidered in contemporary literature. The collection also discusses many styles which are all but forgotten to a younger audience and the variety British styles in the 60s is an education in itself for people who often think of past decades as having a particular "look". Excellent sociological analysis blended with ethnographic description.

This book presents traditional and non-traditional Caribbean foods in a simple and clear manner. It is an excellent choice for anyone interested in the new, fresh and exuberant Caribbean cooking. Many of the recipes can be reduced in calories by the substitution of simple ingredients. If you like this book, you'll love Angela Spenceley's "A Taste of the Caribbean Cookbook" which also includes a chapter on Bartending in the Islands. Her other cookbooks, "A Taste of the Virgin Islands" and "Just Add Rum! Cookbook" are fabulous and well worth the addition to any good cookbook library.

We have fond memories of our honeymoon at the restaurant and inn owned by the authors in the British Virgin Islands. Our memories of the wonderful "dining experiences" rank high among those of our blessed honeymoon. The cookbook lets us "taste" a few of those memories here at home!

This book includes color photographs of the current gardens at Monticello and black & white reproductions of Thomas Jefferson's own sketched plans for the gardens. There is an annotated list of the flowers and "woody ornamentals," such as roses and shrubs, grown by Jefferson. There are many excerpts from his writing and letters which give the reader a greater sense of Jefferson's broad intellect and love of nature as it relates to his gardens. I was hoping to find a list of flowers native to Virginia cultivated by Jefferson but, while the origins of many of the flowers are indicated, there is no separate list of the native plants as I had hoped.

I found the book to be quite intersting and a valuable resource for the gardener. Thomas Jefferson is well known for his gardening efforts, both as ornamental and practical for food stuffs.

The book has excellent photographs of the gardens of Monticello as well as Jefferson's drawings of how he wanted to landscape the area of his "Little Mountain." There is great pride in the book to document over one hundred species of plants cultivated by Jefferson while living at Monticello.

Jefferson was a champion of cultivating indigenous plant life to Virginia and that of North America, but he had plants comming from thoughout the world also.

Cultivating a mountain top graden presented problems for Jefferson in both climate and the proper hydration of the plants themselves. Without all of the modern conviences that we have today, Jefferson managed to have some of the most beautiful gardens in Virginia.

This is a must book if you are looking for gardening proportion and scale. As Jefferson said, "There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me." Well said...

In the book you will find very good descriptions of the plants grown at Monticello, this is a must volume for reference.