3.5
In the Hands of the People
ByPublisher Description
Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Jon Meacham offers a collection of inspiring words about how to be a good citizen, from Thomas Jefferson and others, and reminds us why our country’s founding principles are still so important today.
Thomas Jefferson believed in the covenant between a government and its citizens, in both the government’s responsibilities to its people and also the people’s responsibility to the republic. In this illuminating book, a project of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, the #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham presents selections from Jefferson’s writing on the subject, with an afterword by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed and comments on Jefferson’s ideas from others, including Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Frederick Douglass, Carl Sagan, and American presidents.
This curated collection revitalizes how to see an individual’s role in the world, as it explores such Jeffersonian concepts as religious freedom, the importance of a free press, public education, participation in government, and others.
Meacham writes, “In an hour of twenty-first-century division and partisanship, of declining trust in institutions and of widespread skepticism about the long-term viability of the American experiment, it is instructive to return to first principles. Not, to be sure, as an exercise in nostalgia or as a flight from the reality of our own time, but as an honest effort to see, as Jefferson wrote, what history may be able to tell us about the present and the future.”
Thomas Jefferson believed in the covenant between a government and its citizens, in both the government’s responsibilities to its people and also the people’s responsibility to the republic. In this illuminating book, a project of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, the #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham presents selections from Jefferson’s writing on the subject, with an afterword by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed and comments on Jefferson’s ideas from others, including Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Frederick Douglass, Carl Sagan, and American presidents.
This curated collection revitalizes how to see an individual’s role in the world, as it explores such Jeffersonian concepts as religious freedom, the importance of a free press, public education, participation in government, and others.
Meacham writes, “In an hour of twenty-first-century division and partisanship, of declining trust in institutions and of widespread skepticism about the long-term viability of the American experiment, it is instructive to return to first principles. Not, to be sure, as an exercise in nostalgia or as a flight from the reality of our own time, but as an honest effort to see, as Jefferson wrote, what history may be able to tell us about the present and the future.”
Download the free Fable app
Stay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
Rate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
Curate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesStay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building toolRate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tagsCurate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesIn the Hands of the People Reviews
3.5
“It would have been smatter of me to read AND listen to it rather than just listen. It's basically a book of quotes of and about Thomas Jefferson. After each quote was narrated, who, when, and why was spoken to explain where the quote originated. I found that very distracting while listening.
The quotes, especially at the end of the book were in chronological order. The narrators were doing there best characterizations of the President who had spoken the words. By the time that list of presidents was in my life time, I did a fair job of telling which one would be named as the author.”
“If you want to learn a bit about Jefferson this is a good place to start. Tons of quotes by him and about him. I thought it was a good little book.”
About Jon Meacham
Jon Meacham is the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning biography American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He holds the Rogers Chair in the American Presidency and is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University. A trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello and a fellow of the Society of American Historians, Meacham lives in Nashville.
Annette Gordon-Reed is the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and a professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction for her book The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. She lives in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
John A. Ragosta is the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation Senior Historian at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and has taught law and history at the University of Virginia, Hamilton College, Oberlin College, and others.
Annette Gordon-Reed is the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and a professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction for her book The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. She lives in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
John A. Ragosta is the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation Senior Historian at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and has taught law and history at the University of Virginia, Hamilton College, Oberlin College, and others.
Other books by Jon Meacham
Start a Book Club
Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!FAQ
Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?
Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?
How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?
Do you sell physical books too?
Are book clubs free to join on Fable?
How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?
