Welcome
Light and Liberty is the book of inspiration that Thomas Jefferson never wrote, although every word here is his. Editor Eric S. Petersen, after extensive study of Jefferson’s reports, state papers, speeches, and twenty thousand letters, has elegantly woven together thirty-four concise essays of profound wisdom on how to lead a meaningful life, as individuals and in our life as a nation.
Words of Praise
The book is indeed very interesting and extremely enlightening and I am convinced that it will have a lasting effect. Today, at this critical juncture in history, when a global world is being shaped and when people are learning how to live in concert and strengthen relations with one another, Thomas Jefferson’s lessons can greatly benefit us all.
– President Mikhail Gorbachev
In Light and Liberty, Eric Petersen has gathered together a volume of Thomas Jefferson’s writings which are at once deeply spiritual and practical. This inspirational book has the potential to capture the imagination and energize the present-day world to dream great dreams and to do good deeds.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu more praise »
BUY THE BOOK
Available to buy at:
Available also through your local bookstore and the following outlets:
- The Jefferson Memorial Bookshop, Washington D.C.
- Monticello (Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center), Charlottesville, Virginia
- Colonial Williamsburg Marketplace Bookstore
- University of Virginia Bookstore
Published by Modern Library, an imprint of Random House.
more »
APPRECIATING THOMAS JEFFERSON
“The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.”
“All honor to Jefferson—to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.”
to H.L. Pierce, April 6, 1859.
INTERVIEWS AND LECTURES
Photo of Eric Petersen
Television
Appearances include MSNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, ABC and NBC
more »
Lectures
Eric Petersen has been invited to speak at such prestigous venues as The United Nations, The Smithsonian, The Jefferson Library and Harvard University
more »
Radio
Eric has appeared on over 200 radio shows in all 50 states and around the world, including: ABC, Bloomberg, CNN and NPR.
more »
VIDEOS
Video »
An Empire for Liberty:
Creating America as a Continental Nation
Podcast »
Faith, religious freedom and church-state separation
Video »
University of Chicago