“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

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.

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Speaking Engagements

For a complete history and samples of Eric's speaking engagements, radio interviews and television appearances, kindly click on the "Events" button.

The United Nations, New York, NY (Keynote speaker)

The Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic: Welcoming remarks to the Council of Europe  on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the European Convention for the Protection of  Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Prague, Czech Republic.

The Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Festival, Washington, D.C.: "Monarchy and Democracy" and "Gross National Happiness"

The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, Georgia

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York

Pace University, New York, NY and Westchester, NY

Florida International University Honors College Excellence Lecture, Miami, Florida

University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland 

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Television Interviews

 CNN 

CNBC 

FOX News Channel

NBC Weekend Today in New York

WGN TV Chicago, IL 

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Radio Interviews

Eric has conducted over 130 radio interviews in more than 40 states, across the entire political, spiritual, social and economic spectrum, including the following: 

 ABC Radio (national) New York, NY: Interview with John Batchelor on “The John Batchelor Show.”

Bloomberg Network (WBBR AM 1130 in New York): “Bloomberg on the Weekend” Interview with Joe Franklin. (national and international)

CNN Radio (national): Interview with Pat St. Claire on “Leatherbound”

“Dialogue Radio”, Washington, D.C.: Interview with George Seay of the Woodrow Wilson International Center.

“Interfaith Voices.” Interview with Maureen Fiedler (Syndicated in the U.S. and Canada).

KPOJ 620 AM, Portland, OR: Interview with Thom Hartmann.

New Hampshire Public Radio, Concord, NH: “The Exchange” Interview with Laura Knoy.

WBAI 99.5 FM-Pacifica Radio. New York, NY: Interview with Janet Coleman on “Cat Radio Café”

Wisconsin Public Radio: Interview with Kathleen Dunn on “Conversations with Kathleen.”

WNYC Radio, AM 820 and FM 93.9, Brooklyn, NY: Interview with Brian Lehrer on the “Brian Lehrer Show”

New Book Out!

 The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy, Report of the Scholars Commission, edited by Robert F. Turner

There have been rumors and allegations since 1802 that President Thomas Jefferson fathered children by an enslaved woman named Sally Hemings. Following discosure in 1998 in science journal Nature that DNA tests had linked a descendent of Sally's youngest child Eston to a group of more than two dozen Jefferson males in Virginia at the time, many assumed that the old allegations were true and the case was closed. However, in 2000 a small band of Jefferson admirers who doubted the story asked a blue-ribbon group of more than a dozen distinguished scholars from across the nation to conduct an independent review of all of the evidence and make a public report. This volume is that report.

Carolina Academic Press

Amazon.com

Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society

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At Jefferson's Taper:

“At a very early period of my life, I determined never to put a sentence into any newspaper. I have religiously adhered to the resolution through my life, and have great reason to be contented with it. Were I to undertake to answer the calumnies of the newspapers, it would be more than all my own time, & that of 20 aids could effect. For while I should be answering one, twenty new ones would be invented.”—Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 22 Aug. 1798

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"As to federal slanders, I never wished them to be answered, but by the tenor of my life, half a century of which has been on a theater at which the public have been spectators and competent judges of its merit. Their approbation has taught a lesson, useful to the world, that the man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies. I should have fancied myself half guilty had I condescended to put pen to paper in refutation of their falsehoods, or drawn to them respect by any notice from myself.”—Thomas Jefferson to Geroge Logan, June 20, 1816

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"During the course of this administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its usefulness and to sap its safety"—Thomas Jefferson, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1805  

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"I am...for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents "—Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, January 26, 1799   

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"Advertisements...contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."—Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, January 12, 1819  (similar quote to James Monroe, January 18, 1819)

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"I may say from intimate knowledge, that we should have lost the services of the greatest character of our country [George Washington] had he been assailed with the degree of abandoned licentiousness now practised...He would have thrown up the helm in a burst of indignation."—Thomas Jefferson to Judge James Sullivan, May 21, 1805