Reading List
This section presents a selected list of books containing Thomas Jefferson’s writings and books about Thomas Jefferson. Most are still in print.
• Thomas Jefferson’s Writings
• Recommended Books about Thomas Jefferson
• Other Worthwhile Books about Thomas Jefferson
• Books about Thomas Jefferson from the Nineteenth Century
• Books about Monticello and Poplar Forest
• Books Refuting the Sally Hemings Story
• Books on the Founding Era
• Videos about Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson's Writings
• The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (20 volumes. A nearly complete collection, and available online at The Constitution Society http://www.constitution.org/tj/jeff.htm), edited by Andrew A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh.
• The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (10 volumes. Also a nearly complete collection available online at the Online Library of Liberty http://oll.libertyfund.org/), edited by Paul Leicester Ford.
• The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (the definitive collection, containing 36 volumes to date, and covering Jefferson’s life through the late 1790’s), edited by Julian Boyd and others, published by the Princeton University Press.
• The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series (An estimated 23 volumes documenting Jefferson’s written legacy between his return to private life on March 4, 1809 and his death on July 4th, 1826. Edited by J. Jefferson Looney, sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and housed at the Foundation’s Jefferson Library under the auspices of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies.
• Jefferson, Writings (the most comprehensive one-volume collection), edited by Merrill D. Peterson.
• Thomas Jefferson: In His Own Words (also an excellent one-volume collection), edited by Maureen Harrison and Steve Gilbert.
• Jefferson Himself, edited by Bernard Mayo.
• The Portable Thomas Jefferson, edited by Merrill D. Peterson
• The Jefferson Cyclopedia (Over 9,000 quotations, organized topically and available online), edited by John P. Foley.
• The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Adrienne Koch and William Peden.
• The Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Edwin Morris Betts and James Adam Bear, Jr.
• The Political Writings of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Merrill D. Peterson.
• The Jefferson Bible (Thomas Jefferson’s “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth: Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French and English), edited by Forrest Church.
• The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison 1776-1826, edited by James Morton Smith.
• Adams & Jefferson: A Revolutionary Dialogue, edited by Merrill D. Peterson.
• Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, Vols. 1 and 2, edited by James A. Bear and Lucia C. Stanton.
• The Garden and Farm Books of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Robert C. Barn.
• Jefferson’s Literary Commonplace Book, edited by Douglas Wilson.
Recommended Books about Thomas Jefferson
• Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation, by Merrill D. Peterson.
• Jefferson And His Time, by Dumas Malone. Vol. 1: Jefferson the Virginian; Vol. 2: Jefferson and the Rights of Man; Vol. 3: Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty; Vol. 4: Jefferson the President, First Term 1801-1805; Vol. 5: Jefferson the President, Second Term 1805-1809; Vol. 6: The Sage of Monticello.
• The Jefferson Image in the American Mind, by Merrill Peterson.
• The Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson, by Noble E. Cunningham, Jr.
• Mr. Jefferson, by Albert Jay Nock.
• Thomas Jefferson: A Strange Case of Mistaken Identity, by Alf J. Mapp, Jr.
• Thomas Jefferson: Passionate Pilgrim, by Alf J. Mapp, Jr.
• Thomas Jefferson: A Life, by Willard Sterne Randall.
• The Turning Point: Jefferson’s Battle for the Presidency, by Frank van der Linden.
• The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson, by William Howard Adams.
• The Religious Life of Thomas Jefferson, by Charles B. Sanford.
Other Worthwhile Books About Thomas Jefferson
• Thomas Jefferson: A Brief Biography, by Dumas Malone.
• Thomas Jefferson: A Profile, edited by Merrill D. Peterson.
• Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, by Garry Wills.
• The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson, by David N. Mayer.
• Sworn on the Altar of God: A Religious Biography of Thomas Jefferson, by Edwin S. Gaustad.
• Thomas Jefferson, by Norman K. Risjord.
• Thomas Jefferson and Music, by Helen Cripe.
• Jefferson and Nature: An Interpretation, by Charles A. Miller.
• Thomas Jefferson: Landscape Architect, by Frederick Doveton Nichols and Ralph E. Griswold.
• Thomas Jefferson: American Tourist, by Edward Dumbauld.
Books about Monticello and Poplar Forest
• Jefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder, by Jack McLaughlin.
• Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
• Jefferson’s Monticello, by William Howard Adams.
• Visitors to Monticello, edited by Merrill D. Peterson.
• The Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, by Susan R. Stein.
• Jefferson at Monticello: Recollections of a Monticello Slave and of a Monticello Overseer, edited by James A. Bear, Jr.
• Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest: A Private Place, by the Corporation for Jefferson’s Poplar Forest.
• Poplar Forest and Thomas Jefferson, by J. Allen Chambers, Jr.
Sources Refuting the Sally Hemings Story
• The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission (the definitive refutation), edited by Robert F. Turner, Carolina Academic Press, September 1, 2011. (Based on the twelve-scholar Commission’s comprehensive study of the matter).
• Jefferson Vindicated: Fallacies, Omissions, and Contradictions in the Hemings Genealogical Search, by Cynthia H. Burton.
• In Defense of Thomas Jefferson: The Sally Hemings Sex Scandal, by William G. Hyland, Jr.
• The Jefferson-Hemings Myth: An American Travesty, by the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society.
• Anatomy of a Scandal: Thomas Jefferson and the Sally Hemings Story, by Rebecca L. McMurry and James F. McMurry, Jr.
• The Jefferson Scandals: A Rebuttal, by Virginius Dabney.
• Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings: The Truth about a Founding Father, http://www.jeffersondnastudy.com, a website by Herbert Barger.
Books on the Founding Era
• Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution, by Benson Bobrick.
• The Spirit of Seventy-Six, edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris.
• Vindicating the Founders, by Thomas G. West.
• The Radicalism of the American Revolution, by Gordon S. Wood.
• The Creation of the American Republic, by Gordon S. Wood.
• America Afire: Jefferson, Adams and the First Contested Election, by Bernard A. Weisberger.
Books about Thomas Jefferson from the Nineteenth Century
• The Life of Thomas Jefferson, by Henry S. Randall.
• Sketches of the Life, Writings and Opinions of Thomas Jefferson, by B.L. Rayner.
• The Life of Thomas Jefferson, by George Tucker
Videos About Thomas Jefferson
• Thomas Jefferson – A film by Ken Burns (1997)
• Thomas Jefferson: Philosopher of Freedom (A&E, 1995)
• Monticello: Home of Thomas Jefferson (1995)
• Thomas Jefferson: The Pursuit of Liberty (1991)
• Williamsburg – The Story of a Patriot: A New Democracy is Born (1957)