Lectures For Lifelong Learners!

Everyone knows Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. More recently, many people have discovered what his contemporaries knew; he fathered children by one of his enslaved people. But what else was going on with this scion of a rising Virginia family, this always curious scientist and inventor, this architect and world traveler? Jefferson befriended and then fell out with most of the main characters of the revolution and early republic, except for James Madison. His contemporaries praised him for his brilliance and fervor and condemned him as an atheist and traitor. He embodied a host of contradictions and found it easy to embrace two opposing opinions at once. Discover what makes him our most fascinating and controversial founder.