Age of Jefferson

At age 57, this was my first look at the Declaration of Independence and other important historical events.

I would recommend this course to anyone interested in learning more about understanding all elements that Jefferson pulled into the writing of the Declaration of independence.

Dr. Peter S. Onuf is a very good professor.

Dr. Peter S. Onuf is a very good professor and this course is a marvellous voyage through the world and ideas of Thomas Jefferson.

Further, the course seems more of a commercial for the University of Virginia than anything else.

Surely there is no better venue for a course about Thomas Jefferson than the campus of the University of Virginia, which he founded late in his life.

The material both challenged and encouraged me and I highly recommend this course.

I highly recommend this course.

Great Course!

perfect This was a great course.

I'm very happy the educators did not shy away from the more distasteful aspects of Jefferson's life (i.e.

Prof. Onuf covers Jefferson’s vision of America’s revolutionary promise and later Americans’ evolving views of Jefferson; the political philosophy that informed Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence; his heterodox views on education (primary purpose: to sustain the American experiment) and religion (deeply suspicious of organized “priestcraft”); and Prof. Onuf does not shy away from Jefferson’s provocative views on race and slavery.

I enjoyed the tours round the historic sites and I thought the lecturer came over as warm and enthusiastic but it seemed he was preaching about a saint rather than giving a detached academic assessment of a historical figure and I found that it was hard to see the wood for the trees at times.

The most compelling feature of this course is his focus on Jefferson’s ideas rather than dates and events.

Everyday encounters with politics, education and even architecture will have you contemplating Prof. Onuf’s rhetorical question: “Is it Jeffersonian?” This brief, enjoyable immersion into the essential Jefferson packs an outsize pedagogical punch.