The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s Idea of a University by Andrew J. O’Shaughnessy

Thomas Jefferson’s involvement in both the philosophy and the particulars of the founding of the University of Virginia are explored here. The author admits that just as Jefferson’s views of democracy were tainted by his adherence to slavery, his views of the role of education in a democracy were flawed. Nevertheless, they were similarly crucial to the founding of not just our nation, but subsequent experiments in self-rule. "It falls to very few individuals personally to conceive and craft a leading university from scratch, from lofty ideals down to the last brick and book. The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s Idea of a University vividly describes Thomas Jefferson’s obsessional project for a University of Virginia, and also provides a fresh understanding of the American Enlightenment, its soaring strengths and its ugly flaws.  Jefferson himself emerges not just as a benign, twinkling-eyed patriarch, but also as a ruthless and effective political operator.  Li