Peter Onuf - Jefferson and the Virginians: Democracy, Constitutions, and Empire

In Jefferson and the Virginians, renowned scholar Peter S. Onuf examines the ways in which Thomas Jefferson and his fellow VirginiansGeorge Washington, James Madison, and Patrick Henryboth conceptualized their home state from a political and cultural perspective, and understood its position in the new American union. The conversations Onuf reconstructs offer glimpses into the struggle to define Virginiaand Americawithin the context of the upheaval of the Revolutionary War. Onuf also demonstrates why Jeffersons identity as a Virginian obscures more than it illuminates about his ideology and career.
Onuf contends that Jefferson and his interlocutors sought to define Virginias character as a self-constituted commonwealth and to determine the states place in the American union during an era of constitutional change and political polarization. Thus, the outcome of the American Revolution led to ongoing controversies over the identity of Virginians and Americans as a people or peoples; over Virginias boundaries and jurisdiction within the union; and over the system of government in Virginia and for the states collectively. Each debate required a balanced consideration of corporate identity and collective interests, which inevitably raised broader questions about the character of the Articles of Confederation and the newly formed federal union. Onufs well-researched study reveals how this indeterminacy demanded definition and, likewise, how the need for definition prompted further controversy.