Welcome back to our series on the libraries of great men. the eminent men of history were often voracious readers, and their own philosophy represents a distillation of all the great works they planted in their minds. this series seeks to trace the current of his thought back to the source. Because, as David Leach, a now-retired business executive, said: “Don’t follow your mentors; follow the mentors of your mentors.”
thomas jefferson is best known for being the third president of the united states and writing the declaration of independence. And for good reason: These monumental tasks are enough to put any man in the annals of American history. Surprisingly, though, Jefferson didn’t stop there. after his presidency, he took on the task of recreating education in the young country. Until then, education was largely a religious enterprise from youth through college. Jefferson, however, believed that one’s education should encompass much more than just knowledge of the divine.
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So, in 1819, at the ripe old age of 76, he founded the University of Virginia as a secular institute. At the center of this enterprise, literally, was the library. traditionally, the chapel would be in the center of campus. However, at Uva, Jefferson placed the library in the center of the campus, indicating his belief that books were fundamental to education.
It would be easy to imagine Jefferson as a stuffy reader, but he was quite the opposite. he actually found history and ethics quite boring :
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“Thus, a living and abiding sense of filial duty is more effectively impressed upon the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics and divinity that have ever been written” .
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He was well versed in all disciplines, but perhaps works of fiction were his favorite:
“However, a little attention to the nature of the human mind shows that fictional entertainments are useful as well as pleasurable.”
Throughout his life, Jefferson was a regular letter writer, frequently responding to strangers’ requests for book lists and ways to improve oneself. In one letter in particular, he responds to the common belief of the time that one could only be educated in virtue through the Greek and Roman classics:
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“everything that helps to establish the principles and practices of virtue is useful. when any original act of charity or gratitude, for example, comes into view or imagination, we are deeply impressed with its beauty and feel a strong desire in ourselves to do acts of charity and gratitude as well. on the contrary, when we see or read about any heinous act, we dislike its deformity and conceive an abhorrence of vice.”
In that letter, as well as many others, Jefferson gave a long list of books that he found edifying for both moral gain and pleasure. What is listed below is a sample of the books that Jefferson mentioned in various letters throughout his life. he even went so far as to organize them by category, so I did the same.
as jefferson himself pointed out, these works do not cover the whole of what a man should read, but they will provide an excellent background:
“These by no means constitute the totality of what could be usefully read in each of these branches of science. the mass of excellent works that go deeper into the details is truly great. but those listed here will allow the student to select for himself other details that suit his particular views and dispositions. they will give you a respectable, useful and satisfactory degree of knowledge in these branches.”
thomas jefferson recommended reading list
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