The intro and outro music for the first four Thomas Jefferson episodes is from “Yankee Doodle Variations” as performed by Carrie Rehkopf. The full recording can be found at Wikipedia. Subsequent episodes feature selections from “Jefferson and Liberty” as performed by The Itinerant Band. Check out their website for information on upcoming appearances and to purchase CDs or digital downloads of their music.
You asked, and I answered! As we wrap up our series on Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, listeners submitted questions ranging from Franco-American relations during Jefferson’s tenure to what pets he kept to how would I go abou…
Year(s) Discussed: 1809-1826 After leaving the presidency, Thomas Jefferson found himself kept quite busy with both public business and personal matters. While striving to be a doting grandfather and fretting over his family…
Year(s) Discussed: 1807-1809
As the end of Jefferson’s second term neared, the Embargo Act came under increasing criticism at home, Napoleon’s plans for conquest continued apace in Europe, and the nation chose the man wh…
Year(s) Discussed: 1806-1808
As the 1808 presidential election neared, the infighting in the Democratic-Republican faction was exacerbated by not one but two challengers to Secretary of State James Madison’s candidacy – …
Year(s) Discussed: 1806-1808
With a diplomatic resolution to the Chesapeake/Leopard affair looking increasingly unlikely and the threat of war looming, President Jefferson and his administration worked in late 1807 to dev…
Year(s) Discussed: 1806-1807
Little did the Jefferson administration, while preparing to prosecute the former Vice President of the United States, Aaron Burr, for treason, that they would be faced at the same time with a…
Year(s) Discussed: 1806-1807
Concurrent with the events of the Burr conspiracy, the Jefferson administration and its agents were engaged in other work on multiple fronts. Lt. Zebulon Pike was leading an expedition westwa…
Year(s) Discussed: 1806-1807
Aaron Burr’s plans were finally starting to come to fruition, but little did the former Vice President know that he had a turncoat in his midst. Meanwhile, as the Jefferson administration str…
Year(s) Discussed: 1805-1806
With American and Spanish military forces amassing along the western US border and with the commanding general of the Army potentially involved in a secession and/or filibustering plot with t…
Year(s) Discussed: 1805-1806
As Jefferson reflects upon the unexpected death of his mentor, various situations at home and abroad in 1806 imperil the future of the nation. A British ship unintentionally kills an American…
Year(s) Discussed: 1804-1806
As tensions between the US and Spain increase over West Florida and the border with Tejas, Aaron Burr travels to the west and back again to meet with folks across the nation as his plot progr…
Year(s) Discussed: 1804-1806
The Napoleonic Wars continue apace in Europe as Napoleon plots an invasion of Britain, and Admiral Horatio Nelson searches for the French fleet in the Mediterranean. As battles continue on la…
Year(s) Discussed: 1804-1805
President Jefferson had much to celebrate in the latter half of 1805 as he finally secured a new Attorney General, envoys arrived from distant lands in the east and the west, and his daughter …
Year(s) Discussed: 1748-1836
Studies of Thomas Jefferson’s life often discuss the impact of the two Marthas – his wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, and his daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph – on him, but few studi…
Year(s) Discussed: 1803-1805
With the war with Tripoli continuing to drag on year after year, Jefferson and his administration had to determine whether the best course to bring it to a conclusion lay with opening up a ne…
