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Thomas Jefferson: Westward the Course of Empire (Biographies in American Foreign Policy)
Thomas Jefferson Westward the Course of Empire - Biographies in American Foreign Policy Author:Lawrence S. Kaplan He served as a member of the Continental Congress, governor of Virginia, minister to France, secretary of state, vice president and president of the United States. Yet his effort in shaping American foreign policy was one of his most important contributions. This new biography of one of Americas greatest political figures focuses on Thomas Jef... more »fersons role as a maker of foreign policy, from his formative years to his last days as a senior statesman. Although he was not the sole formulator of American diplomacy, Jeffersons voice was the most pervasive in the first generation of the republics history. It may also have been the most paradoxical. Jefferson was an eloquent defender of non-entanglement with European powers, yet he advocated, it seemed, an informal alliance with France in the embargo of 1807 and with Britain on the eve of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. He was an articulate spokesman for an agrarian republic in the 1790s, yet he supported manufacturers during his presidency to ensure independence from European economic control. He was a believer in the efficacy of peaceful coercion, yet he employed military force against the Barbary powers in 1804 and advocated war against Britain in 1812. In this volume, Kaplan reconciles these contradictions in Jeffersons views and positions over a period of almost half a century. He also looks at how the concept of the United States westward expansion worked as the moving force in forming Jeffersons judgments and actions in foreign relations. In completing the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson nearly doubled the territory of the young nation. Kaplan describes how Jeffersons fascination with the West led him to dispatch the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the newly acquired land. Although much has been written about Jefferson, this volume is one of the few that examines the full range of his positions on foreign relations. Readable and authoritative, Thomas Jefferson: Westward the Course of Empire offers new insight into the man who shaped American foreign policy.« less