The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind - by Andrew J O'Shaughnessy (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson's Idea of a University is an accounting of Jefferson creating the University of Virginia. Using a biographical approach, this book shows that his vision did much to anticipate the modern university and that it was influential in the development of American higher education. Furthermore, the university distinguishes Jefferson as an advocate of a public education system"--

Book Synopsis

Already renowned as a statesman, Thomas Jefferson in his retirement from government turned his attention to the founding of an institution of higher learning. Never merely a patron, the former president oversaw every aspect of the creation of what would become the University of Virginia. Along with the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, he regarded it as one of the three greatest achievements in his life. Nonetheless, historians often treat this period as an epilogue to Jefferson's career.

In The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind, Andrew O'Shaughnessy offers a twin biography of Jefferson in retirement and of the University of Virginia in its earliest years. He reveals how Jefferson's vision anticipated the modern university and profoundly influenced the development of American higher education. The University of Virginia was the most visible apex of what was a much broader educational vision that distinguishes Jefferson as one of the earliest advocates of a public education system.

Just as Jefferson's proclamation that "all men are created equal" was tainted by the ongoing institution of slavery, however, so was his university. O'Shaughnessy addresses this tragic conflict in Jefferson's conception of the university and society, showing how Jefferson's loftier aspirations for the university were not fully realized. Nevertheless, his remarkable vision in founding the university remains vital to any consideration of the role of education in the success of the democratic experiment.

Review Quotes

[A] highly detailed and carefully constructed new history of the birth of UVA.

-- "Washington Independent Review of Books"

A great contribution to the literature both on Jefferson and on the University of Virginia. O'Shaughnessy challenges recent scholarship on Jefferson and the history of the university's founding and explicates Jefferson's thinking and plans for the university, the commonwealth of Virginia, and the nation.

--Annette Gordon-Reed, Harvard University

A meticulously researched intellectual history of Jefferson's vision for what would become the University of Virginia. His narrative highlights the obstacles Jefferson faced and the many compromises he had to make in his quest to create a publicly funded university that claimed free inquiry, rather than institutional religion, as its lodestar... As we debate the purpose of the American university today, the story of UVA's origins offers an illuminating case study on the promises and limits of what a college education can reasonably accomplish for our republic.

--Nicole Penn "The Bulwark"

Andrew O'Shaughnessy's The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind is subtitled Thomas Jefferson's idea of a university and explores the building and foundation of the University of Virginia according to Jefferson's precepts. Jefferson recognized that education was essential to the success of the Founding Fathers' experiment in democracy as envisioned in the Declaration of Independence, and threw himself into every aspect of the establishment and curriculum despite the retention of slavery making a mockery of some of his loftier ideals.

-- "Times Literary Supplement, Book of the Year"

As a living monument to the efficacy of reason and to the pursuit of justice in a fallen world, Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia is an essential American institution. In this landmark and illuminating work, Andrew O'Shaughnessy is a wonderful guide into the world of Jefferson's thoughts and deeds on the question of education--an undertaking the author of the Declaration of Independence knew to be vital for the creation and the preservation of democracy itself.

--Jon Meacham "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power"

In this well-researched and skillfully crafted history of the University of Virginia, O'Shaughnessy explores the origins of Jefferson's ideals for the university and gives us a fresh and important way of understanding them. Jefferson, a visionary man of the Enlightenment and lover of books, created the library and chose the curriculum for his university. Jefferson the architect designed and supervised the construction of the physical foundations for his Academical Village. Both of these were crucial to the fulfillment of his life-long commitment to an illimitable freedom of the mind.

--Barbara Oberg, Princeton University

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. Linking the man, the educational content, the state, the nation and the University in a way never before done, O'Shaughnessy has given us an essential text for understanding post-revolutionary America.

--Miles Young, Warden of New College, Oxford

O'Shaughnessy brilliantly recaptures both the revolutionary potential of Jefferson's educational ideas and UVA's importance to the history of higher education without losing sight of how slavery shaped the man and university. Beautifully written and doggedly researched, The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind makes an important contribution to the literatures on Jefferson and on nineteenth-century higher education. It deserves a wide readership among intellectual and political historians of the early republic.

-- "Journal of the Early Republic"

O'Shaugnessy makes it clear that the university, founded in 1819, was the institutional manifestation of ideas that were central to Thomas Jefferson's mind and heart... He designed a school where knowledge was based on empirical evidence rather than dogma and tradition... Jefferson was committed to including both modern science and modern languages in the curriculum of his university. At the time, this approach was a radical and innovative move... The University of Virginia anticipated what later became the norm in the American university. O'Shaughnessy's work illuminates our understanding of the history of higher education in the United States

-- "The Journal of Southern History"

This book is bound to appeal to a range of readers, including research specialists, undergraduate students and general audiences. It is an important contribution to the study ofJefferson and to the history of the early American republic..... It tells a fascinating story about the history of higher education inAmerica, and of how a new idea of a university has withstood the test of time.

-- "History of Education"

Throughout O'Shaughnessy's book, Jefferson emerges as both a savvy politician and a gifted theorist, ultimately overcoming numerous setbacks, albeit many of his own making. All told... The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind is a compelling read that artfully untangles the many intellectual currents that inspired Thomas Jefferson's last great contribution to the nation he helped found.

-- "Virginia Magazine of History & Biography"

About the Author

Andrew J. O'Shaughnessy is Vice President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello and Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies. His previous books include An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean and The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire, winner of the George Washington Book Prize.