IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE

A project of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE is a timely, inspirational manual on how to be a good citizen today.

Thomas Jefferson believed in the covenant between a government and its citizens, in both the government's responsibilities to its people and also the people's responsibility to the republic. In this illuminating book, featuring an Afterword by Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author Annette Gordon-Reed, Meacham presents selections from Jefferson's writing on the subject, with comments on Jefferson's ideas from Colin Powell, Madeline Albright, Frederick Douglas, Carl Sagan, American Presidents, among others.

According to Meacham, Jefferson's words provide a manual for U.S. citizens in the twenty-first century and how his thoughts can revitalize the way readers relate to Jeffersonian concepts like:

Freedom: "Divided we stand, united we fall."
The importance of a free press: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."
Public education: "Enlighten the public generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body & mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."
Participation in government: A citizen should be "a participator in the government of affairs not merely at an election, one day in the year, but every day."

The selections chosen from Jefferson's writings are in the public domain. This book will also contain sections on immigration, voting, equality, patriotism, partisanship, with introductions to each subject by Meacham.
IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE will be enlightening for American citizens, fans of Jon Meacham's works, and for readers everywhere interested in Thomas Jefferson and the history of American government, with publication just in time for the November Presidential elections!

Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and one of the most respected American historians. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers THOMAS JEFFERSON: The Art of Power, AMERICAN LION: Andrew Jackson in the White House, FRANKLIN AND WINSTON, DESTINY AND POWER: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, and THE SOUL OF AMERICA, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times Nonfiction bestseller list, and together have sold over 2.25 million copies! Meacham holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair in the American Presidency and is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University. He is a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor to Time, and a fellow of the Society of American Historians.