Product Description: Thomas Jefferson's personal life has always been a puzzle to biographers. Even his contemporaries found him difficult to know. In Jefferson's correspondence, however, Andrew Burstein has found a key to the inner man...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Using letters, journals, and other primary sources to plum the roots of American self-confidence and optimism, the author reveals how American commitment to Enlightenment principles led to such ideas as Manifest Destiny and a global society. (view table of contents)

Amazon.com Review: The 1992 publication of Gordon S. Wood's The Radicalism of the American Revolution renewed interest in interpreting the War for Independence as an expression of national rather than regional values. Most of these studies trace the universal desire for republican governance in the 13 colonies to the Enlightenment's valorization of reason and intellect...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

The author of Sentimental Democracy describes how the United States celebrated fifty years of independence in 1826, describing the events and personalities of the time, America's political culture, the nation's attempt to reconcile its past and future, and the lives of America's ordinary men and women. 12,500 first printing. (view table of contents)

Product Description: On July 4, 1826, the U.S. celebrated its 50th birthday with parades & speeches across the country. But what ultimately sanctified the national jubilee in the minds of the celebrants was an extraordinary coincidence in the nation's history: the nearly simultaneous deaths of Thomas Jefferson & John Adams, the last pillars of the original republic...read more

The author of Sentimental Democracy describes how the United States celebrated fifty years of independence in 1826, describing the events and personalities of the time, America's political culture, the nation's attempt to reconcile its past and future, and the lives of America's ordinary men and women. Reprint. 15,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

Product Description: The letters of a person . . . form the only full and genuine journal of his life, noted Thomas Jefferson, who wrote nearly 20,000 letters in his own lifetime. Andrew Burstein invites readers to rediscover Jefferson through an exploration of his most enduring public and private writings...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Mortal Remains introduces new methods of analyzing death and its crucial meanings over a 240-year period, from 1620 to 1860, untangling its influence on other forms of cultural expression, from religion and politics to race relations and the nature of war...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

A richly textured portrait of Andrew Jackson examines his diverse roles as frontiersman, man of the people, Indian fighter, military leader, and politician to explain how Jackson became an enduring symbol of democracy. 25,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

A powerful portrait of Thomas Jefferson focuses on Jefferson's final days and uncovers the president's thoughts about his own legacy, his predictions for American democracy, and his feelings regarding women and children. 50,000 first printing.

Product Description: In this moving and intimate look at the final days of our most enigmatic president, Andrew Burstein sheds new light on what Thomas Jefferson actually thought about sexuality, race, gender, and politics. Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, leaving behind a series of mysteries that captured the imaginations of historical investigators-an interest rekindled by the recent revelation that he fathered a child by Sally Hemmings, a woman he legally owned-yet there is still surprisingly little known about him as a man...read more

Product Description: When Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, he left behind a series of mysteries that have captured the imaginations of historical investigators for generations. In Jefferson's Secrets, Andrew Burstein draws on sources previous biographers have glossed over or missed entirely...read more

Product Description: Washington Irving-author, ambassador, Manhattanite, and international celebrity-has largely slipped from America’s memory, and yet, his creations are still very well known. With a historian’s eye for scope and significance, Andrew Burstein returns Irving to the context of his native nineteenth century where he was a major celebrity-both a colorful comic genius and the first name in our national literature...read more