In this compact and engaging book, Peter S. Onuf and Leonard J. Sadosky analyze Thomas Jefferson's conception of American nationhood in light of the political and social demands facing the post-Revolutionary Republic in its formative years. Onuf and Sadosky's fresh approach to the history and historiography of this crucial period underscores the challenges of preserving American independence and securing a fragile union in a dangerous world.

In clear terms, the volume lays out the conflict between Jeffersonian Republicans and their Federalist opponents who were accused of war-mongering, and exposes the irony of one of Jefferson's friends, President James Madison, leading the United States into the War of 1812, America's second war for independence. Jeffersonian America helps students, scholars, and general readers understand some of the fundamental tensions and paradoxes that have shaped the subsequent course of American history.