Thomas Jefferson: Westward the Course of Empire

Gracefully written, engrossing biography. — Howard Jones, research professory, University of Alabama

With this volume, Lawrence Kaplan confirms his reputation as a master of Jeffersonian studies. Thomas Jefferson: Westward the Course of Empire presents a brisk but comprehensive, eminently fair-minded account of Jefferson’s views and policies regarding foreign policy. By no means uncritical of Jefferson’s strategic errors and wanderings from his professed principles, Kaplan nevertheless discerns a basic consistency in aims, namely, a desire to throw off European constraints and to expand the American empire. — Bradford Perkins, University of Michigan

Scholars will applaud this evenhanded study of Mr. Jefferson. This volume, well written and well grounded in the most recent secondary accounts, should be well received by its intended audience. ― American Diplomacy