What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy [Paperback]

Thom Hartmann (Author), Robert Wolff (Afterword)

Book Description

Release date: August 23, 2005

Today, some 80 nations can be described as fully democratic. Yet in numerous countries around the world, democracy has failed or is tottering, and in the United States its principles are increasingly under siege from corporate and other forces.

In What Would Jefferson Do? Thom Hartmann shows why democracy is not an aberration in human history but the oldest, most resilient, and most universal form of government, with roots in nature itself. He traces the history of democracy in the United States, identifies the most prevalent myths about it, and offers an inspiring yet realistic plan for transforming the political landscape and reviving Jefferson’s dream before it is too late.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A riveting and absolutely essential book for reflecting upon and awakening to the real meaning of America and the hope it still offers to the world.” —Jacob Needleman, author of The American Soul

“In this season of witches, with the forces of unreason evidently in command, it is a joy to rediscover just how great an ally we, the people, have in Thomas Jefferson. His ideals, we find, are ours, now more than ever; and so all true patriots should turn to him again for solace, guidance, and inspiration. Kudos to Thom Hartmann for this wise and necessary book.” —Mark Crispin Miller, author of Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order

“Thom Hartmann offers us an eye-opening view of how democracy is threatened. America needs this book now more than ever before.” —Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

From the Inside Flap

When the Founding Fathers were searching for the best and fairest form of government, they studied the models of Athenian democracy, the Roman republic, and the Iroquois Confederacy and created what is now called a modern liberal democracy. Today, 81 nations can be described as fully democratic. Yet in numerous countries around the world democracy has failed or is tottering, and in the United States its principles are increasingly under siege from corporate and other forces. Americans pride themselves on their democracy, but today's legislative process often no longer reflects the vision of the Founders.

In What Would Jefferson Do?, Thom Hartmann shows why democracy is not an aberration in human history but the oldest, most resilient, and most universal form of government, with roots in nature itself. He traces in particular the history of democracy in the United States, identifies the most prevalent myths about it, and offers an inspiring yet realistic plan for transforming the political landscape and reviving Jefferson's dream before it is too late.

"Hartmann has done it again. Passionately written and filled with original historical research, What Would Jefferson Do? offers important insights into the meaning and nature of democracy and what we must do to counter the warlords, theocrats, and corporate aristocrats who now place it at risk."--David C. Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World

"A riveting and absolutely essential book for anyone who wishes to reflect upon and awaken to the real meaning of America and the hope it still offers to the world."--Jacob Needleman, author of The American Soul:Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders

"A call to vigilance and action--to awaken the better angels of our democratic spirit and wrest our planet away from the corporate overlords. Infused with an optimistic spirit, What Would Jefferson Do? is a true 'patriot act' in the tradition of Thomas Paine."--Chuck Collins, United for Fair Economy, and coauthor of Wealth and Our Commonwealth

"Thom Hartmann looks at the big picture and asks the hard questions. He's an important voice for reclaiming our democracy."--Paul Loeb, author of Soul of a Citizen

"Thom Hartmann calls on us to take control of the helm and guide our nation back to its base of 'We the people.' Read this book for its historic grounding; heed his SOS for our future well-being."--Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Global Exchange and Codepink:Women for Peace

"Thom Hartmann offers us an eye-opening view of how democracy is threatened. America needs this book now more than ever before."--Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; Later Printing edition (August 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400052092
• ISBN-13: 978-1400052097
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thom Hartmann, who started in radio in 1968, is also an internationally known speaker on culture and communications, an author, and an innovator in the fields of psychiatry, ecology, and economics. The co-founder (with his wife, Louise) of The New England Salem Children's Village (1978) and The Hunter School (1997), he has led national innovations in the areas of residential treatment for abused children and private/public education for learning-disabled children. Hartmann is the four-time Project Censored Award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of 23 books currently in print in over a dozen languages on five continents. He is the former executive director of a residential treatment program for emotionally disturbed and abused children, and has helped set up hospitals, famine relief programs, schools, and refugee centers in India, Uganda, Australia, Colombia, Russia, and the United States through the German-based Salem International program. Formerly rostered with the State of Vermont as a psychotherapist, founder of The Michigan Healing Arts Center, and licensed as an NLP Trainer by Richard Bandler (who wrote the foreword to one of Thom's books), he was the originator of the revolutionary "Hunter/Farmer Hypothesis" to understand the psychiatric condition known as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). A guest faculty member at Goddard College in Vermont, he also synthesized the "Younger/Older Culture model" for describing the underpinnings - and possible solutions - to the world's ecological and socio-political crises, suggesting that many of our problems are grounded in cultural "stories" which go back thousands of years.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

134 of 147 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Telling The Real Story About Thomas Jefferson October 28, 2004

By William Hare

Format:Hardcover

When I was first becoming politically active and living in Southern California, which was then an exciting if erratic "57 varieties" political stomping ground, I curiously visited the leading right wing bookstore in the area, located in Hollywood behind the insurance office of the man who ran it fervently with his wife. I often wondered how he could make any money in the insurance office due to its neglect in favor of concentrating on the activist bookstore.

There was a sign that always remained, while others, often posters concerning political campaigns that came and went, was one that read:

"If Jefferson and Franklin were living today they would be regular customers of this bookstore."

The right for years has sought to co-opt the Founding Fathers, particularly the great spokesman for liberty who penned America's Bill of Rights, Thomas Jefferson, as one of their own. If a liberal dared to quote Jefferson, a right-winger would smirk and say, "Have you ever read Jefferson? You liberals want big government. Jefferson stood for limited government. He wanted to extend individual liberty, not create a gigantic bureaucracy like you people do."

Thom Hartmann has done an adroit job of puncturing this right wing myth in his thoughtful and energetically researched work, "What Would Jefferson Have Done?" The principle launching point that draws the distinction between what the right has long proclaimed and the reality of Jefferson's beliefs is the period and circumstances under which Jefferson and the Founding Fathers who synergized with him, towering giants such as Benjamin Franklin and James Madison, lived and functioned.

It was Hartmann who authored the thoughtful work "Unequal Protection," and this book segues snugly into the same ideological framework. A major element of concern in the time of Jefferson and Franklin, which remains increasingly prevalent today, is the existence and robust operation of the corporation. In "Unequal Protection" Hartmann traced the road traveled in the post-Civil War nineteenth century to eventually succeed in legally constructing an important governing principle of the corporation as a fictitious person, investing it thereby with gargantuan powers unforeseen by the citizenry at the time of America's creation.

Hartmann reveals that Jefferson sought to expand rights of the average citizen, putting him thereby in the liberal or progressive ideological camp rather than that of the doctrinaire rightists who for so long have insisted that he was one of them. At the time of the country's beginnings Jefferson and other exponents of individual liberty were successful in fighting for limitations of time and scope on corporations, recognizing that they were, if unchecked, gigantic octopus-like instruments that would suffocate democracy.

Thom Hartmann fine-tunes his arguments by jumping back and forth between the America of Jefferson and the one emerging today. It was Jefferson, he notes, who opposed Alexander Hamilton's efforts to create a highly expansive national bank, which he saw as a dangerous instrument of control.

When he campaigned for the presidency the High Federalists who linked themselves to the early economic establishment fought Jefferson tenaciously, referring to him as "an atheist" and denouncing him for his suspected affair with his beautiful young slave Sally Hemings. It has been ultimately revealed through DNA evidence that Jefferson had fathered children by Hemings. Jefferson's bitter opponents sought to destroy him politically through his association with Hemings because they feared his steadfast opposition to their corporate designs.

When Hartmann moves the fight over corporate dominance and correlative diminution of the rights of average citizens he shows how the Alexander Hamiltons of yesteryear have become the Grover Norquists of today. He demonstrates how the fixation is the same, whether dealing with Hamilton's vision of a national bank or the so-called free trade agreements that high-powered lobbyists rush through Congress.

Hartmann's book provides readers with the best of both worlds. He gives us a picture of the battles fought by Jefferson and his allies in early America and reveals how these same issues are being tenaciously fought over today.

"What Would Jefferson Do?" reminds us once more of the validity of the old saying, "The more things change, the more they remain the same." Hartmann believes that with proper vigilance, Americans today can turn back the same challenges Jefferson fought to surmount in the nation's formative early period.

57 of 64 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, Inspiring, this Book Touches the Heart September 25, 2004

By Robert Kall VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Yes, this is a book about government, about history. Yet over and over again, I felt my heart touched, and on a few occassions, tears welling in my eyes. Thom Hartmann has, by a strange accident of fate, become an extraordinary Jefferson scholar. When you combine the visionary mind of Rennaisance man Thom Hartmann with the revolutionary genius of an earlier Tom-- Thomas Jefferson, you get a book that wakes you up and gets you thinking about what you can do, what the nation and the world need to do to stop the founders of America from turning in their graves and stop the nation's turn toward decreased rights, liberties and freedom.

If you read political books, this is one you don't want to miss. Hartmann may not be as recognizable a name as some, but his ideas stand at least as tall, with the added strength of a unique vision that spans the centuries past and the centuries to come. This is a book that will become a classic people will read 50, even 100 years from now.

Hartmann is also one of the smartest, most informed talk show hosts in America today. He's been ranked among the top 100 in the business. His show can be called liberal, progressive, yet it is civil without nastiness. He says it is aimed at the radical middle.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Founders were Amazing!! January 7, 2005

By J. Gabrielli

Format:Hardcover

This book is a breath of fresh air in a cynical, ill-informed country. It renewed my absolute awe of the Founders -- what they were up against, the debates they had, the inevitable compromises, and the incredible, living document they came up with -- our Constitution. It makes me feel somewhat ashamed at how lazy and complacent the American electorate has become. Are we even up to the task of defending American democrary? Do people even know what it is? Or what it has become?

This book should be required reading for every citizen. We have a lot of work ahead if we are to regain our democracy. Even for a die-hard idealist, I did find some of his prescriptions to be overly optimistic. But vision is something we need right now!