The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Jefferson's Idea of a University

Overview

Thomas Jefferson had an inspiring and clear-sighted vision for what a university could and should be, as well as the political and practical skills essential to its implementation. He was intimately involved with every aspect of creating the University of Virginia. Along with the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, he regarded the founding of The University as one of his three greatest achievements in his life. Join Andrew O'Shaughnessy, University of Virginia Professor of History, Corcoran Department of History, A&S, to discuss his book, The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson's Idea of a University.

Speaker Biography

Andrew O'Shaughnessy, Professor of History, Corcoran Department of History, A&S

Andrew O’Shaughnessy is Professor of History at the University of Virginia. Between 2003 and 2022, he was Vice President of The Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello), and the Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies. He is a dual citizen of Britain and the United States.

After completing his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at Oxford University, he taught at Eton College before becoming a visiting professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and a professor of American history at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where he was chair of the History department between 1998 and 2003.

His book The Men Who Lost America. British Leadership, the American Revolution and the Fate of the Empire (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013) received eight national awards including the New York Historical Society American History Book Prize, the George Washington Book Prize, The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Excellence in American History Book Award, and The Society of Military History Book Prize. He is also the author of An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000) which was the alternate designate selection of the History Book Club. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is an editor of the Jeffersonian America series published by the University of Virginia Press. He coedited Old World, New World: America and Europe in the Age of Jefferson (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010) and The Founding of Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press: 2019). His most recent book is The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s Idea of a University for the University of Virginia Press (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2021).