Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims About Thomas Jefferson

Nearly two centuries after his death, Thomas Jefferson continues to be the subject of competing claims about his public policy and his private beliefs.

In Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims About Thomas Jefferson, two conservative scholars examine key claims frequently made by religious conservatives about Thomas Jefferson. Using Jefferson's correspondence, accounts of Jefferson's contemporaries, and other primary sources, Throckmorton and Coulter separate fact from fiction.

In the first edition, the authors focused on claims made by David Barton in his book The Jefferson Lies. That book was subsequently pulled from publication by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson due to historical errors. However, The Jefferson Lies was subsequently republished and took issue with the conclusions of Getting Jefferson Right. In this second edition of Getting Jefferson Right, Throckmorton and Coulter respond to the second edition of The Jefferson Lies as well as claims about Jefferson in a new book by Stephen Wolfe titled The Case for Christian Nationalism.

To address these Christian nationalist claims, Throckmorton and Coulter take on the following questions and much more:

-Did Jefferson really believe in the separation of church and state?

-Did Jefferson and other Founders finance a Bible in 1798 to get the Word of God to America's Families?

-Did Jefferson found the Virginia Bible Society?

-Was Jefferson an orthodox Christian, who only rarely expressed questions about orthodox Christian doctrine?

-Did Jefferson approve laws providing federal funds to evangelize Indians?

-Did Jefferson edit the Gospels of the New Testament to remove sections he disagreed with?

-Did Virginia law keep Jefferson from freeing his slaves?

-Did Jefferson father children with Sally Hemings?

-Did Jefferson attempt to influence the construction of the Bill of Rights?

The aim of the authors is to get Jefferson right.

Praise for Getting Jefferson Right:

As a historian, reading Getting Jefferson Right consistently elicits in me a dual response: the first is a deep appreciation for the careful, objective and thorough scholarship of Coulter and Throckmorton; the second is incredulous outrage at the numerous historical distortions, misreadings, and outright falsehoods they labor to debunk. Based in a thorough and careful analysis of primary sources in their full context, Getting Jefferson Right is an essential volume for understanding Jefferson in all his complexity, and a robust defense of historical truth against the propagandists who twist the past to serve their agenda.

-Aaron Cowan, associate professor of history, Slippery Rock University and author of A Nice Place to Visit: Tourism and Urban Revitalization in the Postwar Rustbelt

Jefferson's legacy as an imperfect, complex figure cuts against the demi-god status some erroneously confer on our Founding Fathers. In Getting Jefferson Right, Throckmorton and Coulter demonstrate in exquisite, painstaking detail how an honest recount of Jefferson's imperfections not only serves as a reliable basis for historical and cultural analysis, but also how Jefferson — like the American experiment itself — was unfinished and evolving, amending and reforming, to hew more closely to ideals often disappointed by the Founders.

-Daniel Hanson, Founder of LTZF Capital Management and Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

Getting Jefferson Right is an excellent example of the art of historical contextualization, of trying to tell the whole story, not just part of it. For those reasons, the work should become a standard reference.

--Paul Harvey, professor of history, University of Colorado

A former psychology professor at Grove City College, Warren Throckmorton PhD writes about psychology and history.

Michael Coulter PhD is professor of political science and humanities at Grove City College.