The Anglo-American synecdoche?: Thomas Jefferson’s British legacy 1800-1865

This article is focused on one of the behemoths of American history, Thomas Jefferson. Unlike most studies, however, it removes the Virginian statesman from his familiar American context in order to illustrate his significance as a British icon. It considers the use of his image in British discourse...

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Main Author: O'Connor, Peter
Format: Article
Published: Taylor and Francis 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50833/
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author O'Connor, Peter
author_facet O'Connor, Peter
author_sort O'Connor, Peter
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description This article is focused on one of the behemoths of American history, Thomas Jefferson. Unlike most studies, however, it removes the Virginian statesman from his familiar American context in order to illustrate his significance as a British icon. It considers the use of his image in British discourse between 1800 and 1865 to demonstrate the resonance of his name for British people of the period. In doing so it examines the uses of Jefferson’s image with reference to democracy and slavery to illustrate how the ambiguity and seeming contradictions in the deployment of his image are indicative of a broader debate in nineteenth century Britain about the meaning of the United States. Furthermore it demonstrates, through the use of Jefferson’s image, the steady but uneven process of disillusion with American politics and society among British reformers
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spelling nottingham-508332020-05-04T17:06:32Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50833/ The Anglo-American synecdoche?: Thomas Jefferson’s British legacy 1800-1865 O'Connor, Peter This article is focused on one of the behemoths of American history, Thomas Jefferson. Unlike most studies, however, it removes the Virginian statesman from his familiar American context in order to illustrate his significance as a British icon. It considers the use of his image in British discourse between 1800 and 1865 to demonstrate the resonance of his name for British people of the period. In doing so it examines the uses of Jefferson’s image with reference to democracy and slavery to illustrate how the ambiguity and seeming contradictions in the deployment of his image are indicative of a broader debate in nineteenth century Britain about the meaning of the United States. Furthermore it demonstrates, through the use of Jefferson’s image, the steady but uneven process of disillusion with American politics and society among British reformers Taylor and Francis 2015-04-17 Article PeerReviewed O'Connor, Peter (2015) The Anglo-American synecdoche?: Thomas Jefferson’s British legacy 1800-1865. Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 13 (2). pp. 154-174. ISSN 1754-1018 Thomas Jefferson democracy slavery Anglo-American Britain USA https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14794012.2015.1022371 doi:10.1080/14794012.2015.1022371 doi:10.1080/14794012.2015.1022371
spellingShingle Thomas Jefferson
democracy
slavery
Anglo-American
Britain
USA
O'Connor, Peter
The Anglo-American synecdoche?: Thomas Jefferson’s British legacy 1800-1865
title The Anglo-American synecdoche?: Thomas Jefferson’s British legacy 1800-1865
title_full The Anglo-American synecdoche?: Thomas Jefferson’s British legacy 1800-1865
title_fullStr The Anglo-American synecdoche?: Thomas Jefferson’s British legacy 1800-1865
title_full_unstemmed The Anglo-American synecdoche?: Thomas Jefferson’s British legacy 1800-1865
title_short The Anglo-American synecdoche?: Thomas Jefferson’s British legacy 1800-1865
title_sort anglo-american synecdoche?: thomas jefferson’s british legacy 1800-1865
topic Thomas Jefferson
democracy
slavery
Anglo-American
Britain
USA
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50833/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50833/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50833/