Joseph J. Ellis on Thomas Jefferson's character [audio 24min]

As inscrutable as he was influential, Thomas Jefferson casts a mighty shadow on American history. In this lecture, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph J. Ellis explores Jefferson's political ideology and suggests that as the United States emerges from the twentieth century, it may be moving toward a more Jeffersonian ideal of limited government and the primacy of the individual. X is the author of American Sphinx: The character of Thomas Jefferson (Knopf).