Thomas Jefferson's Reading List

http://www.john-uebersax.com/plato/reading2.htm

Just right for Project Percy!

Thomas Jefferson's Recommended ReadingThink Like a Founding Father Home · Psychology and Religion · Society · [Jefferson's Reading Lists] Thomas Jefferson supplied lists of recommended books in letters to Robert Skipwith1 in 1771 and Bernard Moore2 about the same time, to his nephew, Peter Carr, in 17853 and 1787,4 to John Minor5 in 1814, and to several others.6 The following is a distillation and synthesis of his recommendations in classical studies -- history, philosophy, religion, and literature. Items in each section are in a rough suggested reading order based by Jefferson's comments. Clearly more works could be added; as Jefferson wrote to Moore: "These by no means constitute the whole of what might be usefully read in each of these branches of science. The mass of excellent works going more into detail is great indeed. But those here noted will enable the student to select for himself such others of detail as may suit his particular views and dispositions. They will give him a respectable, an useful and satisfactory degree of knowlege in these branches."2          1. Ancient History           2. Philosophy           3. Literature           4. American History           5. Quotes           6. Notes           7. Resources Ancient HistoryHerodotus - c. 450 BC, 'Father of History' The Histories - wealth of information about the ancient world Thucydides - c. 395 BC History of the Peloponnesian War - Athens vs. Sparta Xenophon - c. 400 BC, philosopher, student of Socrates, general Anabasis - incredible saga of a Greek army lost in the Persian Empire  Hellenica - Greek history 411-362 BC Polybius – c. 150 BC The Histories – rise of the Roman Republic Julius Caesar - c. 50 BC The Gallic War - Caesar describes Gaul and its conquest.  The Civil War - wars of 49–45 BC, ending with Julius as first Roman Emperor Sallust (historian) - c. 50 BC Jugurthine War - Roman war in North Africa  The Conspiracy of Catiline - political intrigues of the Roman, Catiline Livy – c. 1 AD; Roman historian History of Rome Quintus Curtius Rufus - Roman Historian, c. 50 AD Life of Alexander the Great Josephus – c. 80 AD, Jewish general and historian The Jewish Wars - Jewish revolt against Rome  Antiquities - history of the Jewish people Plutarch - c. 100 AD; Greek philosopher, Delphic priest, biographer, prolific writer Parallel Lives – lives of eminent Greek and Romans, paired side by side Theseus/Romulus, Lycurgus/Numa, Solon/Publicola  Themistocles/Camillus, Aristides/Cato Major, Cimon/Lucullus Pericles/Fabius Maximus, Nicias/Crassus Alcibiades/Coriolanus, Lysander/Sulla Agesilaus/Pompey, Pelopidas/Marcellus Dion/Brutus, Timoleon/Aemilius Paulus Demosthenes/Cicero, Alexander/Julius Caesar Sertorius/Eumenes, Phocion/Cato the Younger Demetrius/Antony, Pyrrhus/Gaius Marius Agis/Cleomenes, Tiberius/Gaius Gracchus, Philopoemen/Flamininus Aratus, Artaxerxes, Galba, Otho Suetonius - c. 100 AD Lives of the Caesars - twelve biographies, from Julius to Domitian Tacitus - c. 100 AD; Roman senator and historian Annals - history of the reigns of Tiberius and Nero  Histories - Roman history from 68 to 96 AD Justin (historian) – 2nd century AD Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus Herodian – c. 210 AD History of the Roman Empire – covering 180 to 230 AD Aurelius Victor – c. 350 AD History of Rome – from Augustus to Julian Gibbons - the classic study of Rome's decline, first published in 1776 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Philosophy Plato – Athens, c. 400 BC The Republic* Apology, Phaedo, Crito Symposium, Phaedrus, Meno, Charmides  Sophist, Statesman, Theaetetus, Gorgias Protagoras, Philebus, Parmenides, Euthyphro Timaeus Laws First Alcibiades, Second Alcibiades, Laches, Cratylus, Critias Lysis, Euthydemus, Hippias Major, Hippias Minor, Ion, Menexenus * Jefferson, sought in this work practical suggestions for the American Republic and felt disappointed. Had he understood it, rather, as mainly an allegory for the governance of the human soul, i.e., a psychological work (a modern and ancient view, but misplaced in the Enlightenment), his opinion might have been better.Cicero – Roman, c. 45 BC On Moral Duties (De Officiis) Tusculan Disputations (Tusculanae Quaestiones) On Ends (De Finibus) On the Republic (De Republica) On the Laws (De Legibus) On Old Age (De Senectute) On Friendship (De Amicitia) On Academic Skepticism (Academica) On the Nature of the Gods (De Natura Deorum) On Fate (De Fato) On Divination (De Divinatione) On the Orator (De Oratore) The Dream of Scipio (Somnium Scipionis) Philippics Against Marc Antony (Philippicae) Letters Orations Plutarch – Greek, c. 100 AD Morals Xenophon – Greek, c. 400 BC Memorobilia of Socrates - Xenophon's biography of his teacher, Socrates Seneca – Roman statesman, Stoic philosopher, writer Moral Epistles Essays Epictetus – Greek Stoic philosopher writing in Roman times The Enchiridion - a concise handbook of Stoic morality and maxims, adopted by Christianity Pythagoras  The Golden Verses of Pythagoras - probably not by Pythagoras, but nevertheless important Marcus Aurelius – Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Meditations Lucretius – c. 60 BC, Roman Epicurean philosopher On the Nature of Things John Locke – one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers An Essay Concerning Human Understanding – Locke's magnum opus on psychology Henry Home, Lord Kames Principles of Natural Religion David Hume Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Voltaire Candide Letters on the English Claude Adrien Helvétius De l'esprit (On Mind) Conyers Middleton  Introductory Discourse and the Free Inquiry Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke Philosophical Works James Beattie Religious and philosophical works Two further suggestions consistent with Jefferson's lists are the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius and the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle. LiteratureHomer The Iliad  The Odyssey Virgil  The Aeneid John Milton Paradise Lost Sophocles Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus (Oedipus trilogy)  Ajax, Trachinian Women, Philoctetes, Electra Aeschylus Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides (Orestian Trilogy )  The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliants, Prometheus Bound Euripides The Trojan Women, The Bacchae, Medea, Iphigenia in Tauris  Alcestis, Heracleidae, Hippolytus, Andromache, Hecuba, The Suppliants, Electra  Heracles, Ion, Helen, Phoenician Women, Orestes, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus Demosthenes – c. 340 BC; Athenian orator The Philippics – orations against Philip of Macedon Isocrates – c. 380 BC; Athenian orator Against the Sophists – apologia for philosophy against the bad reputation given it by certain sophists  Areopagiticus – on the necessity of tradition  On the Peace Terence – c. 150 BC, Roman playwright Plays Horace – c. 10 BC, Roman lyric poet Poems Metastasio (Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, 1698 –1782) The Works of Metastasio William Shakespeare Plays  Sonnets  Other Poems Theocritus – 3rd century BC; Greek bucolic poet Poems Anacreon - c. 540 BC, Greek lyrical poet Poems Moliere The Misanthrope  Tartuffe the Hypocrite Jonathan Swift – Anglo-Irish satirist Gulliver's Travels  A Modest Proposal  A Tale of a Tub  The Drapier's Letters Alexander Pope  Essay on Man - man in relation to God's natural order  Moral Essays  The Dunciad - a satirical epic 'Ossian' (James Macpherson) The Poetical Works of Ossian American HistoryWilliam Robertson The History of America William Douglass [more] History of the British Settlements in North America Thomas Hutchison The History of Massachusetts William Smith History of New York Samuel Smith History of New Jersey Benjamin Franklin Historical Review of Pennsylvania Captain John Smith A History of the Settlement of Virginia William Stith History of Virginia Sir William Keith History of the British Plantations in America Robert Beverly History and Present State of Virginia