Kevin Gutzman on the Jeffersonians, State’s Rights and “Virginia Supremacy”, and Westward Expansion

In This Episode:

• Kevin Gutzman, professor of History at Western Connecticut State University, joins the podcast to discuss the presidencies of Democratic-Republican presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe
• how the states and sectionalism played an important role in the Early Republic, and why Jefferson and his successors emphasized the importance of state’s rights and decentralized power
• the key events during the presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe that kick off Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny

Texts Mentioned:

• The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe by Kevin Gutzman
• James Madison and the Making of America by Kevin Gutzman
• First Inaugural Address by Thomas Jefferson
• Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 15 February, 1791
• “Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank” by Alexander Hamilton
• “A Summary View of the Rights of British America” pamphlet by Thomas Jefferson
• James Madison’s Notes of the Constitutional Convention from June 18, 1787
• Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Robert Livingston, 18 April, 1802
• Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Dickinson, 9 August, 1803
• Proposed Amendment to the Constitution Regarding Louisiana by James Madison
• Trans-Continental Treaty of 1819 
• Monroe Doctrine
• Calhoun: American Heretic by Robert Elder
• Diary of John Quincy Adams

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