Thomas

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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 History
Herodotus – 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 political suggestions for
the new American government and felt disappointed. Had he
understood that its true subject is not politics but morals and
psychology, i.e., an allegory for the right governance of the human
soul, 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.

Literature
Homer

The Iliad
The Odyssey

Virgil
 The Aeneid

John Milton

Paradise Lost
Areopagitica – on freedom of the press

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

William Shakespeare

Plays
Sonnets
Other Poems

Terence – c. 150 BC, Roman playwright

Plays

Horace – c. 10 BC, Roman lyric poet

Poems
Edward Young – English

Night Thoughts

Theocritus – 3rd century BC; Greek bucolic poet

Poems

Anacreon – c. 540 BC, Greek lyrical poet

Poems

Joseph Addison

Cato
The Spectator

Moliere – French playright

The Misanthrope
Tartuffe the Hypocrite

Metastasio (Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, 1698 –1782)

The Works of Metastasio

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 History
William 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

Quotes
"Jefferson scarcely passed a day without reading a portion of the
classics." —Rayner's Life of Jefferson p. 22.

"The moral principles inculcated by the most esteemed of the sects

of ancient philosophy, or of their individuals; particularly,
Pythagoras, Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca and
Antoninus, related chiefly to ourselves, and the government of
those passions which, unrestrained, would disturb our tranquillity
of mind. In this branch of philosophy they were really great. In
developing our duties to others, they were short and defective.
They embraced, indeed, the circles of kindred and friends, and
inculcated patriotism, or the love of our country in the aggregate,
as a primary obligation; towards our neighbors and countrymen
they taught justice, but scarcely viewed them as within the circle
of benevolence. Still less have they inculcated peace, charity, and
love to our fellow men, or embraced with benevolence the whole
family of mankind."
~ Syllabus Of The Doctrines Of Jesus (1803)

"To read the Latin and Greek authors in their original, is a sublime
luxury; and I deem luxury in science to be at least as justifiable as
in architecture, painting, gardening, or the other arts.
~ To Joseph Priestley (A sublime luxury, Philadelphia, 27
January 1800)

"I think the Greeks and Romans have left us the present [purest?]
models which exist of fine composition, whether we examine
them as works of reason, or of style and fancy; and to them we
probably owe these characteristics of modern composition. I know
of no composition of any other ancient people, which merits the
least regard as a model for its matter or style."
~ To Joseph Priestley (A sublime luxury, Philadelphia, 27
January 1800)

"The utilities we derive from the remains of the Greek and Latin
languages are, first as models of pure taste in writing. To these we
are certainly indebted for the natural and chaste style of modern
composition, which so much distinguishes the nations to whom
these languages are familiar. Without these models we should
probably have continued the inflated style of our northern
ancestors, or the hyperbolical and vague one of the East."
~ To John Brazer (The value of classical learning, Poplar
Forest, 24 August 1819)

"To whom are they [the classical languages] useful? Certainly not
to all men. There are conditions of life to which they must be
forever estranged. ... to the moralist they are valuable, because
they furnish ethical writings highly and justly esteemed; although
in my own opinion the moderns are far advanced beyond them in
this line of science; the divine finds in the Greek language a
translation of his primary code, of more importance to him than
the original because better understood; and, in the same language,
the newer code, with the doctrines of the earliest fathers.... The
lawyer finds in the Latin language the system of civil law most
conformable with the principles of justice of any which has ever
yet been established among men, and from which much has been
incorporated into our own. The physician as good a code of his art
as has been given us to this day.... The statesman will find in these
languages history, politics, mathematics, ethics, eloquence, love of
country, to which he must add the sciences of his own day, for
which of them should be unknown to him? And all the sciences
must recur to the classical languages for the etymon, and sound
understanding of their fundamental terms.... To sum the whole, it
may truly be said that the classical languages are a solid basis for
most, and an ornament to all the sciences.
~ To John Brazer (The value of classical learning, Poplar
Forest, 24 August 1819)
"The learning of Greek and Latin, I am told, is going into disuse in
Europe. I know not what their manners and occupations may call
for; but it would be very ill-judged in us to follow their example in
this instance.
~ Notes on the State of Virginia. London: Stockdale, 1787;
Query 14 ('Laws')

"I read one or two newspapers a week, but with reluctance give
even that time from Tacitus and Horace, and so much other more
agreeable reading."
~ To David Howell (Monticello, 15 December 1810)

"I have given up newspapers in exchange for Tacitus, and

Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid, and I find myself much the
happier."
~ To John Adams (Monticello, 21 January 1812)

"Our newspapers for the most part, present only the caricatures of
disaffected minds."
~ To Marc Auguste Pictet (Washington, 5 February 1803)

"Books were at all times his chosen companions."

~ Ellen Wayles Randolph (Thomas Jefferson's granddaughter)

"I endeavor to beguile the wearisome of declining life by the

delights of classical reading and of mathematical truths, and by the
consolations of a sound philosophy, equally indifferent to hope
and fear."
~ To William Short (I too am an Epicurean, Monticello, 31
October 1819)

"A great obstacle to good education is the inordinate passion

prevalent for novels, and the time lost in that reading which should
be instructively employed. When this poison infects the mind, it
destroys its tone and revolts it against wholesome reading. Reason
and fact, plain and unadorned, are rejected. Nothing can engage
attention unless dressed in all the figments of fancy, and nothing
so bedecked comes amiss. The result is a bloated imagination,
sickly judgment, and disgust towards all the real businesses of
life."
~ To Nathaniel Burwell (Female education, Monticello, 14
March 1818)

This mass of trash, however, is not without some distinction;...

Some is useful for forming style and taste. Pope, Dryden,
Thompson, Shakspeare, and of the French, Moliere, Racine, the
Coneilles, may be read with pleasure and improvement."
~ To Nathaniel Burwell (Female education, Monticello, 14
March 1818)
Till VIII o'clock in the morning employ yourself in Physical
studies, Ethics, Religion, natural and sectarian, and Natural law....
From VIII. to XII. read law
From XII to I. Read Politics.
In the AFTERNOON. Read History.
From Dark to Bed-time. Belles lettres, criticism, Rhetoric,
Oratory.
~ To Bernard Moore (ca. 1773?; included in Jefferson to John
Minor, Monticello 30 August 1814)

"Oratory. This portion of time (borrowing some of the afternoon

when the days are long and the nights short) is to be applied to
acquiring the art of writing & speaking correctly by the following
exercises. Criticise the style of any books whatever, committing
your criticisms to writing. Translate into the different styles, to
wit, the elevated, the middling and the familiar. Orators and poets
will furnish subjects of the first, historians of the second, and
epistolary and Comic writers of the third. Undertake, at first, short
compositions, as themes, letters etc., paying great attention to the
correctness and elegance of your language. Read the Orations of
Demosthenes & Cicero. Analyse these orations and examine the
correctness of the disposition, language, figures, states of the
cases, arguments etc."
~ To Bernard Moore (ca. 1773?; included in Jefferson to John
Minor, Monticello 30 August 1814)

"Note. Under each of the preceding heads, the books are to be read
in the order in which they are named. 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 & satisfactory degree of knowlege in these
branches, and will themselves form a valuable and sufficient
library for a lawyer, who is at the same time a lover of science."
~ To Bernard Moore (ca. 1773?; included in Jefferson to John
Minor, Monticello 30 August 1814)

Notes

1. Jefferson to Robert Skipwith, (A gentleman's library;

Monticello, 3 August 1771). In: Merril D. Peterson (ed.),
Thomas Jefferson Works, 1984. (pp. 740 – 745). ^

2. Jefferson to Bernard Moore (ca. 1773?; from Jefferson to

John Minor, Monticello 30 August 1814). In: Paul Leicester
Ford (ed.). The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 12 vols. Vol. 11
(1808-1816). New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1905. (notes,
 pp. 420 – 426). The original letter to Moore does not exist;
Jefferson enclosed a copy with his letter to John Minor in
1814. ^

3. Jefferson to Peter Carr (An honest heart, a knowing head;

Paris, 19 August 1785). In: Merril D. Peterson (ed.),
Thomas Jefferson Works, 1984. (pp. 814 – 818). ^

4. Jefferson to Peter Carr (The homage to Reason; Paris, 10

August 1787). In: Merril D. Peterson (ed.), Thomas
Jefferson Works, 1984. (pp. 900 – 906). ^

5. Jefferson to John Minor (Monticello, 30 August 1814). In:

Paul Leicester Ford (ed.). The Works of Thomas Jefferson,
12 vols. Vol. 11 (1808-1816). New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons, 1905. (pp. 420 – 421).

6. For example, to William G. Munford (5 December 1798),

Joseph C. Cabell (September 1800), John Wyche (ca. 4
October 1809), Samuel R. Demaree (ca. 4 October 1809)
and Nathaniel Burwell (14 March 1818). ^

Resources

Great Books Lists and Topics

The Great Conversation – seminal essay on the value of
Great Books by Robert Maynard Hutchins
Great Books Curriculum – St. John’s College
List of Great Books Lists – by Robert Teeter
Center for the Study of the Great Ideas – Mortimer Adler's
list
The 100 Best History Books of All Time – David
Thomson's excellent list
Great Books of the Western World – Encyclopedia
Brittanica series
Great Books and Classics

Books (Jefferson)
Foley, John P. (ed.) The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia: A
Comprehensive Collection of the Views of Thomas
Jefferson. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1900. [ more ]
Ford, Paul Leicester. The Works of Thomas Jefferson.
Federal Edition. In 12 vols. New York: G.P. Putnam’s
Sons, 1904-5. Monticello Aug. 30. 1814
 Hayes, Kevin J. The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind
of Thomas Jefferson. New York: Oxford University
Press US, 2008
Gilreath, James; Wilson, Douglas L. (eds.). Thomas
Jefferson's Library: A Catalog with the Entries in His
Own Order. Washington DC: Library of Congress, 1989.
Peterson, Merrill D. (ed.) Thomas Jefferson Writings.
Literary Classics of the United States. New York, 1984.
(Letters, pp. 733 to 1517). Letters online .
Richard, Carl J. The Founders and the Classics: Greece,
Rome, and the American Enlightenment. Cambridge
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995 .
Richard, Carl J. The Golden Age of the Classics in America:
Greece, Rome, and the Antebellum United States.
Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009.

Articles (Jefferson)
Cothran, Martin. The Classical Education of the Founding
Fathers. Classical Teacher, Spring 2007.

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First version: 13 Apr 2011

Last updated: 28 Apr 2019 (Updated links in Quotes and Notes)

This edition copyright © John S. Uebersax - All Rights Reserved