I Tremble for My Country

the long version

"Hatzenbuehler argues that Jefferson, though celebrated as a nationalist, is best understood as a member of the Virginia gentry who viewed the nation through the lens of his native "country," the Commonwealth of Virginia. Throughout his life, Jefferson was torn between his participation in a privileged order and his periodic dissent from that order's ways. In taking Virginians to task for their failure to improve their Virginia society, he masked his own reluctance to make fundamental changes in his life."--Jacket.