{"product_id":"peculiar-satisfaction-thomas-jefferson-and-the-mastery-of-subjects-hardback-9781531511937","title":"Peculiar Satisfaction; Thomas Jefferson and the Mastery of Subjects (Hardback) 9781531511937","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003ePeculiar Satisfaction\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eThomas Jefferson and the Mastery of Subjects\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eMelissa Adler (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781531511937\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 2 December 2025\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e352 pages, 21 color illustrations\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 3.6 cm, 0.807 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This book is a masterful tour of how information worlds – even those more than 200 years old – continue to shape our cultural and political sensibilities. Choices about what to include and exclude from an archive or a library, how to organize and arrange those items, and how we memorialize our memories and histories rarely come together in one book. Adler handles all these themes deftly and clearly. This will be of great use to cultural historians, librarians, media scholars, and Jefferson fans alike.\" - Siva Vaidhyanathan, Professor of Media Studies, the University of Virginia\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Melissa Adler's nuanced and original work demonstrates that history is embedded in libraries and archives, and not just between the pages of books. Traces of Thomas Jefferson show up in our cataloging and classification systems, influence our architectural decisions, and help determine what counts as history in the first place. Through rigorous engagement with Jefferson's own words, Adler puts information studies at the center of the study of United States institutions.\" - Emily Drabinski, Associate Professor, Queens College, City University of New York\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"In this sweeping, erudite, and posthumanistly-attuned exploration of the complexities of Thomas Jefferson’s information practices - at once entrenching a politics of domination and imagining ruptures that call forth new modes of freedom - Melissa Adler deftly brings Jefferson’s concerns into our present moment, where the role of robust information systems open to public use has never been more crucial, nor more threatened. Full of surprises found in the archives, Adler makes an urgent case for the value of the Library of Congress and libraries more generally in our political and cultural life.\" - Nathan Snaza, author of \u003ci\u003eTendings: Feminist Esoterisms and the Abolition of Man\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow Thomas Jefferson's vision for knowledge shapes what we know and how we access it – and why that matters more than ever\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, \u003ci\u003ePeculiar Satisfaction\u003c\/i\u003e examines how the ideals and contradictions of the nation's founding live on in libraries, archives, and museums. Thomas Jefferson championed an informed citizenry as essential to democracy, yet the systems he built to organize knowledge reinforced racial and ideological hierarchies that persist today.\u003cbr\u003e  Melissa Adler explores Jefferson's lasting influence on public institutions, from his personal library, which became the foundation of the Library of Congress, to his archival practices in government record-keeping and his museum at Monticello as a site of colonial knowledge production. Through an interdisciplinary lens, she reveals how his methods of classification and preservation shaped national memory and democratic participation.\u003cbr\u003e  Drawing from archival research and critical theory, \u003ci\u003ePeculiar Satisfaction\u003c\/i\u003e exposes the paradoxes of access, exclusion, and control embedded in information systems. As censorship and disinformation threaten democracy, Adler argues that understanding these foundational structures is essential to defending the role of knowledge in public life.\u003cbr\u003e  Offering a fresh perspective on the ways information, power, and race have shaped American institutions, this book will engage scholars and general readers interested in how libraries, archives, and museums influence history, democracy, and collective memory and argues for a nuanced understanding of these institutions at a critical moment where disinformation and authoritarian rule threaten to undo them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePrologue \u003c\/i\u003e  ix\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNote on Language, Spelling, Naming, and Citationality\u003c\/i\u003e   xxiii\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntroduction:\u003c\/b\u003e \"These Precious Monuments of Our Property and Our History\"   1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePART 1 – ARCHIVES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e1 \u003c\/b\u003eInformation as Revolutionary Action   31\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e2 \u003c\/b\u003eArchives and the Making of American History   55\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e3 \u003c\/b\u003eHaunted Ontologies   83\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePART 2 – LIBRARIES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e4 \u003c\/b\u003e\"A Blueprint of His Own Mind\": Jefferson’s Libraries   115\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e5 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Racial Aesthetic of Jefferson’s Library Catalog   149\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e6 \u003c\/b\u003eFrom Geography to History   173\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePART 3 – MUSEUMS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e7 \u003c\/b\u003eJefferson’s \"Indian Hall\" and the Doctrine of Discovery   197\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e8 \u003c\/b\u003eHow the American Antelope [sic] Became a Document   220\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCoda: \u003c\/b\u003eAfterlife of Information   241\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAcknowledgments \u003c\/i\u003e  257\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNotes \u003c\/i\u003e  261\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBibliography \u003c\/i\u003e  301\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIndex \u003c\/i\u003e  325\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Fordham University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52701993632024,"sku":"9781531511937","price":74.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/peculiar-satisfaction-thomas-jefferson-and-the-mastery-of-subjects-hardback-9781531511937","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}