Preview
  • The Jefferson Rule

  • Why We Think the Founding Fathers Have All the Answers
  • By: David Sehat
  • Narrated by: Tom Perkins
  • Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (15 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Jefferson Rule

By: David Sehat
Narrated by: Tom Perkins
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $15.47

Buy for $15.47

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Beginning with the debate between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton over the future of the nation and continuing through the Civil War, the New Deal, the Reagan Revolution, and Obama and the Tea Party, many pols have asked, "What would the founders do?" instead of "What is the common good today?" Recently both the right and the left have used the founders to sort through such issues as voting rights, campaign finance, free speech, gun control, taxes, and war and peace. They have used an outdated context to make sense of contemporary concerns.

This oversimplification obscures our real issues. From Jefferson to this very day, we have looked to the 18th century to solve our problems, even though the fathers themselves were a querulous and divided group who rarely agreed. Coming to terms with the past, David Sehat suggests, would be the start of a productive debate. And in this account, which is by turns informative, colorful, and witty, he shows us why.

©2015 David Sehat (P)2015 Tantor
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"Highly recommended for political junkies, historians, and rhetoricians." ( Library Journal)

What listeners say about The Jefferson Rule

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Misguided reliance on the Founders

Not unlike the book, The Quartet, this text effectively demonstrates how utterly ridiculous the constant references to our Founding Fathers as a defense or justification for current political positions truly is. Tea Partiers talk of "No compromise" and "stay true to the text of the Constitution" when the text was specifically born of Compromise and intentionally left the Founding Document replete with ambiguities intended as a framework upon which a functioning Federal government to be built and allow for general principles to guide elected leaders rather than constrain them.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The Constitution's contradictions and ambiguities

Yes, there were deals cut, and gaps, intentional or not, in this document, as events emerged in later history. Jefferson himself was at moments idealistic and at others rather irresponsible and at odds with his own windy statements. (Witness the glowing otherworldly declaration of God-given equality in the Declaration, and his own conduct with slaves.) None of the founders was a perfect philosopher or prognosticator. We can start with something as glaring as the mealy-mouthed papering-over of slavery issues, in service of uniting various the disparate states into a nation (which had to be done, perhaps, as it seemed at the time, to ascend the next rung to nationhood and deal with other competitive sovereigns), and what an awful gaping wound that proved (and has proved with a long shadow into today) to be. I say all this as an ardent admirer of the U.S. Constitution. This book is a fine, listenable, extended reflection on various aspects of the matter. It has a point of view, but never so annoyingly as to preclude stimulating some worthwhile thinking.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

had to read for class

The struggle was real. It bored me to death but we had to read it. I didn't even finish it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!