| Episodes |
See the Historians scramble!
Most historians must do the DNA dance to accommodate and absorb the intellectual blow that science wields. In March 1999 there is a hastily arranged scholarly conference at Williamsburg that results in an anthology of essays by historians entitled Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture. And the March 2000 issue of William and Mary Quarterly -- the premiere scholarly journal in early American history -- is a special issue with another series of essays called Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings Redux. Perhaps the most graphic example of the scramble is the difference between the 1997 and 1998 editions of Joseph Ellis's major book American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won the 1997 National Book Award. Ellis is "converted," but from what to what and how is that process explained? Of what does his new vision consist? And what are the different ways historians responded to a dramatic paradigm shift? This is a unique moment in which to see history deconstructed and re-constructed.
