UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 25, Page 2
March 21, 1996
Positive reviews for 'Letters'

     The Republic of Letters has been well received by critics and
historians. In a Los Angeles Times review by Robert Dawidoff, history
chairperson at Claremont University Center and Graduate School, the
professor writes, "This admirable edition appears at a time when the
historical exchanges between Jefferson and Madison read like current
events....Smith has written....an informative, clearly written short
history of the biographical and historical circumstances of the
letters. The result is...an excellent short course in the history of
the United States from 1776-1826."
     Mark Kaplanoff, a fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford, wrote a
review in the London Times, which said, "By selecting from this vast
corpus [the Jefferson and Madison papers], one central and sustained
dialogue, James Morton Smith makes Madison and Jefferson
accessible....Between the letters and Smith's well-crafted
commentaries, we are presented with a remarkable political
narrative...."
     Gary McDowell, director of the Institute of United States Studies
of the University of London, in The London Times Literary Supplement,
calls the books "more than a compilation of letters...a biography of a
friendship...."
     In a lengthy review in The New Republic,  Joseph Ellis, author of
Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams,  writes
"James Morton Smith's magisterial collection of the complete
correspondence between Jefferson and James Madison should prompt some
spirited revisions of the popular imagery. Instead of a mystical loner
always gazing presciently into the middle distance, we should now
imagine Jefferson standing beside a diminutive fellow Virginian, a
confidante who is forever whispering wisdom into his ear...." He
added, "To his everlasting credit, Smith's extensive introductions to
each section of the correspondence prove a sufficient scholarly
context for general readers to understand the issues at stake...."
     In the Chicago Tribune,  Jack Rakove, professor of history at
Stanford University and a biographer of James Madison, wrote of
Jefferson and Madison, "Theirs was the most remarkable political
friendship in American political history, and in preparing this
excellent edition of their letters, James Morton Smith enables us all
to understand why."