An extraordinarily thoughtful and illuminating meditation onAmerican history. --Ira Berlin, The New York Times BookReview
"We are obliged to judge because we are obliged to do better; toprobe the flaws of our predecessors is to engage not in vindictivefinger-pointing but to resist hubris and complacency in our owntime. Wilkins" book has made a mirror of the past in which weglimpse our own shortcomings -and perhaps even the means fortranscending them." --Philip Connors, In These Times
"Wilkins makes a case for his opinions in sentences that enchantand inform. In its persuasive blend of logic and lyricism,Wilkins"s language at its most potent is positively . . .Jeffersonian." --Jabari Asim, Washington Post Book World
"With a sense of genuine curiosity Wilkins tried to avoid eithercondemning the founders too easily by modern standards or excusingtoo easily the contradictions of their slave ownership. Instead, byexploring the culture and atmosphere in which they grew up, hediscovered how much slavery was an integral part of the Virginiasociety that enabled the founders to create the recipe for modernrights, equality and democracy." --Clarence Page, ChicagoTribune
"Wilkins, who describes himself as a "deeply committed American,"is never less than a patriot here; someone indifferent aboutAmerica could not write such a thoughtful book. He demythologizesthe Founding Fathers, yet expands their greatness by placing itwithin the context of the times, as well as their flawedhumanity."--Boston Globe
"When the Founding Fathers were deciding whether to risk theirlives and fortunes for their ideals, Benjamin Franklin remarked:"We must all indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shallhang separately." In the years after their bold gamble for freedom,the hangman"s noose played a far darker role in our republic,becoming the lynch mob"s weapon of choice for denyingAfrican-Americans their inalienable rights. Liberty and freedom,repression and racism, these warring yet braided strands form theGordian knot of the American experience: A land of visionary lightentwined in the darkest recesses of human cruelty. Now comes RogerWilkins like a modern-day Alexander to cut this knot." --J. PederZane, Raleigh News and Observer
"Roger Wilkins is one of our most gifted social commentators. InJefferson"s Pillow, he explores with great eloquence and passionthe ultimate contradiction of our society-between being a freeAmerican, a descendant of slavery, and the beneficiary of those whowent before him." --David Halberstam, author of War in a Time ofPeace
An outspoken participant in the civil rights movement, RogerWilkins served as Assistant Attorney General during the Johnsonadministration. In 1972 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize alongwith Bernstein and Herblock for his coverage of Watergate. Yet thisblack man, who has served the United States so well, feels at timesan unwelcome guest here.
In Jefferson"s Pillow, Wilkins returns to America"s beginningsand the founding fathers who preached and fought for freedom, eventhough they owned other human beings and legally denied them theirhumanity. He asserts that the mythic accounts of the AmericanRevolution have ignored slavery and oversimplified history untilthe heroes, be they the founders or the slaves in their service,are denied any human complexity.
Wilkins offers a thoughtful analysis of this fundamental paradoxthrough his exploration of the lives of George Washington, GeorgeMason, James Madison, and of course Thomas Jefferson. He discusseshow class, education, and personality allowed for the institutionof slavery, unravels how we as Americans tell different sides ofthat story, and explores the confounding ability of that narrativeto limit who we are and who we can become.
An important intellectual history of America"s founding,Jefferson"s Pillow will change the way we view our nation andourselves.
Roger Wilkins, currently the Clarence J. Robinson Professor ofHistory at George Mason University, was cited in the 1972 PulitzerPrize award to The Washington Post for his coverage of Watergate.He serves on the school board of the District of Columbia and livesin Washington, D.C.
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