Jayne, Allen

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Jayne, Allen

PERSONAL:

Education: Cambridge University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Santa Monica, CA.

CAREER:

Historian, editor, and writer.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) The Religious and Moral Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson: An Anthology, Vantage Press (New York, NY), 1984.

Jefferson's Declaration of Independence: Origins, Philosophy, and Theology, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1998.

Lincoln and the American Manifesto, Prometheus Books (Amherst, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Historian Allen Jayne writes frequently about American history, usually discussing on the country's founding fathers and other prominent figures who helped shape the early direction of the United States. In Jefferson's Declaration of Independence: Origins, Philosophy, and Theology, Jayne "focuses his considerable historical and analytic skills on the mind of Thomas Jefferson," according to Christopher M. Duncan in Perspectives on Political Science. "The result is a meticulously researched, cogently argued view of Jefferson that should force most readers to reconsider their understanding of him." Jayne carefully assembles a picture of the intellectually powerful and eclectic Jefferson through a close study of the president's reading habits in philosophy, politics, theology, and other subjects. He demonstrates Jefferson's adherence to concepts such as democracy, liberal individualism, application of reason, and even deism, all the while rejecting authority and strict adherence to Judeo-Christian orthodoxy. "Jayne renders a compelling picture of a great mind at war with tyranny in all its manifestations," Duncan remarked, and shows how these ideas shaped Jefferson's work on the U.S. Declaration of Independence. For some readers, mused reviewer David E. Maas in the Journal of Church and State, "it will be a shock to discover that the Declaration of Independence is a document that tries to arouse men to throw off the chains of traditional Christianity and embrace reason and the basic tenets of Deism or Unitarianism."

With Lincoln and the American Manifesto, Jayne describes the great president's views on the Declaration of Independence and how he considered it a document important enough to be treated as a genuine American manifesto, the "greatest embodiment of American principles," stated an Internet Bookwatch critic. Jayne explores the similarity between Lincoln and Jefferson's views on the rights of all people, moral truth, and the Declaration itself. Lincoln furthermore realized how the ideology espoused in the Declaration was at odds with the existence of slavery, and Jayne explores how Lincoln used the document as a "moral weapon in his fight against slavery and in defense of the Civil War," reported a reviewer in the Reference & Research Book News. The author firmly places Lincoln's "thought and purpose in Enlightenment concepts and deism" and his opposition to slavery in his adherence to the concepts of the Declaration of Independence, observed Randall M. Miller in a Library Journal review. In the end, Jayne offers readers an "illuminating look into the basic principles that kept one of the country's greatest leaders focused as he attempted to unify a deeply divided nation," concluded Monsters and Critics contributor Sandy Amazeen.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, June, 1999, Carl J. Richard, review of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence: Origins, Philosophy, and Theology, p. 899.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, June, 1998, P. Coby, review of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, p. 1784.

Internet Bookwatch, August, 2007, review of Lincoln and the American Manifesto.

Journal of Church and State, winter, 1999, David E. Maas, review of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, p. 148.

Journal of Law and Religion, summer, 2001, Rick Fairbanks, review of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, p. 541.

Journal of Southern History, May, 1999, Norman K. Risjord, review of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, p. 388.

Journal of the Early Republic, spring, 1999, Ralph Ketcham, review of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, p. 118.

Library Journal, February 15, 2007, Randall M. Miller, review of Lincoln and the American Manifesto, p. 131.

Perspectives on Political Science, winter, 1999, Christopher M. Duncan, review of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, p. 56.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2007, review of Lincoln and the American Manifesto.

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, summer, 1998, Stuart Leibiger, review of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, p. 322.