Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims About Our Third President

by Warren Throckmorton

That is the title of an upcoming eBook I am publishing on Amazon.com along with fellow Grove City College professor of political science, Michael Coulter. We are greatly expanding the posts I did here examining and debunking claims by David Barton and others about Thomas Jefferson. Most of the book is new material and examines claims about Jefferson in the areas of church and state relations, education, the Bible, his religious views and current politics. There is an extensive section on the Jefferson Bible and other claims related to the Bible rarely included in any resource on Jefferson. We are including an annotated bibliography of accurate and helpful resources as well.
One book that won't be on that list but we discuss frequently is David Barton's new book, The Jefferson Lies, which is now available on Amazon. I've read it and we include substantial rebuttals to claims made in the book. In fact, one of the claims I responded to when I wrote about Kirk Cameron's new movie Monumental which comes out tomorrow. In that post, I noted that Barton misled viewers about a Family Bible and indeed in his book, he identifies it as the Thompson hot press

Bible. In the advanced copy I have, Barton claims that Bible was funded by a dozen signers of the Declaration and Constitution, including Jefferson. Barton says Jefferson "personally helped finance the printing of one of America's groundbreaking editions of the Bible." (p. 68). In truth, he bought a Bible from Thompson and Small along with over 1270 other people. In fact, Jefferson didn't finish paying for it until after the Bible was printed. It was completed in 1798 and Jefferson didn't pay his final $10 until early 1799.
A website is in the works and it will be available as an eBook on Amazon in mid-April. Ebooks can be read on any smart phone, IPad, IPod, computer, Kindle or reading device. For now, go Like our Facebook page and and answer a question we deal with in the book. More questions will be added between now and mid-April.