A headshot of James Thompson

James Thompson, Author

The History of Ideas that Shaped America

As a writer, I am interested in the History of Ideas and how they shape our lives today. I write about Ideas, what they encompass, how they form, how they change as they move from place to place, what happens to them as they do, and the impact they have as men and women apply them.

I want my readers to understand the ideas I talk about the same way the people who carried them did. I want readers
to be THERE, not looking at them from HERE.

What is the best way to communicate the “being there” dimension I am trying to capture? I wish I had a foolproof answer to this question, but I don’t. I call one of the methods I use “non-fiction narration”. To see what I am referring
to, pick up a copy of my recent book, Thomas Jefferson’s Enlightenment – Paris 1785.

The Commonwealth Book Blog

James Thompson lecturing about Thomas Jefferson in France on C-Span

Thomas Jefferson in France

Banner Lecture at the Virginia Historical Society Richmond, Virginia, September 11, 2014 In this lecture, author James Thompson discusses the people Thomas Jefferson met and the social and intellectual circles he joined during his five

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Interview with James Thompson about Who was Billy Lee

What Did Billy Lee Look Like?

An Interview with Author, James Thompson This interview originally aired on Cox Cable 30 on November 2015. Virginia Time Travel featured James Thompson, author of George Washington’s Mulatto Man: Who was

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