The search for the funniest president continues! Thomas Jefferson left behind a huge paper trail, but we're still arguing about where that trail leads. Was Jefferson a brilliant philosopher or a hypocritical racist? Was he a principled revolutionary or a calculating politician? And with all this background noise, can we ever hope to figure out the important stuff: If Jefferson was funny?

LSU Professor Andrew Burstein, the author of "Democracy's Muse," is our guest. And he has fantastic insights into both Jefferson's character and the ways that Jefferson has been misunderstood over the last 200 years. It's a great discussion that might change the way you think about American history.

"Democracy's Muse" on Amazon.com

Andrew Burstein's website

Monticello

 

Music: Hail Columbia, "I'm Coming Virginia" by the Benny Carter Orchestra, "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Henri Rene's Orchestra