UNH Today

Annette Gordon-Reed, Harvard historian and law professor, will speak as part of the Rutman Distinguished Lecture Series on the American Presidency at the University of New Hampshire Thursday, April 7, 2022, at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Union Building’s Granite State Room. Her talk is titled Thomas Jefferson: Revolutionary, President and Visionary. The event is free and open to the public but registration is required.

In her talk, Gordon-Reed will discuss how Jefferson’s views about the Enlightenment shaped his attitude about being a revolutionary, his presidency and his post-presidency activities, as he contemplated the future of the country he helped to found.

Gordon-Reed is a professor of history at Harvard University, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard Law School and the award-winning author of six books. Her latest book, "On Juneteenth," sets out to capture the integral importance of the holiday to American history. It quickly became a New York Times bestseller, was featured on the magazine’s 100 Notable Books list and chosen as one of its top five non-fiction books of the year.

Gordon-Reed is also the author of "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family," which won the Pulitzer Prize for history and the National Book Award for nonfiction — along with fourteen other awards. It explores the inconsistencies of Jefferson’s stance on slavery and his relationship with enslaved woman Sally Hemings, and has been called “the best study of a slave family ever written” by noted Jefferson scholar Joseph Ellis.

Among Gordon-Reed’s many honors are the National Humanities Medal, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.

Housed in the College of Liberal Arts at UNH, the Rutman Distinguished Lecture Series on the American Presidency is generously supported by J. Morgan '84 and Tara Rutman. The series focuses on American political history with an emphasis on the modern and historical context of the American presidency.

For more information, visit cola.unh.edu/annette-gordon-reed.

Per current University COVID policy, masks are required to be worn in all indoor spaces. If the policy changes, it will be noted on the lecture webpage.