Kevin R.C. Gutzman’s “The Jeffersonians” chronicles the consecutive trio of two-term presidencies of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe.
The men, known as The Virginia Dynasty, served as president from 1801 to 1825 and implemented the foreign policy, domestic, and constitutional agenda of the radical wing of the American Revolution, setting guideposts for later American liberals to follow.
Their achievements were many, from the founding of the opposition Republican Party in the 1790s; the Louisiana Purchase; and the call upon Congress in 1806 to use its constitutional power to ban slave imports beginning on Jan. 1, 1808.