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W&L’s Brian Alexander and Madison Williams ’23 Featured in Fine Books & Collections Magazine Research by Alexander and Williams on Thomas Jefferson’s “Manual and the Modern Rules of the U.S. Congress” is featured in the spring 2022 edition of Fine Books & Collections magazine.

The research of Assistant Professor of Politics Brian Alexander and Madison Williams ’23 on Thomas Jefferson’s “Jefferson’s Manual and the Modern Rules of the U.S. Congress” is featured in an article titled “Surveying Jefferson’s Manual” in the spring 2022 edition of Fine Books & Collections magazine.

“What we learn from the inventory of existing copies of ‘Jefferson’s Manual’ is the importance of physical copies of books in helping us to understand not only history, but new information about our present,” said Alexander. “Libraries, archivists and collectors, by maintaining and preserving physical copies of the 1801 edition of ‘Jefferson’s Manual,’ allow us to understand more about Jefferson and his work on parliamentary law.”

Jefferson organized his manual alphabetically in 53 topical sections. Although Jefferson’s original manuscript has long since disappeared, a personal printed copy, with notes in his own handwriting, survives at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Another personal printed copy of the 1801 manual resides in the archives of Washington and Lee University.

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