Description

A remarkable feature of Jefferson's writing is his frequent and inventive use of nautical metaphors, mainly varieties of ship-of-state and ocean-of-life. Organized in two parts, an essay and an anthology, Ship of State gathers and examines, for the first time, approximately 100 of these metaphors. Charles Miller shows how the metaphors confirm Jefferson's stature as a stylist and enrich our interpretation of his thoughts on politics and ethics, friendship and slavery, Monticello, and the end of life. Ship of State discovers the source of the nautical metaphors in Jefferson's classical learning, examines their place in his writing, contrasts them with metaphors on other subjects, and surveys the significance of the nautical metaphors in American life and letters since his death. The anthology provides full context, light annotation, and careful citation not only for Jefferson's metaphors, but also for nautical metaphors by more than a hundred other writers from Homer to John Updike and including a dozen U.S. presidents.