Author Robert Mcdonald explains why Thomas Jefferson was a polarizing figure and described how his actions and writings led him to be revered by his contemporaries and led him to be portrayed as radical and unamerican. This talk was hosted by the Virginia Historical society and is about one hour and 15 minutes. Fathers, the founding Thomas Jefferson stood out as the most controversial and con town in. Loved and hated, revered and reviled, during his lifetime, he served as a lightning rod for dispute and even today, serves as a lightning rod for dispute. Few major figures in American History provost such a polarization of Public Opinion. While jeffersons supporters organize festivals in his honor, where they praise him in speeches and song, his detractors portray him as a dilettante and demagogue, doublefaced and dangerously radical. And atheist hostile to christianity, characterizing his. Elief as unamerican they tarred him with the extremism of the french revolution, yet his allies ch