Miracle on Chestnut Street (LIB)

<p><em>Miracle on Chestnut Street</em> reminds us that the creation of our nation was indeed-and still is-a miracle. <strong>-From the foreword by Bill Barker premiere Jefferson interpreter.</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>250th Anniversary Commemorative Edition</strong></p><p></p><p>Tom Jefferson a young plantation owner from Virginia was the least likely member of the Second Continental Congress to make a name for himself. When he arrived in Philadelphia in 1775 it was by default; he had been sent as a substitute for a distant cousin. He resented having to leave his sickly wife and young daughters at home where they needed his attention. Most of all he disdained politics.</p><p></p><p>Yet we associate Jefferson's name more than any other with what happened on the most important day in American history: July 4 1776.  Notwithstanding many other defining moments in our nation's past-Appomattox Pearl Harbor the Apollo moon landing 9/11 to name a few-the Declaration of Independence that Jefferson wrote and the Continental Congress adopted on that date symbolizes more than any other event what America stands for as a nation.</p><p></p><p>Now for the first time the story of that historic event is told from Jefferson's point-of-view. Drawing from his letters journals diaries and extensive on-site research Milton Nieuwsma recreates the sixteen most important months in Jefferson's life: from his election to the Continental Congress to the Declaration of Independence.It's the story of how a young man entered the world stage through the back door-and how the ideas he expressed in that document still resonate in the 21<sup>st</sup> century.</p>