Surveillance in the Empire of Liberty: Why Thomas Jefferson Matters in Our Information Age

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Examines the formation of a surveillance state through a close examination of Thomas Jefferson's plantation management techniques and political actions.

With the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the horizon, Melissa Adler leads readers to reexamine the principles and foundations upon which the United States is based. By analyzing Thomas Jeffersons surveillance technologies and practices, including his Farm Book, algorithmic formulas, and land management policies, this book provides a new understanding of the limits to aspirations toward good government, liberty, security, and equality in the United States. In addition to being the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, which famously states that all men are created equal, many of Jeffersons writings feature the rationalization of the enslavement, displacement, and killing of Black and Indigenous peoples. Adler argues that information architectures are mechanisms by which cultural and political divisions endure, and that close examination of Jeffersons surveillance techniques reveals some of the processes by which problems associated with settler colonialism, racism, and heteropatriarchy have become systemic.

Author Bio

Melissa Adler is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Chair for Media Studies and Library & Information Science at Western University, Canada.