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Understanding the Founding Fathers’ ‘Mental Maps’

Antique map of the United States.

In his new book “Mental Maps of the Founders: How Geographic Imagination Guided America's Revolutionary Leaders,” Michael Barone explains how the travels of Founders, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, influenced the formation of the United States. (Photo: N. Staykov/NSA Digital Archive/Getty Images)

The places where they were raised and to which they traveled formed the Founding Fathers’ geographic orientation, which influenced their view of the nation and what the country could become, according to Michael Barone. 

While George Washington had “a map that goes north by northwest,” Thomas Jefferson “saw the country from [the] perspective of the West,” says Barone, a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner and a co-author of “The Almanac of American Politics” since its first edition in 1972. 

In his new book “Mental Maps of the Founders: How Geographic Imagination Guided America’s Revolutionary Leaders,” Barone explains how the differing “mental maps” of Founders such as Washington, Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton were sometimes in opposition, but together formed our great nation. 

Barone joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the little-known facts about the Founding Fathers he uncovered while researching the new book.

Listen to the podcast below:

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