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Jefferson and His Time #1
Jefferson the Virginian
The first of five volumes in a full-length biography of Jefferson.
484 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1948
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About the author
Dumas Malone
158 books29 followersDumas Malone, 1892–1986, spent thirty-eight years researching and writing Jefferson and His Time. In 1975 he received the Pulitzer Prize in history for the first five volumes. From 1923 to 1929 he taught at the University of Virginia; he left there to join the Dictionary of American Biography, bringing that work to completion as editor-in-chief. Subsequently, he served for seven years as director of the Harvard University Press. After serving on the faculties of Yale and Columbia, Malone retired to the University of Virginia in 1959 as the Jefferson Foundation Professor of History, a position he held until his retirement in 1962. He remained at the university as biographer-in-residence and finished his Jefferson biography at the University of Virginia, where it was begun.
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February 27, 2022
Jefferson would have liked this biography, I think. Dumas Malone, who spent much of his career at the University of Virginia, composed his six-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson very much in the spirit of one Virginia gentleman paying homage to another. All six volumes of Jefferson and His Time (the formal title for the entire biography) are characterized by an elevated and elegant writing style, exhaustive research, and a strongly sympathetic attitude toward his subject -- "the biographer's trap," as a historian friend of mine once put it.
Jefferson the Virginian, the first volume of the biography, covers such topics as Jefferson's birth and upbringing in central Virginia; his education at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg; the beginnings of his career as a lawyer; his marriage; the process by which he traveled to Philadelphia as a member of the Second Continental Congress and came to write the Declaration of Independence; and his difficult term as war governor of Virginia. The book ends in 1784, as Jefferson sails from Boston on what will be a five-year sojourn in Europe -- and we readers know that what the 41-year-old Jefferson has done by that point is but the beginning of an achievement-filled life that will fill five more volumes' worth of conscientious biographical writing by Malone.
To call Malone’s picture of Thomas Jefferson favorable would be an understatement. For Malone, Jefferson is an “apostle of freedom” – a firm advocate of the Enlightenment doctrine "that the mind of man had emerged from shackles and darkness”, a natural-rights champion with “an attitude of hostility to arbitrary power of any sort, a belief in the vast improvability if not the perfectibility of man, and an impulse toward humanitarianism” (pp. 101-02).
Malone maintains that heroic picture of Jefferson throughout Jefferson the Virginian. When the tall, red-haired man from Albemarle County travels to Philadelphia in 1775, to participate in the First Continental Congress, it is not just “his entrance on the continental stage as a public man”; rather, “When [Jefferson] ferried across the Potomac, on his way to the Continental Congress, he crossed his Rubicon” (p. 201). I know that Malone means well, and is trying to praise Jefferson; but as Jefferson was such a strong believer in the principles of republican government, and an avid reader of Roman history withal, I can’t help thinking that Jefferson might not consider it a compliment to be associated, however indirectly, with Julius Caesar who did so much to bring down the Roman Republic.
Malone sets forth Jefferson’s experience of the American Revolution with characteristic thoroughness. The Declaration of Independence, as one might expect, receives a good deal of attention: “The literary excellence of the Declaration is best attested by the fact that it has stood the test of time. It became the most popular state paper of the American Republic not merely because it was the first, but because to most people it has seemed the best” (p. 223).
By contrast, when it comes to Jefferson’s difficult tenure as Governor of Virginia during the Revolution, Malone must acknowledge that things did not go well. Jefferson was almost captured at Monticello by British raiders, and was widely criticized by his political opponents for his actions as governor. Malone notes that the existing structure of Virginia’s state government placed severe limits on the power of any governor, and adds that “this polite and thoughtful man found out, all too soon, that war played havoc with philosophy and the amenities” (p. 308).
A characteristic example of Malone’s consistently laudatory picture of Jefferson comes near the end of the book – when Jefferson, in 1783, is getting his library in order, prior to his traveling to Philadelphia for service in the Confederation Congress at Philadelphia. Jefferson’s interest in organizing his library is, for Malone, evidence that “Jefferson kept the house of his mind in order. He collected books not merely to own, but to use them, and for the same purpose he assiduously assembled ideas and information” (p. 402). Malone's Jefferson is truly a heroic figure.
At the same time, Jefferson the Virginian might not altogether pass muster with modern readers. This first volume of Malone's biography was published in 1948, in the midst of an American society that was getting ready to undergo profound change -- indeed, in the very year in which segregationist Southern Democrats responded to the national Democratic Party's move toward civil rights by bolting the national party and forming their own rump party of "Dixiecrats." But one would not know much about the difficult times in which the book was written, or about the complexity of the antebellum American South as a cultural and historical context for Jefferson's life, or about Jefferson's tangled relationship with race and slavery, from reading Jefferson the Virginian.
The index for this 451-page book (including appendixes) features only seven references to slavery, and eight references to people held in slavery by Jefferson. Of those references, many are decidedly sympathetic to Jefferson: "Slavery, TJ's early efforts against, 141; in violation of natural law, 122, 228" (p. 482), etc. The biographer's trap. Later scholars and biographers, such as Fawn Brodie, Annette Gordon-Reed, and John Chester Miller, would look at Jefferson and slavery quite differently.
And yet the book is so beautifully written. It is as if Malone puts himself in the place of Jefferson, composing from within the serenity of that magnificent mountaintop home at Monticello. The young Jefferson is virtually a living presence on the campus of William & Mary, where as a student I would walk through the oldest part of the campus, or along Duke of Gloucester Street in the restored area of Colonial Williamsburg, and imagine that I (class of 1984) was walking in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson (class of 1762) -- a simplified picture, suitable to the imagination of a very young man. Only as time went on, and I read more widely, did I get more of a sense of how very challenging is the task of trying to understand the brilliant, baffling complexity that is Thomas Jefferson. More than 30 years later, on this Presidents' Day, I am still trying to understand him better.
Jefferson the Virginian contains one map of the Jeffersons' part of central Virginia, but no other illustrations. One could argue, however, that Malone, a gifted writer, paints a compelling picture through the power of his prose style alone. Jefferson the Virginian and the five volumes that follow it represent a good start toward getting to know America's enigmatic third president -- the man whom historian Joseph Ellis aptly referred to as an "American sphinx." Think of Malone's work as the first word on Jefferson, but not necessarily the last.
Jefferson the Virginian, the first volume of the biography, covers such topics as Jefferson's birth and upbringing in central Virginia; his education at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg; the beginnings of his career as a lawyer; his marriage; the process by which he traveled to Philadelphia as a member of the Second Continental Congress and came to write the Declaration of Independence; and his difficult term as war governor of Virginia. The book ends in 1784, as Jefferson sails from Boston on what will be a five-year sojourn in Europe -- and we readers know that what the 41-year-old Jefferson has done by that point is but the beginning of an achievement-filled life that will fill five more volumes' worth of conscientious biographical writing by Malone.
To call Malone’s picture of Thomas Jefferson favorable would be an understatement. For Malone, Jefferson is an “apostle of freedom” – a firm advocate of the Enlightenment doctrine "that the mind of man had emerged from shackles and darkness”, a natural-rights champion with “an attitude of hostility to arbitrary power of any sort, a belief in the vast improvability if not the perfectibility of man, and an impulse toward humanitarianism” (pp. 101-02).
Malone maintains that heroic picture of Jefferson throughout Jefferson the Virginian. When the tall, red-haired man from Albemarle County travels to Philadelphia in 1775, to participate in the First Continental Congress, it is not just “his entrance on the continental stage as a public man”; rather, “When [Jefferson] ferried across the Potomac, on his way to the Continental Congress, he crossed his Rubicon” (p. 201). I know that Malone means well, and is trying to praise Jefferson; but as Jefferson was such a strong believer in the principles of republican government, and an avid reader of Roman history withal, I can’t help thinking that Jefferson might not consider it a compliment to be associated, however indirectly, with Julius Caesar who did so much to bring down the Roman Republic.
Malone sets forth Jefferson’s experience of the American Revolution with characteristic thoroughness. The Declaration of Independence, as one might expect, receives a good deal of attention: “The literary excellence of the Declaration is best attested by the fact that it has stood the test of time. It became the most popular state paper of the American Republic not merely because it was the first, but because to most people it has seemed the best” (p. 223).
By contrast, when it comes to Jefferson’s difficult tenure as Governor of Virginia during the Revolution, Malone must acknowledge that things did not go well. Jefferson was almost captured at Monticello by British raiders, and was widely criticized by his political opponents for his actions as governor. Malone notes that the existing structure of Virginia’s state government placed severe limits on the power of any governor, and adds that “this polite and thoughtful man found out, all too soon, that war played havoc with philosophy and the amenities” (p. 308).
A characteristic example of Malone’s consistently laudatory picture of Jefferson comes near the end of the book – when Jefferson, in 1783, is getting his library in order, prior to his traveling to Philadelphia for service in the Confederation Congress at Philadelphia. Jefferson’s interest in organizing his library is, for Malone, evidence that “Jefferson kept the house of his mind in order. He collected books not merely to own, but to use them, and for the same purpose he assiduously assembled ideas and information” (p. 402). Malone's Jefferson is truly a heroic figure.
At the same time, Jefferson the Virginian might not altogether pass muster with modern readers. This first volume of Malone's biography was published in 1948, in the midst of an American society that was getting ready to undergo profound change -- indeed, in the very year in which segregationist Southern Democrats responded to the national Democratic Party's move toward civil rights by bolting the national party and forming their own rump party of "Dixiecrats." But one would not know much about the difficult times in which the book was written, or about the complexity of the antebellum American South as a cultural and historical context for Jefferson's life, or about Jefferson's tangled relationship with race and slavery, from reading Jefferson the Virginian.
The index for this 451-page book (including appendixes) features only seven references to slavery, and eight references to people held in slavery by Jefferson. Of those references, many are decidedly sympathetic to Jefferson: "Slavery, TJ's early efforts against, 141; in violation of natural law, 122, 228" (p. 482), etc. The biographer's trap. Later scholars and biographers, such as Fawn Brodie, Annette Gordon-Reed, and John Chester Miller, would look at Jefferson and slavery quite differently.
And yet the book is so beautifully written. It is as if Malone puts himself in the place of Jefferson, composing from within the serenity of that magnificent mountaintop home at Monticello. The young Jefferson is virtually a living presence on the campus of William & Mary, where as a student I would walk through the oldest part of the campus, or along Duke of Gloucester Street in the restored area of Colonial Williamsburg, and imagine that I (class of 1984) was walking in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson (class of 1762) -- a simplified picture, suitable to the imagination of a very young man. Only as time went on, and I read more widely, did I get more of a sense of how very challenging is the task of trying to understand the brilliant, baffling complexity that is Thomas Jefferson. More than 30 years later, on this Presidents' Day, I am still trying to understand him better.
Jefferson the Virginian contains one map of the Jeffersons' part of central Virginia, but no other illustrations. One could argue, however, that Malone, a gifted writer, paints a compelling picture through the power of his prose style alone. Jefferson the Virginian and the five volumes that follow it represent a good start toward getting to know America's enigmatic third president -- the man whom historian Joseph Ellis aptly referred to as an "American sphinx." Think of Malone's work as the first word on Jefferson, but not necessarily the last.
April 23, 2021
4.5 stars
This first volume covers Jefferson from his birth until 1783.
This is a famous set of Jefferson biographies that garnered Malone the Pulitzer Prize in 1975.
This is an excellent biography - even though it is dated - the level of research and literary quality of the writing are simply top notch.
Many stories here are ones that I never knew. I had no idea that he had such close relationships at a very young age with Patrick Henry, George Rogers Clark and even William Clark. His relationship with Henry did become strained later in his life.
Most people think of Jefferson as a civilian rather than a military man. This is certainly true but Jefferson took great personal risks when the British invaded Virginia when he was Governor. Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson were at the top of King George’s most wanted list. Jefferson did barely escape the British when they tried to capture him at Monticello.
Ironically earlier in the war he and his wife made good friends with several of the captured British officers that the Continental Army had marched from the Northeast all the way to the POW camps at Charlottesville. The captured officers were obviously treated with a great deal more respect in those days.
On the negative side, I should point out that the coverage on the slaves of Monticello and the Hemings’ is completely lacking. Otherwise a 5 star bio.
This first volume covers Jefferson from his birth until 1783.
This is a famous set of Jefferson biographies that garnered Malone the Pulitzer Prize in 1975.
This is an excellent biography - even though it is dated - the level of research and literary quality of the writing are simply top notch.
Many stories here are ones that I never knew. I had no idea that he had such close relationships at a very young age with Patrick Henry, George Rogers Clark and even William Clark. His relationship with Henry did become strained later in his life.
Most people think of Jefferson as a civilian rather than a military man. This is certainly true but Jefferson took great personal risks when the British invaded Virginia when he was Governor. Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson were at the top of King George’s most wanted list. Jefferson did barely escape the British when they tried to capture him at Monticello.
Ironically earlier in the war he and his wife made good friends with several of the captured British officers that the Continental Army had marched from the Northeast all the way to the POW camps at Charlottesville. The captured officers were obviously treated with a great deal more respect in those days.
On the negative side, I should point out that the coverage on the slaves of Monticello and the Hemings’ is completely lacking. Otherwise a 5 star bio.
September 13, 2017
This is the first of six volumes about the life of Thomas Jefferson. I love to read real history like this that was written decades before it all got put through the lens of political correctness and the continuing apology tour that so many so-called historians pass off as history in the 21st century. Nice to read an author who doesn't pander or insult their audience! Great book! Looking forward to eventually reading the remaining volumes.
September 29, 2019
I found this book a disappointment. I thought it was written in the 1970s or 1980s, but find it was published in 1948, and for me it has not aged well. Perhaps I am too spoiled with the likes of writers such as Ron Chernow and David McCullough... The book seems dated--I found it lacking because of the writing style. If I had to read it for scholarly research, I would, and I would get a lot of information from the text. But the book, for me, really lacks storytelling. I think it's because history in the 1940s probably was presented in a more pedantic voice. Lots of numbers and facts from lists and historical data... I came away with an understanding of Jefferson's father, his family, and his community - other prominent families in Virginia, and some ideas about why Virginia and land was so important to Jefferson. But the presentation lacks soul --essence -- life.
November 4, 2024
A bit outdated and sluggish and slightly hero-worshiping
September 16, 2018
Published in 1948 this book is almost as old as I am. But presumably that should be not a problem in looking at history of the 18th century. Or should it? Jefferson history has only been recently clarified regarding his relationship with slave Sally Hemmings. although the author mentions this slave by name on at least two occasions, he provides no additional information in this volume.
The history of this period Is often dependent on the letters and other writings of the major characters. Evidently Jefferson was very reticent in discussing his personal life in writing. His comments about the deaths of his young children and his 33-year-old wife are almost totally absent. Although the author suggests he had a great love of children, he regularly left his own children in the care of others for long periods of time while he pursued his own activities.
I was mystified to read that he privately wrote of opposing slavery while he continued to own and profit from hundreds of slaves. His private scruples evidently did not impact his political actions on that topic.
I began this six volume series assuming it would cover Jefferson in significant depth. This first volume covered 41 years. I thought the author generally tried to cover Jefferson in a positive light. He use the term realist to suggest the reasons why his internal values did not always match his actions. He suggested that Jeffersons ideas were sometimes ahead of his times and as a result were not adopted when he introduced them. His coverage of Jeffersons two years as governor of Virginia are more positive then some other historians.
The history of this period Is often dependent on the letters and other writings of the major characters. Evidently Jefferson was very reticent in discussing his personal life in writing. His comments about the deaths of his young children and his 33-year-old wife are almost totally absent. Although the author suggests he had a great love of children, he regularly left his own children in the care of others for long periods of time while he pursued his own activities.
I was mystified to read that he privately wrote of opposing slavery while he continued to own and profit from hundreds of slaves. His private scruples evidently did not impact his political actions on that topic.
I began this six volume series assuming it would cover Jefferson in significant depth. This first volume covered 41 years. I thought the author generally tried to cover Jefferson in a positive light. He use the term realist to suggest the reasons why his internal values did not always match his actions. He suggested that Jeffersons ideas were sometimes ahead of his times and as a result were not adopted when he introduced them. His coverage of Jeffersons two years as governor of Virginia are more positive then some other historians.
February 28, 2021
Dumas Malone’s life work was certainly no waste- he successfully chronicles Jefferson and the role he played in America’s foundation; this series is the gold standard for contemporary historians to study Jefferson (much like Irving Brant was for Madison).
The first volume chronicles the first four decades of his life ending as he sails across the Atlantic to join Franklin in Paris to explore the Old World in 1784.
Depending on your background, you will either be pleasantly surprised with the style of writing (i.e. you are reading as a student of history/politics/etc.) or largely disappointed / bored (especially if this is your first Jefferson biography).
If you are looking for a book to introduce you to Jefferson, you cannot go wrong with Jon Meacham’s “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power” or Joseph Ellis’s “American Sphinx”.
3 3/4 Rating because of the breath of information on his early life as a local politician and Parliamentarian. At times it felt dense, but the detail is appreciated and unrivaled in other biographies of Jefferson when it comes to his early life as a statesman.
The first volume chronicles the first four decades of his life ending as he sails across the Atlantic to join Franklin in Paris to explore the Old World in 1784.
Depending on your background, you will either be pleasantly surprised with the style of writing (i.e. you are reading as a student of history/politics/etc.) or largely disappointed / bored (especially if this is your first Jefferson biography).
If you are looking for a book to introduce you to Jefferson, you cannot go wrong with Jon Meacham’s “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power” or Joseph Ellis’s “American Sphinx”.
3 3/4 Rating because of the breath of information on his early life as a local politician and Parliamentarian. At times it felt dense, but the detail is appreciated and unrivaled in other biographies of Jefferson when it comes to his early life as a statesman.
December 3, 2014
Rather comprehensive. I cannot imagine that this is one of six volumes as it covers his early life all the way through the age of 41. Dumas makes no apologies for the life of this great statesman, philosopher, musician, scientist. He is sympathetic in ALL areas, which lies in contrast to other volumes I have read, and while somewhat refreshing, can be annoying as well. His writing is so interesting it made for a pleasant read. I learned new things pretty consistently throughout and one cannot help but respect and be humbled by this man.
May 25, 2024
For some former US presidents, the choice of a good biography to read is slim pickings, but not with Thomas Jefferson. There are so many in-print well-rated biographies to choose, so I opted for the one that was the longest, the 6-volume Pulitzer Prize winning series written by Dumas Malone between 1948 and 1970. This first volume covers Jefferson's ancestry, his early life, and covers all of the events through the closing of American Revolutionary War including his drafting the Declaration of Independence and his Notes on Virginia. From a narrative standpoint, it's quiet and anti-climatic after the Declaration of Independence, which this book says that nobody thought would be as big of an event as it turned out to be. I had no idea of his troubled governorship of Virginia, which lasted through the 2nd half of the war. With such detail will definitely come some slow moments, but I appreciate the details, and look forward to continuing with book 2.
November 25, 2024
Bought this book and the other five in the series 40 years ago - highly recommended as the ultimate biography on Jefferson. Very disappointed in this book - turgid prose and perhaps too detailed. Malone’s approach to slavery is probably indicative of his generation and wrong in the modern context. He dismisses the story that Sally Hemings was his mistress and he the father of her children - DNA analysis seems to now dismiss Malone’s perspective.
December 6, 2013
http://bestpresidentialbios.com/2013/...
“Jefferson & His Time: Jefferson the Virginian” is the first of six volumes in Dumas Malone’s epic biography of Thomas Jefferson, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Malone wrote the biography between 1948 and 1981 and by the time it was completed, was nearly blind. He was the oldest man ever awarded a Pulitzer when he received it in 1975 at age 83 (before the landmark work had even seen its last volume), and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.
“Jefferson the Virginian” covers the first four decades of Thomas Jefferson’s life, up to the point when in 1784 he was sailing across the Atlantic to become an American diplomat in Europe. During the period covered in this volume, Jefferson was a student, lawyer, legislator, author of the Declaration of Independence, governor of Virginia and was married and too-soon widowed.
Although we begin to scratch the surface on his innumerable talents and interests (were Ben Franklin never alive, Jefferson might have been viewed as our nation’s earliest Renaissance Man), unfortunately we never penetrate the hard shell of his exterior in order to really know him. It is unfortunate for history that Jefferson was a much more private man than, say, John Adams who committed nearly all his thoughts to paper. As a result, we learn very little – almost nothing, in fact – of Jefferson’s wife or children, or anything of his family life.
This book is well-organized into seven broad sections containing twenty-eight chapters, each chapter with a specific theme or period of focus, working through his life chronologically. Malone’s work, as described previously by others, is scrupulously researched, assiduously footnoted, and encyclopedic in detail. It does not take long to fully appreciate the breathtaking scope of Malone’s multi-volume work which was completed in an era well before computing made information more accessible.
Yet it is the sheer force of the book’s slow pace and intricate minutia which impedes the casual reader’s progress. The author himself admits to “…what may have seemed wearisome detail.” In the eyes of a discerning academic, Malone’s first volume is likely to be perceived as precise, meticulous and thorough – a first monument to real Jefferson scholarship.
But to the average reader seeking the pleasure of a comfortable biography, it appears verbose, occasionally laborious and often tedious to plow through. Gratification is there to be found, but only at a measured pace. By the end of the book, I felt less like I had read an interesting account of Jefferson’s early life and more like I had re-read my college thermodynamics textbook.
In addition, Malone’s text assumes the reader is well-familiar with the context of the era. For example, there is only a brief reference to the Stamp and Townshend Acts and only passing discussion of the American Revolution – until the British chase Jefferson away from Monticello in the closing chapters. Where a thorough biography of Washington seems much like a primer on the Revolution, this volume on Jefferson instead reads like a comprehensive introduction to Virginia history (not a bad thing for those of us living in the Commonwealth). And since this is not an American history book, while incremental context would be useful it is not strictly necessary.
Overall, I am pleased but not overjoyed at my first experience with Malone’s towering work on Thomas Jefferson. Even when it was not particularly “fun” there can be little doubt it was useful. With five volumes left to read, just over half of Jefferson’s fascinating life remains to be re-lived, and I’m confident Malone has left it fully described. So although the style of writing and the depth of detail leaves me a bit fatigued, I am looking forward to the next volume…
Overall rating: 3½ stars
“Jefferson & His Time: Jefferson the Virginian” is the first of six volumes in Dumas Malone’s epic biography of Thomas Jefferson, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Malone wrote the biography between 1948 and 1981 and by the time it was completed, was nearly blind. He was the oldest man ever awarded a Pulitzer when he received it in 1975 at age 83 (before the landmark work had even seen its last volume), and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.
“Jefferson the Virginian” covers the first four decades of Thomas Jefferson’s life, up to the point when in 1784 he was sailing across the Atlantic to become an American diplomat in Europe. During the period covered in this volume, Jefferson was a student, lawyer, legislator, author of the Declaration of Independence, governor of Virginia and was married and too-soon widowed.
Although we begin to scratch the surface on his innumerable talents and interests (were Ben Franklin never alive, Jefferson might have been viewed as our nation’s earliest Renaissance Man), unfortunately we never penetrate the hard shell of his exterior in order to really know him. It is unfortunate for history that Jefferson was a much more private man than, say, John Adams who committed nearly all his thoughts to paper. As a result, we learn very little – almost nothing, in fact – of Jefferson’s wife or children, or anything of his family life.
This book is well-organized into seven broad sections containing twenty-eight chapters, each chapter with a specific theme or period of focus, working through his life chronologically. Malone’s work, as described previously by others, is scrupulously researched, assiduously footnoted, and encyclopedic in detail. It does not take long to fully appreciate the breathtaking scope of Malone’s multi-volume work which was completed in an era well before computing made information more accessible.
Yet it is the sheer force of the book’s slow pace and intricate minutia which impedes the casual reader’s progress. The author himself admits to “…what may have seemed wearisome detail.” In the eyes of a discerning academic, Malone’s first volume is likely to be perceived as precise, meticulous and thorough – a first monument to real Jefferson scholarship.
But to the average reader seeking the pleasure of a comfortable biography, it appears verbose, occasionally laborious and often tedious to plow through. Gratification is there to be found, but only at a measured pace. By the end of the book, I felt less like I had read an interesting account of Jefferson’s early life and more like I had re-read my college thermodynamics textbook.
In addition, Malone’s text assumes the reader is well-familiar with the context of the era. For example, there is only a brief reference to the Stamp and Townshend Acts and only passing discussion of the American Revolution – until the British chase Jefferson away from Monticello in the closing chapters. Where a thorough biography of Washington seems much like a primer on the Revolution, this volume on Jefferson instead reads like a comprehensive introduction to Virginia history (not a bad thing for those of us living in the Commonwealth). And since this is not an American history book, while incremental context would be useful it is not strictly necessary.
Overall, I am pleased but not overjoyed at my first experience with Malone’s towering work on Thomas Jefferson. Even when it was not particularly “fun” there can be little doubt it was useful. With five volumes left to read, just over half of Jefferson’s fascinating life remains to be re-lived, and I’m confident Malone has left it fully described. So although the style of writing and the depth of detail leaves me a bit fatigued, I am looking forward to the next volume…
Overall rating: 3½ stars
October 19, 2017
Due to the author's hardheaded defense of his subject which seems to restrict him from raising even the smallest criticism, I can't give this book higher than a 2/5 (Only recommended if you can tolerate some major problems with this book).
This isn't a terrible read--in fact, I found the portions about Jefferson's youth pretty charming--but Malone's bias in favor of his subject is so ridiculous that it skews the historical accuracy. He is so quick to defend literally everything Jefferson said, wrote, and did that it's sometimes hard to know exactly what happened. He also already attacks Jefferson's rivals to the point of strawmanning them... and we haven't even gotten to his most notorious rivalry yet in this volume.
Also, it should be mentioned that the book was written in the 1950's, and the author stumbles through issues such as slavery, racism, and sexism without any grace. He forgives Jefferson FAR too much. For example, he goes so far as to say a quote in which Jefferson claims white people are superior to black people is delivered with "becoming modesty." Awful.
I'll be reading the rest of the series, because it is such a famous biography of Jefferson, but I don't have the highest of hopes.
This isn't a terrible read--in fact, I found the portions about Jefferson's youth pretty charming--but Malone's bias in favor of his subject is so ridiculous that it skews the historical accuracy. He is so quick to defend literally everything Jefferson said, wrote, and did that it's sometimes hard to know exactly what happened. He also already attacks Jefferson's rivals to the point of strawmanning them... and we haven't even gotten to his most notorious rivalry yet in this volume.
Also, it should be mentioned that the book was written in the 1950's, and the author stumbles through issues such as slavery, racism, and sexism without any grace. He forgives Jefferson FAR too much. For example, he goes so far as to say a quote in which Jefferson claims white people are superior to black people is delivered with "becoming modesty." Awful.
I'll be reading the rest of the series, because it is such a famous biography of Jefferson, but I don't have the highest of hopes.
December 24, 2014
Detailed, sympathetic, and surprisingly readable.
Malone doesn't shy away from Jefferson's ambivalent attitudes toward slavery, but the net impression is that he was about as enlightened as one could expect a person of his station and time to be. In other areas, Jefferson is presented as, next to Franklin, the leading Enlightenment figure in the British colonies. One reason I was glad to read this was for the detailed investigation of Jefferson's conduct as governor of Virginia toward the close of the revolution. Malone clears Jefferson of the most serious partisan charges made against him, yet the episode remains the least glorious of an otherwise distinguished career. This volume ends with his preparations to travel to France; I'm looking forward to reading further volumes of the series.
Malone doesn't shy away from Jefferson's ambivalent attitudes toward slavery, but the net impression is that he was about as enlightened as one could expect a person of his station and time to be. In other areas, Jefferson is presented as, next to Franklin, the leading Enlightenment figure in the British colonies. One reason I was glad to read this was for the detailed investigation of Jefferson's conduct as governor of Virginia toward the close of the revolution. Malone clears Jefferson of the most serious partisan charges made against him, yet the episode remains the least glorious of an otherwise distinguished career. This volume ends with his preparations to travel to France; I'm looking forward to reading further volumes of the series.
February 14, 2024
This is the first of a six-volume series dedicated to the life of Thomas Jefferson. It's broadly hailed as the classic definitive biography of the Sage of Monticello, and a must-read in understanding the man and his era. I cannot speak for the next five volumes, but this one is a pure delight. A feast for the American mind and heart.
The first half or so of Jefferson's life was mostly spent in Virginia, and Malone gives the Commonwealth the attention she's due from the start. The book is a time machine to that bygone but strangely familiar era (familiar to anybody who has cared to travel there and noticed things). Nelson, Page, Wythe, Fauquier, Henry, Botetourt, etc were more than counties and towns, but men and, more than that, contemporaries. Malone writes them well in so far as they interacted with Jefferson, being more focused than most biographers. While Jefferson loathed certain aspects of Virginian aristocracy, he was still very much of his class and not a traitor to it. It says something that even during the Revolutionary War, he persuaded his contemporaries to abolish primogeniture and enact the religious freedom statute (among other things). He is perhaps the purest distillation of the liberal republican planter class, but Malone makes a point that his personal radicalism has been over-stated and is largely a product of political mudslinging well after he left his mark on Virginia.
Unlike, say, French Revolutionaries, he didn't want to wreck the social fabric of Virginia (though it can be argued he unintentionally did in the same way later progressives would have buyer's remorse if they could see through a crystal ball). He was a meritocrat who sought to make cultivated character the engine of a new republican aristocracy. This required pruning here and there.
More than that, his family helped build Virginia. And while he took little overt pride in his own heritage and did little research beyond an ill-fated quest to find his family seal, he dearly loved his living, firmly-planted aristocratic family on all sides: Jefferson, Randolph, Carr, etc.
Dumas briefly explains how providence also set him up to love the promise of the American West. While Jefferson never journeyed past the Blue Ridge Mountains, his father was a surveyor who found considerable promise in Albermarle County. He made great strides in cartography in the 1700's, providing authoritative maps of the state used during the Revolutionary War. Additionally, both the Lewis and Clark families settled near his own in Albermarle. He was born in a true window to the West.
So, Malone handles his early life and busts a few myths in the process. This was a great takeaway and would've made for a great book in and of itself, but much of it is spent on his contributions to the American Republic. Jefferson is often hailed as some sort of fierce states' rights advocate. By today's standards he was, but he wasn't by the standards of his day. Much of his time as governor was spent pre-occupied with how to best serve the broader war effort, not merely secure the Commonwealth, figuring the security of the Commonwealth depended on the success of the Continental Army. While the strategy failed to secure Virginia's safety (the Brits famously got as far as Albermarle), Malone claims it did ultimately contribute to the colonial cause at key moments. It's not improbable that Jefferson's wisdom helped to secure victory though he wasn't a military man and facing many cultural and logistical challenges.
This contribution is not as famous as his writings which each, in their own way, sought to summarize the American view on rights and liberties while rooting them or attaching them to perennial truths. Indeed, he helped formalize an American ethos. Conservatives today either over-state these as conformities to the American/British political tradition or decry them entirely as some sort of prelude to Bastille Day. Conclusions have then been applied on the American experiment as a whole.
This is why reading his life is so important. Few Americans have ever done so much speaking for the rest of their country at a given time with so much consent from other leaders after said leaders had their hand at revisions in some cases (such as the Declaration of Independence itself). It is, I suspect, why he was sent off as an ambassador at the end of the War. But today, he is the emissary to his own era. His writings stand out. No founding father is quoted as often or even as broadly as he. As such, he and his writings are used to both define the country as it is now and the country as it was then. This leads to a cancerous mass of disappointing and untenable contradictions such as those I referenced in the last paragraph. We want Jefferson to say things he never said or implied.
The disappointment or mental gymnastics in response are really unnecessary.
Jefferson can be known, and a gentleman devoted his life to at least unravelling that distortion in Jefferson himself. Malone doesn't answer the questions we may have about America, but unlike many writers he provides a firm foundation with focused look at the great draftsman himself.
With that, I'll take the brave ones who have read this far back to Monticello. Malone says that if Jefferson's ghost walks the earth, it is surely on that Hill. I agree. When you're there, you get the feeling the master could return at any moment. His character is all over it. After my first trip, I all but ignore the tour guide and wonder at certain things.
I've read a fair number of books on Jefferson, but none come so close to the feeling of being at Monticello as this one. Like his home, Jefferson was an exemplar of classical republicanism while firmly planted in the Virginia landscape.
The first half or so of Jefferson's life was mostly spent in Virginia, and Malone gives the Commonwealth the attention she's due from the start. The book is a time machine to that bygone but strangely familiar era (familiar to anybody who has cared to travel there and noticed things). Nelson, Page, Wythe, Fauquier, Henry, Botetourt, etc were more than counties and towns, but men and, more than that, contemporaries. Malone writes them well in so far as they interacted with Jefferson, being more focused than most biographers. While Jefferson loathed certain aspects of Virginian aristocracy, he was still very much of his class and not a traitor to it. It says something that even during the Revolutionary War, he persuaded his contemporaries to abolish primogeniture and enact the religious freedom statute (among other things). He is perhaps the purest distillation of the liberal republican planter class, but Malone makes a point that his personal radicalism has been over-stated and is largely a product of political mudslinging well after he left his mark on Virginia.
Unlike, say, French Revolutionaries, he didn't want to wreck the social fabric of Virginia (though it can be argued he unintentionally did in the same way later progressives would have buyer's remorse if they could see through a crystal ball). He was a meritocrat who sought to make cultivated character the engine of a new republican aristocracy. This required pruning here and there.
More than that, his family helped build Virginia. And while he took little overt pride in his own heritage and did little research beyond an ill-fated quest to find his family seal, he dearly loved his living, firmly-planted aristocratic family on all sides: Jefferson, Randolph, Carr, etc.
Dumas briefly explains how providence also set him up to love the promise of the American West. While Jefferson never journeyed past the Blue Ridge Mountains, his father was a surveyor who found considerable promise in Albermarle County. He made great strides in cartography in the 1700's, providing authoritative maps of the state used during the Revolutionary War. Additionally, both the Lewis and Clark families settled near his own in Albermarle. He was born in a true window to the West.
So, Malone handles his early life and busts a few myths in the process. This was a great takeaway and would've made for a great book in and of itself, but much of it is spent on his contributions to the American Republic. Jefferson is often hailed as some sort of fierce states' rights advocate. By today's standards he was, but he wasn't by the standards of his day. Much of his time as governor was spent pre-occupied with how to best serve the broader war effort, not merely secure the Commonwealth, figuring the security of the Commonwealth depended on the success of the Continental Army. While the strategy failed to secure Virginia's safety (the Brits famously got as far as Albermarle), Malone claims it did ultimately contribute to the colonial cause at key moments. It's not improbable that Jefferson's wisdom helped to secure victory though he wasn't a military man and facing many cultural and logistical challenges.
This contribution is not as famous as his writings which each, in their own way, sought to summarize the American view on rights and liberties while rooting them or attaching them to perennial truths. Indeed, he helped formalize an American ethos. Conservatives today either over-state these as conformities to the American/British political tradition or decry them entirely as some sort of prelude to Bastille Day. Conclusions have then been applied on the American experiment as a whole.
This is why reading his life is so important. Few Americans have ever done so much speaking for the rest of their country at a given time with so much consent from other leaders after said leaders had their hand at revisions in some cases (such as the Declaration of Independence itself). It is, I suspect, why he was sent off as an ambassador at the end of the War. But today, he is the emissary to his own era. His writings stand out. No founding father is quoted as often or even as broadly as he. As such, he and his writings are used to both define the country as it is now and the country as it was then. This leads to a cancerous mass of disappointing and untenable contradictions such as those I referenced in the last paragraph. We want Jefferson to say things he never said or implied.
The disappointment or mental gymnastics in response are really unnecessary.
Jefferson can be known, and a gentleman devoted his life to at least unravelling that distortion in Jefferson himself. Malone doesn't answer the questions we may have about America, but unlike many writers he provides a firm foundation with focused look at the great draftsman himself.
With that, I'll take the brave ones who have read this far back to Monticello. Malone says that if Jefferson's ghost walks the earth, it is surely on that Hill. I agree. When you're there, you get the feeling the master could return at any moment. His character is all over it. After my first trip, I all but ignore the tour guide and wonder at certain things.
I've read a fair number of books on Jefferson, but none come so close to the feeling of being at Monticello as this one. Like his home, Jefferson was an exemplar of classical republicanism while firmly planted in the Virginia landscape.
February 6, 2017
I bought this at Monticello when I visited in either 1973 or 1982. Have moved it from home to home and it finally got pulled from the Shelf of Unread Books. But I couldn't finish it. It may be award-winning and well-respected, but it's also dry, dated, and full of assumptions that can't be supported. "He may have thought this... or felt that... or walked down this street." All may be true but it doesn't support including all the might-have-beens in a biography. Write a novel, for crying out loud! I'll look for another biography of Jefferson.
July 13, 2024
This is the first volume of Malone's six volume biography of Thomas Jefferson. I am pretty sure that I got the series about 40 years ago as an incentive to sign up for the History Book Club. I read all six volumes back then. It seemed like a good time to revisit the series. This volume was published in 1948. The last volume was published 33 years later in 1981. This was Malone's lifework.
Malone set out to tell Jefferson's life from the primary documents. Jefferson lived for 73 years. This volume covers the first 41 years of his life.
If he had died then, he would be remembered, at best, as a marginal figure. He had served in the Virginia legislature. He had been a fairly unsuccessful governor of Virginia. He is remembered now as the author of the Declaration of Independence, but that did not become general knowledge until many years later.
Malone makes the case that the first forty years of Jefferson's life created the foundation for his later glory. Jefferson was driven to learn and understand. He learned architecture in order to design Monticello. He learned economics and numismatics to help design the dollar, quarter and dime as the foundation for American currency. He learned farming in order to manage his large agricultural holdings. He learned natural science in order to write his only book, "Notes on Virginia" which was an answer to the French scientist Buffon who belittled America's wildlife. He studied law to become an accomplished lawyer. He studied classical political science to help design the new post-revolution American and Virginian governments. Not to mention his mastery of music, literature, education and multiple languages. He was a brilliant driven man.
Malone gives a well-rounded picture of the world which Jefferson lived in. He lived outside the city but in a world that required wealthy men like Jefferson to keep up appearances and carry out their obligations as leading members of the society. Malone also gives a good overview of what the American Revolution looked from the vantage point of Virginia. Except for two embarrassing raids by the British, most of the war was fought in the other states.
Malone is convinced of Jefferson's basic decency and honesty. He at times is too defensive. He dismisses complaints against Jefferson because the Jefferson he believes in would not do that kind of thing. A friend, Richard Walker, accused Jefferson of making improper advances towards his wife. Malone dismisses the claims because, "such gaucheries and such personal aggressiveness in the face of rebuffs, were not characteristic of him as a man." Which would be true, unless the accusations were true. Malone does admit that Jefferson was almost totally lacking a sense of humor.
Slavery looms over Jefferson's life. Many books and articles have been written about Jefferson's complicated relationship to slavery.
First, he was a slave owner who lived a very comfortable life supported by the slave labor of slaves he owned.
Second, he frequently admitted that he knew slavery was wrong. Most famously he ended a discussion on the evil of slavery by saying, "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just". When a British General seized some of his slaves, he said that "had this been done to give them freedom, he would have done right."
Third, he did make proposals to try to eventually limit or abolish slavery. He proposed that all children of slaves born after a year certain, be free. He proposed that slavery be forbidden in any newly created state.
Fourth, it appears fairly certain that he impregnated his slave, Sally Hemings. (The controversy was dismissed by Malone as political mudslinging when he wrote this book. Years later, after the evidence became much more convincing, Malone was still a strong critic of the argument that Jefferson had a sexual relationship with Hemings.)
Fifth, he tried to blame the existence of slavery on the British colonial policies and on the King.
Sixth, he was a slave owner who lived a comfortable life supported by the slave labor of slaves he owned. It is important to begin and end with that.
Malone is sympathetic with Jefferson's struggles in a way that is consistent with being a 1948 liberal.
Malone is very good at unwrapping the various threads of Jefferson's world view. He was deeply anticlerical and suspicious of organized religion. He believed that cities where corrupt and degenerate and that they would undermine a free society. He had a powerful fear on tyrants and tyranny. The motto he placed on his personal seal was "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."
This is biography in the grand style. All of the source documents are mined. Malone makes considered judgments about the contested issues in Jefferson's life and explains his reasoning. Malone's goal is to describe what Jefferson's world was like, what he did and said about the world around him and, ultimately, what kind of man he was. He does a good job at it.
These types of bestselling multivolume biographies of prominent Americans where not uncommon in the past. Freeman's Robert E. Lee or Remini's Andrew Jackson were examples. The only two I can think of currently are Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson and Sydney Blumenthal's Lincoln.
Malone set out to tell Jefferson's life from the primary documents. Jefferson lived for 73 years. This volume covers the first 41 years of his life.
If he had died then, he would be remembered, at best, as a marginal figure. He had served in the Virginia legislature. He had been a fairly unsuccessful governor of Virginia. He is remembered now as the author of the Declaration of Independence, but that did not become general knowledge until many years later.
Malone makes the case that the first forty years of Jefferson's life created the foundation for his later glory. Jefferson was driven to learn and understand. He learned architecture in order to design Monticello. He learned economics and numismatics to help design the dollar, quarter and dime as the foundation for American currency. He learned farming in order to manage his large agricultural holdings. He learned natural science in order to write his only book, "Notes on Virginia" which was an answer to the French scientist Buffon who belittled America's wildlife. He studied law to become an accomplished lawyer. He studied classical political science to help design the new post-revolution American and Virginian governments. Not to mention his mastery of music, literature, education and multiple languages. He was a brilliant driven man.
Malone gives a well-rounded picture of the world which Jefferson lived in. He lived outside the city but in a world that required wealthy men like Jefferson to keep up appearances and carry out their obligations as leading members of the society. Malone also gives a good overview of what the American Revolution looked from the vantage point of Virginia. Except for two embarrassing raids by the British, most of the war was fought in the other states.
Malone is convinced of Jefferson's basic decency and honesty. He at times is too defensive. He dismisses complaints against Jefferson because the Jefferson he believes in would not do that kind of thing. A friend, Richard Walker, accused Jefferson of making improper advances towards his wife. Malone dismisses the claims because, "such gaucheries and such personal aggressiveness in the face of rebuffs, were not characteristic of him as a man." Which would be true, unless the accusations were true. Malone does admit that Jefferson was almost totally lacking a sense of humor.
Slavery looms over Jefferson's life. Many books and articles have been written about Jefferson's complicated relationship to slavery.
First, he was a slave owner who lived a very comfortable life supported by the slave labor of slaves he owned.
Second, he frequently admitted that he knew slavery was wrong. Most famously he ended a discussion on the evil of slavery by saying, "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just". When a British General seized some of his slaves, he said that "had this been done to give them freedom, he would have done right."
Third, he did make proposals to try to eventually limit or abolish slavery. He proposed that all children of slaves born after a year certain, be free. He proposed that slavery be forbidden in any newly created state.
Fourth, it appears fairly certain that he impregnated his slave, Sally Hemings. (The controversy was dismissed by Malone as political mudslinging when he wrote this book. Years later, after the evidence became much more convincing, Malone was still a strong critic of the argument that Jefferson had a sexual relationship with Hemings.)
Fifth, he tried to blame the existence of slavery on the British colonial policies and on the King.
Sixth, he was a slave owner who lived a comfortable life supported by the slave labor of slaves he owned. It is important to begin and end with that.
Malone is sympathetic with Jefferson's struggles in a way that is consistent with being a 1948 liberal.
Malone is very good at unwrapping the various threads of Jefferson's world view. He was deeply anticlerical and suspicious of organized religion. He believed that cities where corrupt and degenerate and that they would undermine a free society. He had a powerful fear on tyrants and tyranny. The motto he placed on his personal seal was "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."
This is biography in the grand style. All of the source documents are mined. Malone makes considered judgments about the contested issues in Jefferson's life and explains his reasoning. Malone's goal is to describe what Jefferson's world was like, what he did and said about the world around him and, ultimately, what kind of man he was. He does a good job at it.
These types of bestselling multivolume biographies of prominent Americans where not uncommon in the past. Freeman's Robert E. Lee or Remini's Andrew Jackson were examples. The only two I can think of currently are Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson and Sydney Blumenthal's Lincoln.
July 17, 2013
interesting, not as full of stories and anecdotes as I like but thoroughly factual and informative.
October 2, 2020
4.5 stars
Although published in 1948, this biography is written in a relative modern narrative style, although it is more ‘text-bookie’ than today’s bios which tend to read like fiction. It covers TJ’s first 40 years, which Malone says suffer from a lack of personal documentation, relative to the large amount of letters written in the second half of his life. It is volume 1 of a multi volume work.
TJ is perhaps the second most difficult except for Washington among the founders in trying to understand ‘who’ he really was as a person. He was very guarded about his personal life, quite a contrast to say John Adams who left voluminous written evidence of his relationship with wife Abigail.
Malone does a pretty good job, however, and paints a picture of TJ as perhaps the first American Renaissance man, with interests ranging from law, botany, biology, music (he was an accomplished violinist), architecture, science, philosophy, language, agriculture, animal husbandry, and politics.
His accomplishments by the age of 40 are amazing: ‘graduated’ from William and Mary, studied law and handled over 1000 cases, was fluent in french, was appointed to Virginia House of Burgesses, elected to first and second Continental Congresses, drafted the Declaration of Independence, drafted a Constitution for the state of Virginia (not adopted because it was received too late), re-elected to Virginia House of Delegates during the revolution, was elected governor of Virginia during the revolution, got married, designed and began building and managed a famous estate, amassed a library of over 2000 volumes, wrote the remarkable “Notes on the State of Virginia”, and finally was appointed to peace commission in France. Whew !
If there is a criticism it would be this: having read many biographies, I’ve learned that the writers almost always admire their subjects. This makes sense because of the tremendous effort required to research and write a solid account of the life of a historical figure.
Malone likes Jefferson.
Since race relations is such a hot topic today, i am looking closely at how Malone addresses this . Recognizing that in 1948, DNA was not available, Malone had no way of knowing about Sally Hemmings and in fact denies this specifically when mentioning the James Callander political slurs during TJ’s first term as President.
Malone takes pains to document that TJ believed the preamble to the Declaration of Independence applied to all races, that he submitted a bill to the Burgesses to abolish slavery in 1779 (bill died), that he submitted a bill to end the slave trade in Virginia (not adopted), and that he drafted the Ordinance of 1784 which banned slavery.
However, TJ clearly believed that the Negroe and the white man could not live together and maybe they should be sent to a colony somewhere or given their own land somewhere in the west ( a common viewpoint of the time). And of course, TJ owned hundreds of slaves during his life.
Malone does not address the cognitive dissonance which TJ surely felt about this in Volume 1. Hopefully he will take it up in the later volumes.
Although published in 1948, this biography is written in a relative modern narrative style, although it is more ‘text-bookie’ than today’s bios which tend to read like fiction. It covers TJ’s first 40 years, which Malone says suffer from a lack of personal documentation, relative to the large amount of letters written in the second half of his life. It is volume 1 of a multi volume work.
TJ is perhaps the second most difficult except for Washington among the founders in trying to understand ‘who’ he really was as a person. He was very guarded about his personal life, quite a contrast to say John Adams who left voluminous written evidence of his relationship with wife Abigail.
Malone does a pretty good job, however, and paints a picture of TJ as perhaps the first American Renaissance man, with interests ranging from law, botany, biology, music (he was an accomplished violinist), architecture, science, philosophy, language, agriculture, animal husbandry, and politics.
His accomplishments by the age of 40 are amazing: ‘graduated’ from William and Mary, studied law and handled over 1000 cases, was fluent in french, was appointed to Virginia House of Burgesses, elected to first and second Continental Congresses, drafted the Declaration of Independence, drafted a Constitution for the state of Virginia (not adopted because it was received too late), re-elected to Virginia House of Delegates during the revolution, was elected governor of Virginia during the revolution, got married, designed and began building and managed a famous estate, amassed a library of over 2000 volumes, wrote the remarkable “Notes on the State of Virginia”, and finally was appointed to peace commission in France. Whew !
If there is a criticism it would be this: having read many biographies, I’ve learned that the writers almost always admire their subjects. This makes sense because of the tremendous effort required to research and write a solid account of the life of a historical figure.
Malone likes Jefferson.
Since race relations is such a hot topic today, i am looking closely at how Malone addresses this . Recognizing that in 1948, DNA was not available, Malone had no way of knowing about Sally Hemmings and in fact denies this specifically when mentioning the James Callander political slurs during TJ’s first term as President.
Malone takes pains to document that TJ believed the preamble to the Declaration of Independence applied to all races, that he submitted a bill to the Burgesses to abolish slavery in 1779 (bill died), that he submitted a bill to end the slave trade in Virginia (not adopted), and that he drafted the Ordinance of 1784 which banned slavery.
However, TJ clearly believed that the Negroe and the white man could not live together and maybe they should be sent to a colony somewhere or given their own land somewhere in the west ( a common viewpoint of the time). And of course, TJ owned hundreds of slaves during his life.
Malone does not address the cognitive dissonance which TJ surely felt about this in Volume 1. Hopefully he will take it up in the later volumes.
October 3, 2017
The first entry in Dumas Malones's study of Thomas Jefferson's life was an excellent initiation. The book covers the first approximately 40 years of Jefferson's life, walking the reader through his birth in colonial Virginia, his family's early ties with the famous Randolph family of Virginia, and his training in the law under respected Virginia law teacher George Wythe.
Malone then delves into Jefferson's growing role in the government of Virginia; he not only served as a lawyer for a brief period, but he began to attain a role in the pre-Revolutionary War legislature of the Old Dominion state. This eventually grows into Jefferson rising to the task of penning most of the Declaration of Independence; he then becomes irritated when fellow Continental Congress delegates made a number of edits to it. The text also discusses Jefferson's role in drafting religious liberty laws in Virginia, an incredible step which encompassed freedom of thought and worship for numerous faiths and denominations, stepping beyond the cloistered Catholic/Protestant haggling found in other colonies like Maryland.
He then rises to the governorship during the very portion of the Revolutionary War when the fighting turns from the Northern and Middle Colonies to the South. Jefferson's less than stellar actions during the fighting, which have been much criticized and (in Malone's take) overstated, are looked at in chronological order in Jefferson the Virginian. The author makes he point that Jefferson the governor's fleeing from the arriving British was no more an act of cowardice than the same actions undertaken by numerous other private and public Virginian residents.
The book leaves off with the war drawing to a close. Jefferson had decided to withdraw from public life and enjoy his time at Monticello, but these plans are upended by the death of his wife (in addition to the deaths of multiple children). But his desire to have an escape from this grief leads him to accept a position in Europe with the delegation bringing about mutually beneficially agreements with foreign nations at the conclusion of the war. It then hands things off for the second volume, finishing this first entry in what promises to be a wonderful work of history.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
Malone then delves into Jefferson's growing role in the government of Virginia; he not only served as a lawyer for a brief period, but he began to attain a role in the pre-Revolutionary War legislature of the Old Dominion state. This eventually grows into Jefferson rising to the task of penning most of the Declaration of Independence; he then becomes irritated when fellow Continental Congress delegates made a number of edits to it. The text also discusses Jefferson's role in drafting religious liberty laws in Virginia, an incredible step which encompassed freedom of thought and worship for numerous faiths and denominations, stepping beyond the cloistered Catholic/Protestant haggling found in other colonies like Maryland.
He then rises to the governorship during the very portion of the Revolutionary War when the fighting turns from the Northern and Middle Colonies to the South. Jefferson's less than stellar actions during the fighting, which have been much criticized and (in Malone's take) overstated, are looked at in chronological order in Jefferson the Virginian. The author makes he point that Jefferson the governor's fleeing from the arriving British was no more an act of cowardice than the same actions undertaken by numerous other private and public Virginian residents.
The book leaves off with the war drawing to a close. Jefferson had decided to withdraw from public life and enjoy his time at Monticello, but these plans are upended by the death of his wife (in addition to the deaths of multiple children). But his desire to have an escape from this grief leads him to accept a position in Europe with the delegation bringing about mutually beneficially agreements with foreign nations at the conclusion of the war. It then hands things off for the second volume, finishing this first entry in what promises to be a wonderful work of history.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
May 29, 2020
This book was a gift from my youngest sister in 1999, which I began reading in 2016 after I finally got around to collecting the entire set of 6 volumes. The Colonial and Revolutionary period of American history always has been of great interest to me; it is one in which I feel a very deep connection and so it is easy to immerse myself in a book of such detail and depth as this. It is, as I expected the perfect follow up to roughly a decade of reading successive writings and biographies of Jefferson's contemporary Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and it is also comparable in scope and depth to Douglas S. Freeman's celebrated biography of General Robert E. Lee. I will certainly enjoy the volumes that come after this one over the next few years. I always feel a great sense of accomplishment when I complete reading a book of such depth after a number of years; It also has the distinction of being the last book I've owned since the 20th century that I had not yet finished. Today, May 29th 2020 was that day. A personal benchmark has been reached! I will most enthusiastically recommend this to anyone seeking a biography of Jefferson based on the historic documents at hand, unclouded by modern sensibilities, and comparison to present political figures, as many biographies today do, ( a practice I despise ). You won't find that kind of thing here. It is a volume hyper focused on Jefferson and his family even going for far back as his Ancestors in the 17th century to start with. The footnotes are copious; and there are no photos, only maps. But there is a handy index for quickly looking up things, which will most likely be necessary to you at some point. Again, highly recommended. I wonder what took me so long to dive into this biography of one of my favorite historical figures? I really enjoy how it feels like even though I'm learning, the prose is in such detail I feel like I'm looking over the shoulder of those involved, and merely being reminded of something I already knew. This is the mark of a really good writer, and should be commended.
November 26, 2023
This book is about a young Jefferson, how he developed his political philosophy, wrote the declaration, and performed as governor of Virginia. Sounds cool enough.
But, after being such a big fan of Jackson who - by 14 - was a severely injured orphan and a prisoner of war, Jefferson is so boring. He was a smart boy with extravagant resources that allowed him to ride his family's riches to become famous. He was so dull as a young man. He just went to school, did well, eventually became a governor, and happened to be good at writing. Sure, he developed a sense of state rights, but it was so dull.
During my reading of Remini's 3-volume Jackson bio, I said I'd never find a biography in which the author had a bigger, more raging hard-on for their subject than he.
I WAS SO WRONG.
Malone had nothing bad to say of Jefferson and, when forced to approach things like his running from the British and getting reprimanded by the Virginia state government, Malone claimed Jefferson right and *everyone else* wrong. He spoke extensively about Jefferson being anti-slavery, but he never talked about where Jefferson's money came from (slavery). He always forgave Jefferson for cheating on his wife and how he treated the women enslaved to him. He claims Jefferson always just, non-partisan, and "a man of 'insert good trait here'" with regularity. Malone's writing is so brokenly pro-Jefferson that it's obvious even to one who's only mildly familiar with Jefferson.
Part of this is, inevitably, due to the time of the writing. Jefferson was in favor in the post-WWII years, and Malone would have been influenced by that. As you read, this sort of timeline should be considered because Malone's focus is thus drastically different than we'd expect from a modern edition.
Subject's so boring, though, that I don't think I can keep going with the next one.
But, after being such a big fan of Jackson who - by 14 - was a severely injured orphan and a prisoner of war, Jefferson is so boring. He was a smart boy with extravagant resources that allowed him to ride his family's riches to become famous. He was so dull as a young man. He just went to school, did well, eventually became a governor, and happened to be good at writing. Sure, he developed a sense of state rights, but it was so dull.
During my reading of Remini's 3-volume Jackson bio, I said I'd never find a biography in which the author had a bigger, more raging hard-on for their subject than he.
I WAS SO WRONG.
Malone had nothing bad to say of Jefferson and, when forced to approach things like his running from the British and getting reprimanded by the Virginia state government, Malone claimed Jefferson right and *everyone else* wrong. He spoke extensively about Jefferson being anti-slavery, but he never talked about where Jefferson's money came from (slavery). He always forgave Jefferson for cheating on his wife and how he treated the women enslaved to him. He claims Jefferson always just, non-partisan, and "a man of 'insert good trait here'" with regularity. Malone's writing is so brokenly pro-Jefferson that it's obvious even to one who's only mildly familiar with Jefferson.
Part of this is, inevitably, due to the time of the writing. Jefferson was in favor in the post-WWII years, and Malone would have been influenced by that. As you read, this sort of timeline should be considered because Malone's focus is thus drastically different than we'd expect from a modern edition.
Subject's so boring, though, that I don't think I can keep going with the next one.
September 5, 2022
Wonderful storyline, easy to follow and touching those taboo topics with perhaps too much delicacy when really don't you want to scream out how the man was GAY! How he loved.... How he was extremely learned for the time or how he retracted his 'created equally' or is that just something everyone wants to force down your throat knowing he also talked about Nature also in the countries founding documents but easily ignored or perhaps you would like to discuss how Nature is the deciding factor of brilliance and breeding is so important what is know as G passed through the DNA
f Why is it only farmers seem to understand this like the very basic difference between Females and Males in absolutely every species... Ugh how far has society been led down the path if ignorance. Scary comes the night before the pendulum swings.
Jefferson has been my absolute favorite President and historical figure next to Hitler since I can remember and not many know the man they are too caught up with 'He owned Slaves' motif, and yet I love my dogs what is so hard to understand that an educated person can love, be complex that the human has the capability to think and consider options or perhaps tap into the Universal Conscientious to get the needed guidance, the weave of certainty on the back of a horse in the middle of the forest seems to be the one consist thing through time that provide the encounter of enlightenment and as I also reverberate After Enlightenment Chop Wood Carry Water.
Where is the book written that tells of each of the leaders ENCOUNTERS so who really guides the sheep, how many people are missing each day, eaten you say?
Please Dumas continue your exploration and be bold and brave with the facts of history for even you desire truth and consideration.
f Why is it only farmers seem to understand this like the very basic difference between Females and Males in absolutely every species... Ugh how far has society been led down the path if ignorance. Scary comes the night before the pendulum swings.
Jefferson has been my absolute favorite President and historical figure next to Hitler since I can remember and not many know the man they are too caught up with 'He owned Slaves' motif, and yet I love my dogs what is so hard to understand that an educated person can love, be complex that the human has the capability to think and consider options or perhaps tap into the Universal Conscientious to get the needed guidance, the weave of certainty on the back of a horse in the middle of the forest seems to be the one consist thing through time that provide the encounter of enlightenment and as I also reverberate After Enlightenment Chop Wood Carry Water.
Where is the book written that tells of each of the leaders ENCOUNTERS so who really guides the sheep, how many people are missing each day, eaten you say?
Please Dumas continue your exploration and be bold and brave with the facts of history for even you desire truth and consideration.
May 22, 2024
Not quite as engaging as a David McCullough. This is part 1 of a 6 part series on the life of Thomas Jefferson. I found the set while at a used bookstore. The Revolutionary period and its players is one of the areas of history I enjoying studying most. To be sure, I did enjoy part 1 of the series. No one can question the amount of time and effort Dumas put into this (as I am sure with the rest of the series). You will absolutely learn things about Jefferson from this. Malone clearly loves his subject (sometimes I think he may be unable to see things in Jefferson others could). I do think David McCullough is a better history story teller. I do understand Malone's natural pro-Jefferson stance and Virginia in general, but I do wonder if it sometimes has skewed his interpretation, even if ever so slightly. Malone rightfully calls Jefferson the pen of the revolution. Rightfully calls George Washington the sword. But he calls Patrick Henry the voice. There were many voices to be sure, but John Adams is often recognized as one of the main voices which helped the colonies to declare independence in Congress. But, Henry was from Virginia, Adams was not. There were some parts which dragged on a little more than others, but I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series and would even re-read this one. It probably is closer to a 4.5. Well worth to read if you enjoy studying Jefferson or the Revolution in general.
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January 31, 2026I’ve just finished Jefferson the Virginian by Dumas Malone, and it’s the most formative Jefferson book I’ve read—not because of what it reveals, but because of what it explains.
Malone gives us Jefferson before power: shaped by Virginia land, Enlightenment discipline, and a deep faith that reason and structure could improve the world. This is Jefferson as system-builder—orderly, reserved, intellectually confident—long before the Declaration or the presidency.
Reading this after The Hemingses of Monticello (Annette Gordon-Reed), Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (Jon Meacham), and Twilight at Monticello changes everything. Malone shows how Jefferson was made; Gordon-Reed shows the consequences of that formation; Meacham synthesizes ideals and ambition; Crawford captures the unraveling.
Together, they tell a single story: Jefferson’s contradictions weren’t accidental—they were baked in early.
This book doesn’t reckon. It prepares you to understand why the reckoning was inevitable.
Leadership takeaway:
Formation matters—leaders don’t suddenly reveal their values under pressure; they scale the habits and assumptions they formed early.
Music pairings:
Aaron Copeland, Appalachian Spring – spacious, idealistic, quietly American; it mirrors Jefferson’s belief that order and reason could shape a new world.
J.S. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier – disciplined, architectural, and restrained—very much the sound of a mind that believes structure is virtue.
Malone gives us Jefferson before power: shaped by Virginia land, Enlightenment discipline, and a deep faith that reason and structure could improve the world. This is Jefferson as system-builder—orderly, reserved, intellectually confident—long before the Declaration or the presidency.
Reading this after The Hemingses of Monticello (Annette Gordon-Reed), Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (Jon Meacham), and Twilight at Monticello changes everything. Malone shows how Jefferson was made; Gordon-Reed shows the consequences of that formation; Meacham synthesizes ideals and ambition; Crawford captures the unraveling.
Together, they tell a single story: Jefferson’s contradictions weren’t accidental—they were baked in early.
This book doesn’t reckon. It prepares you to understand why the reckoning was inevitable.
Leadership takeaway:
Formation matters—leaders don’t suddenly reveal their values under pressure; they scale the habits and assumptions they formed early.
Music pairings:
Aaron Copeland, Appalachian Spring – spacious, idealistic, quietly American; it mirrors Jefferson’s belief that order and reason could shape a new world.
J.S. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier – disciplined, architectural, and restrained—very much the sound of a mind that believes structure is virtue.
November 17, 2018
Thomas Jefferson has always been one of my favorite presidents. I think it's because he was probably our most philosophical president. This is the first volume in Dumas Malone's six-volume biography Jefferson and His Time. I got lucky and found the whole set at Half Price Books; I love Half Price Books. This volume covers Jefferson's early life until he leaves for France in the 1780s.
What was really fascinating to me was the way he embraced enlightenment principles. As a Virginia planter, he could have had an easy life maintaining the status quo. Instead, he pushed ideas that were good for more than just for him and his class. And he had the patience to wait for his ideas to be accepted, many of which, such as the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, took years to pass after his initial draft. It's hard to imagine any of today's politicians embracing these forward-looking ideals, especially when so many are so desperately trying to move backwards.
If I was an academic historian, I would probably give this 5 stars. I'm not. At times the focus on Jefferson was a little to tight. More discussion around the events leading to and during the revolution would have provided some helpful context. I also found the author's occasional fawning to be a annoying. Never the less, I enjoyed this and look forward to the other volumes.
What was really fascinating to me was the way he embraced enlightenment principles. As a Virginia planter, he could have had an easy life maintaining the status quo. Instead, he pushed ideas that were good for more than just for him and his class. And he had the patience to wait for his ideas to be accepted, many of which, such as the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, took years to pass after his initial draft. It's hard to imagine any of today's politicians embracing these forward-looking ideals, especially when so many are so desperately trying to move backwards.
If I was an academic historian, I would probably give this 5 stars. I'm not. At times the focus on Jefferson was a little to tight. More discussion around the events leading to and during the revolution would have provided some helpful context. I also found the author's occasional fawning to be a annoying. Never the less, I enjoyed this and look forward to the other volumes.
February 4, 2023
This book was published in 1948 and reflects its time. Its author is a comfortably superior white male, reticent and uninterested about private matters. Slaves are "laborers" and "servants" and all of Jefferson's were happy. The Hemings were "bright mulattoes" but no speculation on how they got that way. Native Americans are red skinned and savage. Women are uninteresting. His style is, I feel, unnecessarily complicated, and I often couldn't tell who "he" refers to because there were so many people referenced in each sentence, and there were too many formers and latters. But Jefferson, himself a complicate man, is in many ways admirable, and the author tries to bring out his many facets and excuse his faults. Another complaint is that the author makes frequent references to all the primary documents and collections he consulted, but often doesn't tell us what's in there or even his conclusion; in a footnote he'll just tell us to consult them ourselves. Now many if not all are probably online, but in 1948 how could any casual reader do so, aside from traveling all over the country to visit the repositories and spend weeks and months poring over these scattered documents. But I'm gaining a different perspective on Jefferson, the Revolution, and the early years of our country, and look forward to the next volumes.
January 28, 2017
This first volume of Malone's 6-volume-biography of Jefferson covers quite a long time of Jefferson's life. It starts out on genialogy of the Jefferson family, then comes to Jefferson's childhood and education. After a short visit on Jefferson working as a lawyer the book turns to the political mind of the man, covering his political views widely but ostensively. This leads to a very interesting chapter on how Jefferson was involved not only in dravting the Declaration of Independence but also in the framing of Virginian laws. The chapters on his time as governer and the war of independence show how controversial even a figure like Jefferson can be. The volume closes in 1784 when not much indicated that Jefferson soon would become such a renowned figure.
Always trying to shine a light on the thoughts and belives behind his action, Malone devises a very knowledgeable picture of Jefferson. The book is well to read. Having bought the whole set I am not yet sure why it had to be streached over 6 volumes when the biggest part of Jeffersons life (at least time-wise) could be put in the first volume. But we will see...
Always trying to shine a light on the thoughts and belives behind his action, Malone devises a very knowledgeable picture of Jefferson. The book is well to read. Having bought the whole set I am not yet sure why it had to be streached over 6 volumes when the biggest part of Jeffersons life (at least time-wise) could be put in the first volume. But we will see...
March 8, 2018
Thus begins my somewhat lengthy journey through Dumas Malone's multi-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson. The writing style is a bit stilted, certainly not as inviting as, say, the biographies written by Ron Chernow. What the book lacks in ease of reading, however, it makes up in exhaustiveness. Malone has done a great job of compiling many of the minute details of Jefferson's life and presenting them in a narrative fashion. The story starts out somewhat slow, with a history of Jefferson's ancestors and their activities in Virginia. After that initial history, however, the pace picks up a bit. By the end of the book, I felt as if I'd read a complete biography of someone. It is truly amazing how much Jefferson accomplished before he was 40 years old. This book brings you right up to the point when Jefferson was appointed as an ambassador to Europe.
I look forward to reading the next volumes of this biography, as I'm sure they will shed more light onto the complex personality of Thomas Jefferson.
I look forward to reading the next volumes of this biography, as I'm sure they will shed more light onto the complex personality of Thomas Jefferson.
January 1, 2021
This is only the first volume, and admittedly, this is the part of Jefferson's life about which there's the fewest records (due to his early life and Benedict Arnold's destruction of papers when he invaded Richmond), but I still don't know that I have a feel for Jefferson's psyche. Perhaps that's a very modern desire when reading biography (and this book is from an older school style of history writing--is from the 1940s). On its own terms, it's a remarkable feat. The pace is interesting. Knowing he will take many volumes to tell this story, he is in no rush. It's a leisurely pace with some pleasant detours and asides now and then. He treats Jefferson as a man to respect and study as a specimen, and not so much a beloved icon to love, defend, and explain away. I like that. This is plain, spoken storytelling, going into the weeds in a way that does not grow old or stale. Still I wish I knew the man Jefferson just a BIT more.
April 1, 2024
As hagiography, this first volume in Dumas Malone's fabled work on Jefferson succeeds beautifully. His admittedly important and often great thoughts and deeds are described in full detail, with some exquisite research. Malone finds a way, however, to excuse -- at length -- the smallest possible imperfection in his idol (as well as the occasional biggies), and this constant approach to TJ's life gets a bit grating after a while. Nonetheless, it's good to see a pro-Jefferson side of the story (of many, many stories, actually) from someone who truly believed that this man was absolutely central to the creation of what has become good about our nation. A reasonable balance to the vast number of anti-TJ works of the past couple of decades.
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