Jefferson the Virginian - Volume I (Jefferson and His Time) [Paperback]

Dumas Malone (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jefferson and His Time | Publication Date: January 30, 1967

The first of five volumes in a full-length biography of Jefferson.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Malone is the giant on whose shoulders every subsequent scholar of Jefferson stands, and his work remains seminal in shaping our understanding of who Jefferson was. Both from a purely scholarly standpoint and outside the groves of academe, Malone's biography of Jefferson is simply a great read. There is a whole new generation of Jefferson lovers who will want to own this set.

(Joseph J. Ellis, National Book Award--winning author of American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson )

Prodigiously researched and felicitously written, Dumas Malone's multi-volume Jefferson and His Time is one of the great biographies of the 20th century.

(New Republic ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Dumas 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.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 484 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (January 30, 1967)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316544728
• ISBN-13: 978-0316544726
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 1.1 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #351,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #67 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( J ) > Jefferson, Thomas

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At the Threshold of Greatness, October 5, 2002

By 

Randall Ivey "Randall" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jefferson the Virginian (Jefferson and His Time, Vol. 1) (Hardcover)

Malone, once called "the greatest Jeffersonian of them all", originally conceived this biography in four volumes. By the time he published the last book in 1982, at age 89, it had grown to six volumes. It remains the standard life of Jefferson, an indelible and important portrait of a great man, flaws and all, by a great scholar.

JEFFERSON THE VIRGINIAN begins things with Jefferson's birth into a family of much distinction. His father Peter was a noted surveyor and a man of inordinate physical strength who nevertheless died fairly young (in his fifties). The book covers Jefferon's education at William and Mary (at a time when formal education was not a widespread thing, even among the gentry), his law practice, his beginning the construction of Monticello (which would preoccupy him right up until the time of his death), his terms in the Virginia House of Burgesses (one of which was served after his governorship), his writing of the Declaration of Independence (his initial version, a scathing indictment of King George, had to be toned down by his compatriots), and his controversial governorship (in which he sustained much of the blame for the British army's inroads into the Old Dominion state). It ends with his appointment as an American ambassador to France.

Obviously this is no primer on Jefferson. Malone spares no detail. His prose is fastidious, elegant, and easy to read, although you may find yourself putting the book down from time to time to absorb what you have just read. Overall, Jefferson emerges here as a man naturally scholarly and reclusive, content to build his home, pursue his studies, and tend to his family, who is pushed into action by the obligations of his caste and by his own fervent patriotism.

Malone has been criticised for writing a virtual hagiography of Jefferson, ignoring the "darker" aspects of the man's personality. In other words, unlike Fawn Brodie, Malone did not reduce his subject to some psychological cripple and sex deviate. The charges are balderdash. Malone DOES recognize Jefferson's flaws (e.g., his lack of a sense of humor and his sometimes indecision in taking action). He simply refuses to turn Jefferson into a whipping boy for his own ideological preoccupations.

This is as complete a contemporary biography as we will probably ever get of this great man.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Detailed account, October 30, 2003

By 

Cedar (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jefferson the Virginian (Jefferson and His Time, Vol. 1) (Hardcover)

VERY detailed account of Jefferson during the his life in Virginia. Although it had in depth description of the political structure, the people, and Jefferson's involvement in the politics of the United States and Virginia, it did not include a very detailed account of his personal life as is best depicted through letters. Surprisingly, despite Jefferson's extensive correspondence during the 41 years that the book covers, this correspondence was not used sufficiently to shed further light on Jefferson's personal life and intimate thoughts. Additionally, Dumas Malone did not focus enough on one of Thomas Jefferson's greatest contribution - the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the hallmarks of American scholarship, December 24, 2002

By 

M. A Newman (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jefferson the Virginian (Jefferson and His Time, Vol. 1) (Hardcover)

What can be said about this monument to Jefferson scholarship? I am sure that somewhere in universities around the United States there are "scholar squirrels who want to put down this invaluable resource in Jefferson studies. It is always the way that mice attempt to gnaw at lions. This is not a perfect work (and my remarks refer to all of the books in the series as a whole), there are somethings, namely Sally Hemmings references which are wrong and will not sit well with American 21st century mores. There is the issue of slavery which was handled much differently 50 years ago than it is now.
Jefferson is not worthy of our interest because of Sally Hemmings and because he kept slaves. Jefferson is great because of the Declaration of Independence and his fight for the rights of man. While it may have been hypocritical to preach liberty and keep slaves, it is doubtful that slavery ever would have been abolished if Jefferson had never gained the prominence that he did. This book and the others that follow show why we should continue to honor the public man even though his private side may have been wanting.