Dumas Malone (1892–1986)

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 show more 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. show less

A well-structured book, divided nearly in half by two important phases of Jefferson's career, first as Franklin's successor as ambassador to France, and then his service as the first secretary of state in the newly-constituted United States. It doesn't, though, cover his entire service in that office, and ends with a bit of a cliff-hanger. Jefferson intended to retire to Monticello at the close of Washington's first term of office, and had privately informed his friends and officially show more notified the country's envoys. This intention was put off a year, and in the coming months the nation was riven by partisan feelings over the course of the French Revolution. But this is only intimated as Malone closes this volume.
The Paris years are characterized as Jefferson's ripening as a respected political philosopher. Although in this posting he performed valuable service to the newly-independent nation, as well as gaining a grounding in diplomacy that made him the most logical choice to serve at the head of the State Department, it did force his absence from the constitutional convention. He took lively interest in the proceedings, recorded in his correspondence, particularly with Madison, but his contribution was limited by the length of time it took in those days to exchange letters. It interested me to see his keenly felt need for a bill of rights, as well as for term limits on the presidency, pointing to the danger of a leader wildly popular with half of the voters staying in office for life, establishing a democratically-elected dictatorship. He didn't succeed on the latter issue, a constitutional amendment to that effect didn't come until nearly two centuries later, but in the event, Washington at least set a potent precedent by retiring after two terms.
The last fifth or so of the book traces the rising antagonism between Hamilton and Jefferson. Malone is at pains to clear his protagonist of the worst of the charges hurled by the brilliant and ambitious secretary of the treasury, but does this in a reasoned way. As in the first volume of this set, the author has researched meticulously. The result is an appealing portrait. show less

I actually think that this volume was a lot more interesting than the last one, and I rarely ever found myself getting bored. This volume took a bit of a longer time to read than I desired, but that was mostly because of school and all of the tests it plaguing me with.

I'm nearly convinced that Dumas Malone used to lull himself to sleep every night thinking up of some sort of Jefferson scenario because the sheer amount of phrases like "Jefferson could not have failed to..." "Jefferson show more perhaps..." "Jefferson must have..." make it hard to believe otherwise. ALSO HE MENTIONS THAT JEFFERSON WAS "SENSITIVE" WAAAYYYYY TOO OFTEN.

Now, I actually don't really know much about Alexander Hamilton- so I can't really say anything about his portrayal here, but there was some interesting things written in the text that I certainly didn't know before. Unfortunately these things are somewhat marred with the knowledge that Malone's depiction of Hamilton is (almost always) unfailingly negative and most likely biased.

Contrarily, Malone seems to never cease with his onslaught of praise for Jefferson. Which is usually somewhat understandable (because nobody in their right mind would dedicate themselves to writing this much about a historical figure they don't like/care about) and I do find admittedly find it amusing for some odd reason- it can sometimes take me out of the narrative when he just suddenly starts eulogizing him.

OH AND AGAIN WITH THE UNSAVORY COMMENTS ABOUT NATIVE AMERICANS- IT'S SO UNNECESSARY! Dumas Malone also does this thing where he'll obviously throw shade at someone or something that he presumably doesn't like, so there's that as well.

All-in-all, the work itself is quite well structured, and I'm genuinely impressed with it as a whole. The author seems to be a man of considerable talent and skill. The citations in the book are again very helpful and rather invaluable, and I am certainly looking forward to reading the next installment of this series. show less

Never in my life have I read a work so incredibly engrossing yet dull at the very same time. Perhaps this is because I read a very good portion of this book during my classes at school instead of focusing on the teacher. The book itself is very meticulous and detailed, and I very much appreciated the citations that were made readily available throughout the book. This is my first time reading any sort of biography on Thomas Jefferson, but I'm just about sure that this is as good as it gets. show more The author has an obvious preference for Jefferson, however, I am of the opinion that it didn't really hinder the work all too much because it's usually pretty evident whenever Dumas Malone is fanboying and when he's just writing objectively.

I didn't appreciate the odd comments about Native Americans comparing them to the wilderness or savages or whatever language it was that was deployed. It was wholly unnecessary.

Overall, I believe that this work is best read when also being used as a footstep for further personal research, as personal research would allow one to have a better grasp on the events being covered. There are certainly enough sources listed in the text itself to aid the reader in getting started. Also, there is a lot about early America/Virginia to be learned in this volume, and it's pretty good for learning about a time in Jefferson's political career and or life that I presume is often glossed over in regular single volume biographies or in general discussions about him. show less