Jefferson and the rights of man

At the end of the day, while these biographies are the standard for dep th and getting into the weeds of Jefferson's life, they're not the easiest books to read. Malone's prose leaves a little to be desired by the modern reader. As far as mid-century historians go, it is a very approachable tone and way of writing, relatively speaking. But still, it is a straightforward narrative by a man that really loves Thomas Jefferson, and who is inclined to assume the best of him and defend him unless he absolutely cannot. However, it doesn't happen that often because he doesn't add interpretive flourishes into too much of this book. There's not much room for him to insert himself into the narrative because it really is a play-by-play of each passing day of Jefferson's early adult life, through to the end of his first term as Secretary of State. As for detail on Thomas Jefferson, this book has no rival. Malone is able to cogently hold together the strands of Jefferson's diplomatic work and the early controversies in our country. He's somehow able to contain so much detail and specificity and still feel like he's just telling you a story at his own pace. There's nothing rushed or forced into the narrative, he just takes as much time as it needs to say the things he wants to say.

And yet, once more, to the modern sentiment, the book comes up short. Once more, for what it is and when it was written, it is heads and shoulders above many, many other books of history from that time. But nowadays, we read these books not so much to get the facts and the story, but to get a feel for what it was like to be there at that time, or to get inside the psyche of these figures and to truly understand them as well as we can from this distance. And that is just so far from Malone's intent here. It is striking that one can know such minutia and details about one human beings existence and still not have a gras p on who they are as a human. On one hand, this does go to show you that the human being is far, far more than some of their parts. But on the other, we want to know that human being beyond the some of their parts.

I'm anticipating that this book occupies an awkward spot in the series. The first book traveled the earliest days of Jefferson's life, things that even the most educated lay person has never heard. It's a lot of new things about what formed and shaped Jefferson and what made him who he is. It paints a vivid picture of the earliest days of our country and what it was like to grow up there.

This book, however, covers his time in France and his early days of Secretary of State. Now, Jefferson himself ends his own autobiography at a similar point that this particular book ends. He has a well-known unfinished personal memo where he does not know if his existence has left a positive mark on the world so he writes a list of his accomplishments to see if they are worthy of having lived. And he writes that around the same point that this book ends.

Yes, he had written the declaration of Independence, but in the earliest formation of our country, that's kind of all he did, And even in that, he only wrote the first draft and then it was mangled by the rest of the convention, much to his own pain and regret. Outside of the declaration, Jefferson doesn't really do much during the time span of this book. Yes, compared to most human beings, by the time this book ends he has accomplished more significant things than most human beings ever do, but even he has no idea that there is so much more crazy stuff about to come in his life. But we do.

And so this book will inevitably be one of the relatively unexciting chapters of his life, save for a few spikes here and there. And so, as a book, it may be unfair to hold Malone to a modern standard of history and biography, and to try to infuse this segment of Jefferson's life with a bit more pizzazz. But still, I think this book will maybe be the least exciting and enjoyable of the series, even though it is by no means “bad”.