Jefferson and the Rights of Man

Dumas Malone

The third volume in Malone's critically acclaimed comprehensive biography Jefferson and His Time, this is a scrupulous study distinguished by its insistence on recreating the full setting of events and circumstances and presenting things as Jefferson and his contemporaries knew and viewed them. Malone is concerned with vindicating any seeming disparity between Jefferson's political ideas and his actual conduct of the Presidency. Though subject to certain human failings like self-deception, Malone's Jefferson is a highly admirable mixture of idealism, realism, and reasonableness; his political choices were ""clearly adapted to the country's needs."" Buoyed by ""his extraordinary ability to hold diverse and even contradictory things in equilibrium,"" Jefferson ran a well-balanced government, displaying more composure than he had as an opposition critic. With less about the person but plentiful detail about the President and national policy, an able addition to an impressive work.