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. ( )