This review applies to the entire series, Jefferson and His Times.
Anyone who wants to understand a fraction of Jefferson, needs to start here. This work is the source that most academicians use. It is thorough and depends upon Jefferson's correspondence, editorials, reports, day books, conversations and memories. What more could you ever need? Heavily footnoted, this series puts to shame all other works on this great American. Some popular authors have written of Jefferson suggesting what he may have thought, or he may have done (Brody, anyone?) Malone is authoritative and needs not speculate. Read the series and then ask yourself, "Is it more likely than not that Jefferson fathered Sally Hemming's children?" I can only conclude that he did not. I remember when Clinton was president and, when incidents arose which questioned his fidelity, suddenly this old rumor became current. Someone interviewed the descendants of Hemmings and guess what? They all believed they were related to him! Isn't that peculiar? NO! What does a reasonable man expect them to say? Is it not more impressive to be part of a family that was sired by one of the greatest Americans or his philandering nephew, Peter Carr. All resurrected in the hope of distracting the American public from a current political scandal. ( )

1484 Jefferson the President: Second Term 1805-1809 Jefferson and His Time Volume Five, by Dumas Malone (read 23 Apr 1978) (Pulitzer History prize in 1975) This takes Jefferson to the end of his second term: Mar 3, 1809. This volume drug a little; also the author is too partial. When he criticizes he also excuses. Much of the volume dealt with Aaron Burr's trial--but never was what Burr did explained in detail. The Chesapeake affair and the embargo also took up a lot of space in the book. All in all, not the most interesting of the five volumes, but I'm glad I read the book. The sixth and final volume has not yet been published. [I read it Nov 26, 1981.] ( )