Thomas Jefferson and His Time, Volume 1

The Virginian

By: Dumas Malone

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize Winner, History, 1975

This is the first volume of distinguished historian Dumas Malone's Pulitzer Prize-winning six-volume work on the life and times of Thomas Jefferson. Based on a myriad of sources, it covers Jefferson's ancestry, youth, education, and legal career; his marriage and the building of Monticello; the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the Notes on Virginia; his rich, fruitful legislative career; his highly controversial governorship; and his early services to the development of the West.

Founding father: listen to the rest of the titles in the Thomas Jefferson and His Time series:

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

©1948 Dumas Malone (P)1998 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"This is going to be the Jefferson...it will endure as one of the imperishable monuments of biography - and take note that I don't say 'American biography', I say biography period." (Gerald W. Johnson)

detailed picture of Jefferson's early life

The book is somewhat dry and scholarly with lots of detail. One must keep in mind that
Malone wrote in the 1940's so the book is written through the eyes of a white male before both the civil rights movement and women's liberation. Malone clearly loves Jefferson and seeks to justify what others may have seen as faults. So this is not an unbiased telling of history. However, there is a lot of information both about Jefferson and about the world he lived in.

great book

Malone really can write. Although this is a pretty old biography, it is meticulously researched and extremely well written. I long for scholarly works that are as much literature as they are information.

Distracting narrator

It is unfortunate that this fine series was narrated by Anna Fields. Although she has a pleasant enough voice, it is spoiled for me by the drop that so often occurs at the end of her sentences. The drop is severe enough as to make the words frequently unintelligible. I will not be downloading or listening to the rest of this series because she is the narrator in all of them. Too bad!

Powerful story, dull listen

The title is exactly what I felt - this story is important and I believe everyone should listen to it; however, it rambles on about so many things I imagine the average reader may not want to hear, that I forewarn, it can be boring at times.

mediocre conversation from cassette or CD.

The narrator is monotone. several times you get the prompts you would if you were using a cassette or CD. the story is made uninteresting with the monotone voice.

Far too biased

I would agree with some of the other reviewers that Malone is so biased as to make this a hagiography rather than a biography. He gives Jefferson far too much credit in many areas and completely glosses over any difficulties, imperfections, or hypocrisies. Perhaps Malone was writing in a different time or was so captured by studyng Jefferson for 40 years that he could not be at all objective. The recent writings by McCullough, Chernow, Ellis, etc give far more balanced views of their subjects. It has been difficult to tune out the over the top worshipful tone in part 1 - I am not sure I can make it through 5 more.

too long

I definately will not be buying any of the subsequent volumes...the reading is tedious at best. The one thing that was lacking in this volume is EDITING. Another problem is too much editorialized opinion. Surprising lack of quality from a college professor.

Listen to the sample first!

I purchased all the volumes of Thomas Jefferson and His Time after listening to the EXCELLENT John Adams by David McCullough and His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis. I noted Mr. Dumas' book won a Pulitzer Prize, and eagerly looked forward to listening to another great presidential biography.

I have no doubt that Mr. Malone is THE Thomas Jefferson expert, but his style is so scholarly and dry. His book is cram full of his opinions about Mr. Jefferson's statements and actions. For someone who knows all about Thomas Jefferson ALREADY, Mr. Dumas' opinions would be meaningful (and I'm sure insightful). But they meant little to me because I wanted to hear Mr. Jefferson's biography. So I did not understand many of Mr. Malone's references. It was like coming in on a conversation where you know nothing about what the people are talking about. I strongly urge you to listen to a sample before purchasing this audio book. Ms. Anna Fields has a beautiful, melodic voice -- but her tone of voice comes across as someone reading to kindergarteners. I felt she had an almost arrogant or sarcastic tone of voice. I am an avid Audible fan, and will tolerate almost any writing style, narrator voice or dry content. But after trying to listen to this book for 2 months, I am completely giving up. I wish I had purchased only one volume before investing in all the rest!

Biased view of Jefferson

I was very disappointed in the book Thomas Jefferson and His Time, Volume 1 by Dumas. I have listened to many audio books and many historical books and I rate this one low. Dumas has a biased view of Jefferson and the history he covers. He continually overlooks or passes over controversy in Jefferson’s career and fails to analyze this man and his actions in a critical light. Instead, we see almost a god like Jefferson who can do no wrong. He credits him with influence in legislature and documents that in context appears his peers didn’t credit him with, and essentially views the history through the vision of modern day awe. Another criticism is Dumas failure to quote from many of the documents in length to give a broader view of Jefferson’s style, and instead talks of the mood he must have been in when he wrote the document or letter. Overall, this book was a non-objective, biased view of Jefferson and the history of the era. The book was difficult to finish.