Jefferson and His Time

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 vast resources, 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 highly controversial governorship; and his early services to the development of the West. This is no mere introduction to the third president of the United States. This is a detailed, elegantly written account of a brilliant political mind and his life in Virginia.

The second volume in this Pulitzer Prize-winning six-volume biography tells the story of the eventful middle years in the life of Thomas Jefferson: his ministry to France in the years just before the French Revolution and during the early stages of that conflict; his service as secretary of state in President George Washington's first cabinet; the crucial period of his first differences with Alexander Hamilton and the beginnings of his long struggle with the Federalists.

The third volume in Dumas Malone's distinguished, Pulitzer Prize—winning study of Thomas Jefferson and his time deals with one of the most fascinating and controversial periods of Jefferson's life. It includes the story of the final and most crucial phase of his secretary ship of state; his retirement to Monticello; his assumption of the leadership of the opposition party; and the crisis during the half-war with France, when the existence of political oppression was threatened and the freedom of individuals imperiled. Also covered is Jefferson's own election to the presidency in 1801. This six-volume biography has become the standard work on Jefferson's life.

The fourth volume in this Pulitzer Prize—winning work recounts Thomas Jefferson's eventful first presidential term. Though characterized by calmer seas than his second presidential voyage, Jefferson's first years in office find him confronting a nation deeply divided following the administrations of Washington and Adams. During this term he acquires the vast territory of Louisiana for the United States, challenges the growing power of the federal judiciary, continues to press his opposition to the Hamiltonian doctrine of an overriding central government, assumes the unchallenged leadership of his party, and is universally acknowledged as the preeminent American patron of science and general learning. This epic work of history and biography is a fascinating look at the life and times of one of American history's greatest men.

The fifth volume of the Pulitzer Prize—winning Jefferson series completes the story of his presidency, carrying him through his troubled second term but also to the end of an official career that spanned some forty years. Although Jefferson remained the major unifying factor in his party, the government, and the country, he was confronted by a succession of events that frustrated even his masterful statesmanship. Here is a vibrant account of Jefferson's disparate activities-sponsoring the Lewis and Clark Expedition, concluding the naval "war" with the Barbary pirates, engaging in a political duel with Chief Justice Marshall over the trial of Aaron Burr, attempting to impose an embargo on exports in reaction to the impression of American seamen by foreign powers, and, finally, retiring to his beloved haven at Monticello. Jefferson's withdrawal from office was only a prelude to the outstanding public service he was still to render as a private citizen. The productive last years of Jefferson's life are the subject of the final volume in this monumental biography.

The Sage of Monticello is the sixth and final volume of distinguished historian Dumas Malone's epic masterwork, Jefferson and His Time, a biography begun in 1943 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1975. More wide ranging than the preceding volumes, The Sage of Monticello brilliantly recounts the accomplishments, friendships, and family difficulties of Jefferson's last seventeen years-including his retirement from the presidency, his correspondence with John Adams and James Madison, his personal tribulations and debt, and his major role in the founding of the Library of Congress and the University of Virginia. Revealing Jefferson's shift from the realm of politics to his roles as family man, architect, and educational enthusiast, this is a fitting final chapter in the life of one of America's greatest men.