Viewed as a contribution to knowledge of the tremendous scope of Thomas Jefferson's genius, this may be considered as simply an expansion, a fortifying, of material available elsewhere. As an addition to Schuman's growing series, The Life of Science, it may well introduce to some, whose interests are concentrated in this field, a great American through aspects they had not hitherto considered. The text is extraordinarily full despite the immense amount of facts, fascinating in themselves, which have been brought together. Jefferson's general principles relating to the freedom of the scientific mind, the necessity for the teaching of more science in the schools are stressed; his cosmopolitan and international viewpoint in seeking for America the best that Europe offers, while in return, he determinedly opposes the sweeping strictures on America's climate, inadequacies of development of fauna, lack of genius in her citizens, and so . Even his detractors at home conceded his service to his country in these particulars, while building intense political antagonism on the score of his position as a ""philosopher-scientist"", his interest in the American Indian, his inventions, his concern over agriculture, his interest in natural history, and finally, his challenge to established tenets of religious belief. The book ends with a summary chapter of the extent of his recognition at home and abroad in old age.