His Excellency George Washington - Joseph J. Ellis

As was the work by McCullough, Joseph J. Ellis' text on this historical figure has won a spot on the 'keep-and-read-again-later' bookshelf.

However, in contrast to the work by McCullough, Ellis dives into the more elusive side of Washington - that side that was outside of the revolutionary war, as well as that side that was.

Ellis starts in Washington's early years as a British officer who is entrenched in the complex battles of the Western frontier of the colonies. He details his struggles, his blunders, his few successes, and his close attention to what worked and what didn't, and how those lessons learned applied throughout his life - even into the war with Britain. Ellis goes so far as to hint that much of what made Washington Washington can be traced back to his time in skirmishes with the native American tribes as well as the French.

Washington greatly became successful, as Ellis points out, by the misfortunes of others. In his rise to rank in the British military, his marriage, again in the colonial army, and again and again in his later-lived political career. This is an interesting point, which can be seen as a theme to the new nation's sheer luck in surviving at all. If it weren't for the slightest little happenings that could have been for none other reason than chance, Washington would have been a different historical figure, the nation could still be having tea in the afternoon and driving on the wrong side of the road, and we could all be saying "God Save the King." Ellis masterfully suggests this theme throughout his book without the slightest defamation of Washington's success.

And, no complete biography of the life of George Washington could leave out his political career, the precedents he set, the discipline he carried, his dislike of the political game, and how he was thrown into a world of backstabbing, broken promises, and empty rhetoric without even running for office. Ellis points out that not only was the political landscape as precarious as it is in today's world, he shows that it was most lively within even Washington's own cabinet. For example, the feud between Hamilton and Jefferson that was raging and what turned out to be the origin of the two-party system Washington was so careful to keep from being born.

From beginning to end, this book is typically Ellis-informational and cuts right to the heart of the issues that shaped the social and political thoughts of the time - and what they mean to us today - a la Gordon S. Wood. I'm on a roll here with the great books - go out and read His Excellency George Washington.

1776 - David McCullough

David McCullough's new historical masterpiece, 1776, leaves me in great want of a book called "1777." The book is well put-together and flows through Washington's experiences as the new general of a new nation's so-called army with expertise. McCullough isn't afraid to point out the immortal Washington's human blunders - and masterfully shows why those mortal mistakes kept a nation alive...and how they came so dearly close to allowing George III to crush the infant nation in its cradle.

This book is also great in that it doesn't read as a biased 'we beat them' story narrating the colonies' defeat over the British Empire. It goes to great lengths to show the thoughts of George III as well as his officers in the field making the decisions that nearly defeated Washington's army - it is a two-sided story from a viewpoint I've never read before.

As many biographies that have been written on Washington, the reader can easily see how elusive his character can be to the author/historian. As careful as the first "Mr. President" was to leave not a shadow of evidence he was anything less than what was his contemporary public opinion, McCullough is just as exacting and determined to make the reader miss that point. McCullough examines the situations of the battles of Boston, New York, and the surrounding forts, the accounts of Greene and other officers and even the enlisted militiamen in order to get to the heart of what made 1776 Washington's dullest and yet somehow most glorious year of the revolution.

1776, if it isn't obvious by the above text, earns a full five stars. McCullough does it again by authoring another must-read for any fan of U.S. history.