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.
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.
posted by Frobinso at 5:42 PM
1 Comments:
A good read. What I found most interesting is actually what isn't in this book.
Specifically, it is fascinating how elusive Washington is in the early part of his life. Even some of his war record in the French and Indian War is very obscure.
I'm no historian, and can't say exactly why this is. It seems to me that we have better record of other Founders that were even older than Washington, Benjamin Franklin for example. I think it points to the vast difference between city life (Franklin's Philadelphia) and the rural agrarian life (Washington's Virginia) in 18th century North America. One half of the country was fully participating in the re-ordering brought on by the Industrial Revolution, while the other half sort of stayed out of the way, participating only enough to provide base materials to feed the new industrial engine.
So even families like Washington's, a part of the powerful and elite Virginian upper crust, don't have much record for historians to comb over due to their ultra-rural existence, especially compared to their Northern counterparts.
I may be completely off-base here in citing this as a cause for the haziness of Washington's early life, but the disparity nevertheless is interesting.
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