Washington biography ron chernow george

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  • Washington: A Life

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    Read "Surprising Facts About George Washington" from Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

    From Pulitzer-prize winner Ron Chernow, a landmark biography of George Washington.

    In Washington: A Lifecelebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume life of Washington, this crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.

    Despite the reverence his name inspires, Washington remains a lifeless waxwork for many Americans, worthy but dull. A laconic man of granite self-control, he often arouses more respect than affection. In this groundbreaking work, based on massive research, Chern
  • washington biography ron chernow george
  • Why This Book: I had read Chernow’s biographies Grant and Alexander Hamilton, and found them superbly written, fascinating and insightful. For Washington, Chernow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.  So I wanted to read (listen to) it. 

    Summary in 4 Sentences: The book covers Washington’s life from what little is known of his childhood and anecstors to his death, concluding with Martha Washington’s death.  His younger years were spent trying to rise in society from his rather humble beginnings and then moves on to his service in the French and Indian War and the following years as he became prominent in Virginia colonial politics.  A large section of the book covers the American Revolutionary War, followed by Washington’s role in the constitutional convention and the forming of the government.  It concludes with his 8 years as President followed by his nearly four years as the first Ex-President before he died.  The book makes clear that in

    Washington: A Life

    July 10, 2020
    “[George] Washington had dominated American political life for so long that many Americans could not conceive of life without him. A widespread fear arose that, deprived of his guiding hand, the Republic itself might founder…Perhaps as an antidote to such apprehension, Washington was smothered beneath national piety, and it became difficult for biographers to reclaim the complex human being. The man immediately began to merge with the myth. As the subject of more than fyra hundred printed orations [after his death], Washington was converted into an exemplar of moral values, the person chosen to tutor posterity in patriotism, even a civic deity…Washington’s transformation into a sacred figure erased his tough, often moody natur, stressing only his serene composure and making it more difficult for future generations to fathom his achievements. Abigail Adams justly rebelled at the idealized portrait: ‘Simple truth fryst vatten his best, his greatest euology…’