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George Washington: The Political Rise of America’s Founding Father
Top of the pile
82
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
90/100Critics
75/100Scholars
Author:
David O. Stewart
Publisher:
Dutton
Date:
February 9, 2021
In this remarkable new portrait, award-winning historian David O. Stewart unveils the political education that made Washington a master politician--and America's most essential leader. From Virginia's House of Burgesses, where Washington learned the craft and timing of a practicing politician, to his management of local government as a justice of the Fairfax County Court to his eventual role in the Second Continental Congress and his grueling generalship in the American Revolution, Washington perfected the art of governing and service, earned trust, and built bridges. The lessons in leadership he absorbed along the way would be invaluable during the early years of the republic as he fought to unify the new nation.
What The Reviewers Say
I was prepared to dislike the book. What I suspected was that Mr. Stewart would present Washington as a canny careerist who failed upward—that is, who escaped accountability for his mistakes and rose to the top of Revolution-era political life by means of charm and guile. Again I was wrong. The book is nothing like that. Mr. Stewart has written an outstanding biography that both avoids hagiography and acknowledges the greatness of Washington’s character, all while paying close attention to his rarely voiced but no less fierce political ambitions. He does not flinch from the cruelty of American slavery and Washington’s part in it, but situates him in the time and place of his origins rather than in ours. Mr. Stewart’s writing is clear, often superlative, his judgments are nuanced, and the whole has a narrative drive such a life deserves..
In a masterfully drawn chapter, 'Biting the Hand,' Stewart details the drama (and theatrics) of that critical relationship [between Washington and his patron Gov. Robert Dinwiddie]. His extensive coverage of Washington’s early professional experience is fitting, given the many documented lessons amassed from colonial-era relationships.
... examines in detail and with excellent analysis how Washington developed the political skills that would serve him during both war and peace.
For some, Washington’s slaveholding disqualifies him from admiration. Stewart obviously doesn’t share that view, but neither does he let his subject off easy.
