'His Excellency': The Human Washington

The New York Times ^ | November 7, 2004 | Forrest McDonald

[petitfour]

IN a historical profession that is scornful of what it calls dead white males, Joseph J. Ellis has emerged as an eloquent champion and brilliant practitioner of the old-fashioned art of biography. He concentrates mainly upon the founders of the American republic, and while those who have particular favorites among the founders may cavil at his interpretations, Ellis has a gift for getting inside the skins of his subjects and showing what made them tick.

Now he has taken on the greatest and most enigmatic founder. To describe George Washington as enigmatic may strike some as strange, for every young student knows about him (or did when students could be counted on to know anything). He was born into a minor family in Virginia's plantation gentry, worked as a surveyor in the West as a young man, was a hero of sorts during the French and Indian War, became an extremely wealthy planter (after marrying a rich widow), served as commander in chief of the Continental Army throughout the Revolutionary War (including the terrible winter at Valley Forge), defeated the British at the Battle of Yorktown, suppressed a threatened mutiny by his officers at Newburgh, N.Y., then astonished the world and won its applause by laying down his sword in 1783. Called out of retirement, he presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787, reluctantly accepted the presidency in 1789 and served for two terms, thus assuring the success of the American experiment in self-government.

[yankeedame]

George had inherited Mt. Vernon and was rather well off himself. It had belonged to his half-brother, who...died, then his widow, then their young daughter...

Of TB, which mowed down many,many people in that day and age. Another one was worms, which killed Thom. Jefferson's youngest daughter.

[Bonaparte]

It's not at all usual for them. However, McDonald is one of the giants. He's the man who de-throned Charles Beard and his economic theory of the constitution. Academically, it was a breath-taking feat for a fresh young PhD in 1957.

[Bonaparte]

It's not at all usual for them. However, McDonald is one of the giants. He's the man who de-throned Charles Beard and his economic theory of the constitution. Academically, it was a breath-taking feat for a fresh young PhD in 1957.

[maine-iac7]

Hmmm, wonder how much you could rely upon such a fabricator to stick to the truth here?

Also, amazing who they give the Pulitzer too - is is required you also be a cad? (I'm thinking Carter, Arafat, ...)

[petitfour]

Dr. McDonald has written numerous book reviews for the NYTimes. He is, as another poster has written, a giant among historians, though you would never know it if you met him. Very humble.