GEORGE WASHINGTON

An illuminating character study of our first Commander in Chief in peace and war.

Working his script for an upcoming Mount Vernon exhibition into a clear and coherent profile, Grove presents the major events of Washington’s career in ways that shed light on his evolving beliefs and values. “George,” as he is commonly dubbed throughout, comes off as a lifelong reader who combined book learning, travel, and reliance on experts to make himself not only a successful military and political leader but an innovative experimental farmer. His transformation from loyal British citizen to American patriot and his uncommon leadership qualities are well documented in historical records. Changes in his attitudes toward slavery are less well chronicled, and so along with offering unusually frank and detailed accounts here of the lives of enslaved people at Mount Vernon and elsewhere (as much as can be known), the author looks for hints of sincere abolitionism in his public and personal documents. Much as it may seem anachronistic, even inflammatory, to characterize Washington’s agricultural practices as “sustainable” and his criticism of Britain as “radical,” remarks about his presidential policy of selecting staff on the basis of ability, not social connection, and the warnings in his farewell address about the dangers of extreme partisan politics add a pointedly topical tone to later pages. The frequent illustrations offer a mix of period portraits and new ones identified as AI reconstructions.

Broad, searching, well researched, and occasionally provocative.