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Title: Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner ISBN: 0-316-28616-8 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 22 February, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (37 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Solid, Factual, One-Volume Biography
Comment: This biography of the U.S.'s father figure was very informative, and gives equal attention to the important points of Washington's life. Flexner did a good job of highlighting the key parts of Washington's career: his war-time service, and his activities as President. This book does pass fairly quickly through Washington's childhood and adolescence, which I wished to have learned more about, but it is a 1 volume summation, so that should be expected. The author was very fair and objective in this book. While he sees Washington as having been an average, if not below average, soldier, Flexner does show Washington to have excelled in other areas such as leadership and management which became very critical to his success as President. So for anyone looking for a reasonably quick cover of Washington's public career, with a shorter background of his private life, I definitely recommend this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Masterfully written, massively informative
Comment: George Washington: Born: February 22, 1732, Pope's Creek, near Fredericksburg, Westmoreland County, Virginia. Parents: Augustine and Mary Ball Washington. Education: private. Married: 1759, Mrs. Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), two stepchildren. Career: surveyor; farmer; soldier; member, Virginia House of Burgesses, 1759-1774; member, Continental Congress, 1774-75; commander-in-chief, Continental Army, 1775-1783; president, Constitutional Convention, 1787; first President of the United States of America, 1789-1797. Died: December 14, 1799, Mount Vernon, Virginia.
The above list of Washington's accomplishments leaves out a few things, but I am willing to bet it looks more impressive than most people's resumes. Even the other founding fathers cannot assemble a list of such august positions. Head of the Revolutionary War effort? Head of the Constitutional Convention? The first President of the United States of America? Good luck Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe, and Benjamin Franklin! Repeatedly, the man of the hour during the revolutionary period and the subsequent formation of the government was George Washington. I recently decided to read a biography of this fascinating figure, a man who most consider the father of the nation. Happily, and wisely, as it turned out, I picked non-academic historian James Thomas Flexner's biography of Washington, a one-volume distillation of an enormous four-volume treatment written during the 1960s and early 1970s. Entitled "Washington: The Indispensable Man," the author tackles the complexity of our nation's patriarch with infinitely readable prose stretched across fifty-two short chapters. The author himself notes that biographies of Washington "are as innumerable as the leaves in a forest," with many of them falling into three categories: "the historically sound, the goody-goody, and the debunking." Flexner's biography occasionally falls under all three of these rubrics.
Interest in Washington tends to center on his military career. A good portion of the book deals with his lengthy service in arms, from his association with the British in the French-Indian War, his work securing Virginia's frontier from marauding Indian bands, and his role as commander-in-chief of the American Army during the Revolutionary War. Washington saw a lot of action during these various campaigns, winning respect as a man who could ride into combat without getting hit with a bullet. More importantly, Flexner reveals that Washington the general was not a very effective tactician. He continually lost campaigns due to a lack of knowledge about then current strategies of warfare. His campaign with General Braddock ended in disaster, his attempts to stave off Indians more or less failed, and his victories in the colonial revolution often arose from a combination of unorthodox ideas, aid from the French, and a propensity to promote officers based on merit and not social status. The last point is one of the most important, according to Flexner, because it not only went against European ideas about promoting officers but also was an ability Washington applied to his presidency and other areas of his life. Washington ultimately spent more time bombarding the perennially broke Congress with requests for financial aid and trying to keep his soldiers in the army than he did duking it out with the British.
Most of Washington's life was spent oscillating between Mount Vernon and public service. He loved to spend his days working on his sprawling estate, buying land, developing a canal project on the Potomac River, and experimenting with crops and breeding mules. He designed the architectural style of Mount Vernon, entertained hundreds of guests, and refused to sell his slaves because he did not like the idea of splitting up black families. He was quite the ladies man, always enjoying the company of lovely young woman with whom he liked to flirt. As much as Washington enjoyed other people's company, he often sank into despondent moods where he worried about death and illness. The conclusion of the book, where Flexner describes the father of the country on his deathbed at his beloved Mount Vernon, is one of the most eloquent pieces of history I have ever read.
Public service often found Washington at the center of the great issues of the time. Flexner argues that Washington was a centrist, always attempting to draw divergent viewpoints together based on common ground. He did this in time of war, as head of the Constitutional Convention, and as president. The author defines Washington's presidency as a titanic battle between the Federalists led by Alexander Hamilton and Republicans headed up by Thomas Jefferson. Since both men sat on the first president's cabinet--Hamilton as Treasurer and Jefferson as Secretary of State--the old general often had to bring both sides together. The Hamiltonians supported relations with Britain, heavily regulated banking, and centralized government. Jeffersonians supported France, agriculture, and localized government. Battles were fought between the two sides throughout the Washington administration, but the nation's hero often managed to steer a moderate course between the two positions. Flexner masterfully steers the reader through the complexities of the early American government as well, deftly explaining the differences of opinion that divided Jefferson and Hamilton and how the country responded to these mutually exclusive philosophical spheres. Without Washington's strident centrism, implies the author, our nation could very well have veered off course into extremism before the country matured.
Flexner's book celebrates Washington but avoids turning into a panegyric. I felt surprised repeatedly that this treatment got me fired up about one of our nation's founders. My ancestors didn't even arrive here until the 1840s or 1850s, long after the founding fathers went to their graves, but perhaps that is part of America's magic. Newcomers willing to assimilate the ideals of this country soon feel they have a stake in its maintenance and identify with its foundation. Reading this book makes you feel a bit sad about the sorry state of affairs in the country today.
Rating: 5
Summary: An easy introduction to a great subject
Comment: Who was this man, George Washington? And how is it that he almost single handedly set the new America on the path to be the beacon of hope to the world (even if imperfectly)?
It seems quite certain that it was Washington who gave America its opportunity to be better than the rest. And he did so despite great temptation and enourmous provocations. Who was he?
In the history of the world, what victorious general has not forcibly taken political power and then looted the country? Napoleon, of course, was the contemporary example but the other examples are legion. And, following America's example, so many countries had revolutions for their freedom but virtually none remained true to their or any worthwhile ideals.
How did America do it? It seems that the answer is Washington. Uneducated, not particularly gifted, he intententionally devoted himself to the country's ideals and lived them, and set an example for the ages.
Certainly, he was surrounded by brilliant, exceptional people in an extraordinary time. But who can believe that either Jefferson or Hamilton, given the opportunity, would have put America on Washington's track? It seems quite fair to say that neither of them could have been expected to overcome their partisanship to give us all the gift bequeathed to us by Washington.
This book is an introduction; a distillation of a four-part scholarly work that none of us are likly to read. The chapters are short, making it easy to read on the run, and a number of details that even I know are omitted.
But Washington bears understanding and this book makes it possible to begin the process.
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Title: American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis ISBN: 0679764410 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 07 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: ALEXANDER HAMILTON, American by Richard Brookhiser ISBN: 0684863316 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 12 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Life of Andrew Jackson by Robert V. Remini ISBN: 0060937351 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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