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Title: General Washington's Christmas Farewell: A Mount Vernon Homecoming, 1783 by Stanley Weintraub ISBN: 0-7432-4654-3 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 10 November, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Okay, but I ain't staying up late to finish it.
Comment: When the American Revolutionary war ended in November 1783, George Washington made up his mind that he was going to make it home to Mount Vernon by Christmas. But first he had to accept the transfer of power from the British, say his farewells to his troops, and resign his commission to Congress; only then could he begin his homeward journal. Washington barely made it home by Christmas, arriving on Christmas Eve.
This is a good story and well-written, but I can't imagine why it is given so many 5-star ratings. Some books are good because of action and some because of a build-up to an action-kind of like the calm before the storm. This story, on the other hand, is like the calm after the storm. There is no build up to anything really; everything exciting has already happened. Yes, it is good history, and somewhat of a touching story, but it isn't a 5-star book by any means.
It is a good book, and I am glad I read it; but after reading such glowing recommendations, I was somewhat disappointed. To those who already know a good deal about George Washington, there will probably not be anything presented in this book that they do not already know. To those that know little of George Washington, this book will offer some information they probably didn't' know.
But this is not a ground-shaking book. It is a well-written story about George Washington's desire to get home before Christmas. It is a story of a time of sorrowful farewells. And it is a story of a great man who could have been a king but walked away from it.
But don't go out and buy "General Washington's Christmas Farewell" thinking it is a book you will stay up at night reading because you can't put it down. It just isn't one of those books.
I would say that this book is better written than average, but the subject is less interesting than average, and it seems as if the author included some material just to increase the length of the book, so overall it equals out to a middle-of-the-road rating of 2-stars. I would have given it a 2-1/2 if I could, but I can't justify a three. Really, this isn't a book I recommend to someone to get them interested in history or George Washington. I would borrow this book from a library, not buy it.
I must learn to beware of those who write book reviews because they are paid by the publishing company to do so. It tends to distort the opinion, you know!
Rating: 5
Summary: Washington Astonishes the World
Comment: Eight years of warfare finally over, in 1783, George Washington wanted to go home for Christmas. It seems the most unsurprising of desires. Washington's army had defeated that of the British Empire, and the thirteen American colonies which had declared themselves independent in 1776 had fought to make the independence real rather than merely declared. Washington saw his job as complete, and he wanted nothing more than to resign his commission and become again a Virginia gentleman farmer. The very idea was inconceivable to many. To give up all power, to become a mere citizen when he could quite easily have become king, was simply not the way the game of power was played. We are accustomed to veneration of the Father of Our Country, so Washington's service and humility might not seem so remarkable to us. But in _General Washington's Christmas Farewell: A Mount Vernon Homecoming, 1783_ (Free Press), Stanley Weintraub has, if not made us surprised at Washington's desire for retirement, then made us feel the wonder that Washington's contemporaries felt about it, and has invited us to admire a particularly likable aspect of Washington the man.
Weintraub's small, concentrated book follows Washington as he proceeds south into New York City, to Annapolis, Maryland, where Congress was in session and could accept his resignation, and finally to his home. Everywhere he went, citizens who already knew him as Father of His Country were eager to see him. He would leave one village to go to the next, only to find that riders had preceded him to alert the next village to prepare for celebration. There were fireworks and dancing; Washington was an enthusiastic dancer and the ladies eagerly sought their turn with him. Many citizens wrote their compliments to him, and he had an aide to write replies. There was longwinded oratory. There were bad commemorative verses. Manliness at the time did not include an aversion to tears, and many manly tears were shed; an observer of the final farewell wrote, "And many testified their affectionate attachment to our illustrious Hero and their gratitude for his Services to his country by a most copious shedding of tears." Barrels of ale and wine were drunk, as in each gathering thirteen toasts (for the thirteen colonies) were dutifully and gleefully swallowed down.
The world was astonished at Washington's self-removal from the national stage. When King George III was told in 1783 that Washington declined further power and wanted only to return to his farm, he declared, "If Washington does that, he will be the greatest man in the world." Washington would have been astonished that we have developed a governmental system where people are politicians as a lifetime occupation and profit handsomely thereby. He clearly believed in his life outside of public service, and in his privacy. His modesty is evident in that we know almost nothing of his 1783 Christmas itself. He did successfully return on Christmas Eve, but his "family Christmas remained private and almost entirely unrecorded." It was his business, and his family's, and he had gloriously, successfully, and merely temporarily, become a private man again.
Rating: 5
Summary: It takes chaos to create something new
Comment: Let's start on a personal note: I was in Cuba in January 1959, when the brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista fled in the middle of the night and Fidel Castro began making his way across the country to Havana.
The Cuban celebrations of the collapse of tyranny and terror were much like the events described in this book, a continuing rum-fueled celebration that lasted days and days in a nation at last free after years of terror. Castro made a triumphal procession across the country as a godlike liberator, just as Washington was hailed as the greatest man of his times. It is nice to celebrate the end of a war -- think of George Bush strutting across the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, wearing a borrowed flight suit with the banner 'Mission Accomplished' in the background. But, freedom is much more; it generates an ecstasy that stirs every emotion the heart, not merely the limited glory of victory, but also an unbounded hope for a better and brighter future without fear, fright or futility.
Washington, with a knowledge and wisdom rare among revolutionary leaders, went back to his farm. The ultimate tribute came from King George III, who personally knew something about the temptations and dangers of power, when he said that if Washington actually did return to his farm "he will be the greatest man in the world."
Think of Cuba today had Castro retired to a little rancho and learned how to cut cane instead of crushing gusanos. In Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide should have gone back to the priesthood after he tossed out the Duvalier regime. The list of "liberators" who seize power and try to impose their own rules is almost universal; Washington patterned his retirement after the Roman hero Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus "who, victorious, left the tented field, covered with honor, and withdrew from public life, to enjoy civium cum dignitate."
Unlike Cincinnatus, who was twice recalled from his farm to become dictator, Washington was recalled from his farm only to establish an enduring legacy of democracy. It is a rare quality. Weintraub describes those perilous times with painful detail.
Painful? It was a time of chaos in America, much to the satisfaction of the English who thought the independent colonies would collapse of internal confusion. Congress was even flakier then than now. A third of Americans were loyalists who had supported King George; Washington understood the power of reconciliation rather than the retribution of describing anyone who had not supported him as an enemy.
In 1783, Washington kept urging greater power for the central government. He could have become dictator and imposed his own regal solution; instead, he stepped back and let the people and Congress, however slow in their many imperfections, gradually work out the system that now exists. Everyone was slow to listen, waiting until 1787 to even begin writing a new Constitution. But, after trying all other solutions, they finally listened to Washington. The old boy may have had wooden (or ivory) teeth, but there was no wood between his ears.
Weintraub has written a masterful book outlining the chaos, confusion and cupidity of the time; explaining how from the primordial soup of American independence a resolute democracy emerged. This book helps explain the resolute independence of the American spirit, nicely summed up by a departing British officer, "These Americans are a curious, original people; they know how to govern themselves, but nobody else can govern them."
It was a wonderful tribute to an exceptional people, and this book nicely explains the mood of the times.
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Title: Washington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History) by David Hackett Fischer ISBN: 0195170342 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce by Stanley Weintraub ISBN: 0452283671 Publisher: Plume Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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