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The 10 Best Books on President George Washington

Essential books on george washington.

There are countless books on George Washington, and it comes with good reason, beyond serving as America’s first President (1789-1797), he was commander in chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

“There is nothing which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of science and literature,” he believed. “Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”

In order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of history’s most consequential figures to the heights of societal contribution, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best books on George Washington.

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

Celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation and the first president of the United States. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume biography of George Washington, this crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his adventurous early years, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America’s first president.

Washington’s Revolution: The Making of America’s First Leader by Robert Middlekauff

Focusing on Washington’s early years, Bancroft Prize winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Robert Middlekauff penetrates his mystique, revealing his all-too-human fears, values, and passions. Rich in psychological detail regarding Washington’s temperament, idiosyncrasies, and experiences, this book shows a self-conscious Washington who grew in confidence and experience as a young soldier, businessman, and Virginia gentleman, and who was transformed into a patriot by the revolutionary ferment of the 1760s and ’70s.

Middlekauff makes clear that Washington was at the heart of not just the revolution’s course and outcome but also the success of the nation it produced. This vivid, insightful new account of the formative years that shaped a callow George Washington into an extraordinary leader is an indispensable book for truly understanding one of America’s great figures.

The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789 by Edward Larson

After leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, George Washington shocked the world: he retired. In December 1783, General Washington, the most powerful man in the country, stepped down as Commander in Chief and returned to private life at Mount Vernon. Yet as Washington contentedly grew his estate, the fledgling American experiment floundered. Under the Articles of Confederation, the weak central government was unable to raise revenue to pay its debts or reach a consensus on national policy.

The states bickered and grew apart. When a Constitutional Convention was established to address these problems, its chances of success were slim. Jefferson, Madison, and the other Founding Fathers realized that only one man could unite the fractious states: George Washington. Reluctant, but duty-bound, Washington rode to Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to preside over the Convention.

Although Washington is often overlooked in most accounts of the period, this masterful new history from Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward J. Larson brilliantly uncovers Washington’s vital role in shaping the Convention – and shows how it was only with Washington’s support and his willingness to serve as President that the states were brought together and ratified the Constitution, thereby saving the country.

His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis

To this landmark biography of our first president, Joseph J. Ellis brings the exacting scholarship, shrewd analysis, and lyric prose that have made him one of the premier historians of the Revolutionary era. Training his lens on a figure who sometimes seems as remote as his effigy on Mount Rushmore, Ellis assesses George Washington as a military and political leader and a man whose “statue-like solidity” concealed volcanic energies and emotions.

Here is the impetuous young officer whose miraculous survival in combat half-convinced him that he could not be killed. Here is the free-spending landowner whose debts to English merchants instilled him with a prickly resentment of imperial power. We see the general who lost more battles than he won and the reluctant president who tried to float above the partisan feuding of his cabinet.

Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer

Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia.

Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington and many other Americans refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor’easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days.

The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis’s best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington’s men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined.

This gem among books on George Washington reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides.

Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Flexner

After more than two decades, this dramatic and concise single-volume distillation of James Thomas Flexner’s definitive four-volume biography of George Washington, which received a Pulitzer Prize citation and a National Book Award for the fourth volume, has itself become an American classic.

The author unflinchingly paints a portrait of Washington: slave owner, brave leader, man of passion, reluctant politician, and fierce general. His complex character and career are neither glorified nor vilified here; rather, Flexner sets up a brilliant counterpoint between Washington’s public and private lives and gives us a challenging look at the man who has become as much a national symbol as the American flag.

An Imperfect God by Henry Wiencek

When George Washington wrote his will, he made the startling decision to set his slaves free; earlier he had said that holding slaves was his “only unavoidable subject of regret.” In this groundbreaking work, Henry Wiencek explores the founding father’s engagement with slavery at every stage of his life – as a Virginia planter, soldier, politician, president and statesman.

Washington was born and raised among blacks and mixed-race people; he and his wife had blood ties to the slave community. Yet as a young man he bought and sold slaves without scruple, even raffled off children to collect debts (an incident ignored by earlier biographers). Then, on the Revolutionary battlefields where he commanded both black and white troops, Washington’s attitudes began to change. He and the other framers enshrined slavery in the Constitution, but, Wiencek shows, even before he became president Washington had begun to see the system’s evil.

Wiencek’s revelatory narrative, based on a meticulous examination of private papers, court records, and the voluminous Washington archives, documents for the first time the moral transformation culminating in Washington’s determination to emancipate his slaves. He acted too late to keep the new republic from perpetuating slavery, but his repentance was genuine.

George Washington’s heroic stature as Father of Our Country is not diminished in this superb, nuanced portrait: now we see Washington in full as a man of his time and ahead of his time.

George Washington: A Biography by Washington Irving

Washington Irving’s Life of George Washington (published in five volumes in 1856-59) was the product of his last years and remains his most personal work. Christened with the name of the great general, Irving was blessed by Washington while still a boy of seven, and later came to know many of the prominent figures of the Revolution. In these pages he describes them using firsthand source material and observation. The result is a book which is fascinating not only for its subject (the American Revolution), but also for how it reveals in illuminating detail the personality and humanity of a now remote, towering icon.

But one cannot read Irving’s Life without marveling at the supreme art behind it, for his biography is foremost a work of literature. Charles Neider’s abridgment and editing of Irving’s long out-of-print classic has created a literary work comparable in importance and elegance to the original. George Washington, A Biography , Neider’s title for his edition of Irving’s Life , makes the work accessible to modern audiences.

Founding Friendship by Stuart Eric Leibiger

Although the friendship between George Washington and James Madison was eclipsed in the early 1790s by the alliances of Madison with Jefferson and Washington with Hamilton, their collaboration remains central to the constitutional revolution that launched the American experiment in republican government. Washington relied heavily on Madison’s advice, pen, and legislative skill, while Madison found Washington’s prestige indispensable for achieving his goals for the new nation.

Observing these two founding fathers in light of their special relationship, this gem among books on George Washington argues against a series of misconceptions about the men. Madison emerges as neither a strong nationalist of the Hamiltonian variety nor a political consolidationist; he did not retreat from nationalism to states’ rights in the 1790s, as other historians have charged. Washington, far from being a majestic figurehead, exhibits a strong constitutional vision and firm control of his administration.

1776 by David McCullough

In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence – when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.

Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King’s men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known.

If you enjoyed this guide to books on George Washington, be sure to check out our list of The 10 Best Books on President John Adams !

A New Book About George Washington Breaks All the Rules on How to Write About George Washington

Alexis Coe’s cheeky biography of the first president pulls no punches

History Correspondent

No one would describe Alexis Coe’s unconventional biography of conventional biographical subject George Washington as boring. Starting with its cover illustration, a playful Washington grinning at the reader, You Never Forget Your First is a wink of sorts, at Washington biography and at the ways that Americans have very consistently misremembered the first president. Coe sets herself apart from the historians she refers to as the “Thigh Men” of history: biographers like Joseph Ellis, Harlow Giles Unger, and Ron Chernow, esteemed writers in their own rights but ones who seemingly focus on Washington as a marble Adonis (with impressive thighs—we’ll get to that), rather than as a flawed, but still impressive, human being.

Coe mixes up genre and presentation, beginning with a preface composed of listicles, with the first a set of basic things to know about Washington (“jobs held”). And the book is compact. While “weighty tome” is the typical format for founder’s biographies, this one comes in at just 304 lively pages. (Chernow’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Washington was an astounding 904 pages.) But Coe’s offering is still a full biography, covering birth to death and the highlights of his life and career between. And, because it’s a biography, George Washington remains at the center. For Smithsonian magazine, I sat down to talk at length about Washington, Washington biographies, and where You Never Forget Your First resides in the founder’s canon. The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

You describe that when you told people you were writing a biography of George Washington, they would assume you’re writing about his social life and you would respond, “No, it’s a biography , like a man would write.” And I’ve seen elsewhere you’ve referred to this as a feminist biography. Is it? Or is this what it looks like when a feminist writes biography?

That happened all the time; in the doctor’s office, at Mount Vernon when I went to research. And I actually borrowed that phrase, I realized later, from my first book [about a murder case involving young, female lovers]. When newspapers would try to describe same-sex love and they were at a loss for a word to identify it because lesbian was still 40 years into the future, they would simply say, “You know, like a man would do.”

And so I know that when all else failed, and people seemed to be grasping at the concept, I remind them that women are fully formed humans who are interested in the presidency as much as they are interested in his marriage.

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington

New York Times bestselling co-author of Notorious RBG Alexis Coe takes a closer look at our first--and finds he is not quite the man we remember

The book really just jumps up and asks you to pay attention; it’s not a book that you ease into. The preface presents a series of charts, like of the jobs Washington had, or the animals he raised, or the false information that still circulates about him. Other chapters begin with similar infographics. What was your approach to these?

If history is boring, it’s the historian’s fault. Obviously, the title is so provocative; it can get them to pick up the book, but how can I make them feel like they are well equipped to dive into George Washington’s life, the Revolutionary Era, to understand how someone fights for the British Army and ends up leading a rebellion against them? To understand Jefferson, Hamilton, the presidency?

I make these lists for myself [when researching], and it’s sort of like being [with me] in the archives. I wish readers could see everything, and they don’t get to. This is an offering from me to the reader, telling them, “You know how to read this book. You have everything you need to feel as though you’re an expert,”

And so there’s a ton of front matter, as I call it, that really introduces you to Washington as a whole person. We know that he’s the general, but we also have to acknowledge that another title he held was master. We should know that he was very into animals. We should know this his body was amazing not because he had great thighs, but because he survived so many things. There’s front matter in the beginning of the book and then there’s front matter in front of each section and then there are charts and graphs throughout the chapters.

I want this book to be a sort of equalizer and to be fun. History is fun, even when it’s difficult subject matter.

I was interested in your saying that people ask you, “Didn’t you approach Washington with reverence?” And you just didn’t have this reverent posture that previous biographers did. You just thought, “He’s a guy.”

I sometimes think that when Ellis and Chernow and all of these famous Pulitzer-Prize-winning historians were writing a book on Washington, they had to take an oath. Like, “I will write book in the exact same way. I will declare him too marble to be real, and then I will proceed just as the person before me did.”

The reverence jumps off the page. They’re so protective of him and are so impressed by him and his masculinity. I take [his masculinity] as a foregone conclusion. The diseases he survived taught me that, [as did] the war and the way that he was regarded by other people. I just don’t see why historians need to talk about it for pages and pages.

I don’t feel a need to protect Washington; he doesn’t need me to come to his defense, and I don’t think he needed his past biographers to, either, but they’re so worried about him. I’m not worried about him. He’s everywhere. He’s just fine. President Trump went to Mount Vernon and said, “Unless you put your name on things, nobody remembers you.” His name is everywhere. His name is on the city that Trump works in.

Instead of calling me irreverent, we should question why these men are so reverent and why we trust them to tell stories because that is, to me, a disconcerting bias. And a blind spot. My god, did they miss things. And they just repeat each other. In this pursuit of idolatry, they completely miss things and they have zero curiosity outside of what has been covered. They’re not interested in women. There’s just not variety, really until you look at Erica Dunbar and Never Caught . [Dunbar’s 2017 history, a National Book Award finalist, focuses on Ona Judge, an enslaved woman who ran for freedom and was pursued by George and Martha Washingto.] They’re not interested in considering other perspectives. I honestly didn’t know why certain people write books about him except to just have another book, to sort of write a book about Washington as if it was a check mark.

Do you think that this is a problem with biographies as a genre? After all, it was a genre designed to be about exemplary men!

I have a lot of issues with presidential biographies. This is not a problem particular to Washington, but it is acute when it comes to Washington biographies. If you read a biography on John Adams, they’re going to have a little bit of fun with it. They’re going to have fun with how verbose he is, his relationship with Abigail, his children. Everything is a little bit more comfortable.

What are Washington’s biographers missing, then?

Washington biographies need to be very different, going forward. And I hope that that is a contribution that I’ve made, that it is the start of change. It’s really important that, in a biography about Washington, we talk about what we know as historians, that we’re really honest, intellectually honest about what we saw in the archive. And that includes putting in anecdotes about Washington slapping an enslaved man because he could not lift a log on his own. Past biographers, and particularly Chernow, cannot deny that he was a slaveholder. They cannot deny that he would say he didn’t want to separate families, but sometimes did. Washington would say that his thoughts about slavery were changing, but he would talk about enslaved people in ways that showed that they were not.

Something that these biographers talk about is that Washington had very high expectations of other people, but if you just say that, I don’t know what that means. Does that mean that I expect you to be on time? Expecting someone to meet your needs, saying that generally—okay, I’d understand that quality. Imagining Washington assaulting someone he owns because he couldn’t lift a giant log on his own, that paints a very different picture and we need that there alongside all the other things that enable him to lead and win the Revolution and become the first president.

I loved the way you talked about Chernow and these other guys and their emphasis on Washington’s manly thighs.

To tell you the truth, I really never noticed Washington’s thighs in portraits, but [male biographers] wouldn’t stop talking about them. I’d never read a biography on a woman where they talked about her legs constantly. I’d never thought about a woman ... I’m thinking about someone like Sylvia Plath. I’d never looked at a photo of her and thought about her legs.

And the way that they would describe them, “He gripped the saddle with his thunderous thighs.” It was a little inappropriate, sometimes read like a romance novel. And I couldn’t really figure out why. Did they just really love his thighs? Were there a lack of great thighs in early America?

I Googled a portrait of Hamilton’s, just to see how they compared. They were also very nice, but ... why this fixation on [this part of] Washington’s masculinity. Then I would think about the things around sexuality and around reproduction that they also focused on. And together, what it told me was that they were very nervous about something. An example is, well, Washington had no biological children,but [the Thigh Men] don’t immediately say that he was the father to 15 wards during his lifetime.

He wrote them all very long letters. He was full of advice, so much advice. He was a really active father. He considered Martha’s children and grandchildren, he raised them, Washington considered them his own. So why don’t we?

And then [the Thigh Men] feel the need to explain [his lack of biological children], when it seems really obvious to me that Washington was unable to have children as a result of smallpox. And instead of just accepting that, they have to talk about his masculinity. They have to talk about how the reason that they didn’t have children was probably Martha’s fault, even though she had children so we know that she could, and there’s absolutely nothing to suggest that they were difficult childbirths. And yet, they introduce that as if it’s an option, so it’s misleading to the reader.

And from there, they really go off the rails. They start talking about how he was ... God forbid, anyone should suspect that he was gay or asexual or impotent. They jump ahead of you ten steps and start telling you why he isn’t, before you’ve even thought it because, honest, I wouldn’t have. I wouldn’t care enough, but they’re really nervous about this.

This defensiveness of Washington and of his masculinity is so conspicuous that I needed to point it out. And when you’re defending something, it also means you’re attacking something. So, they tend to defend men and attack women. And they attack his mother, and they really don’t want to attack Martha because she is a perfect foil to his mother, but when they have to, they’ll go after her ability to bear children, even though, again, she demonstrated that she could perfectly well.

I wanted to ask about race and slavery, too. You have these powerful moments in the book where you talk about Billy Lee, an enslaved man who was quite an important character in the life and exploits of Washington. But Billy Lee kinds of stands in for Washington’s attitude towards enslaved people in significant ways. What role do race and racism plays in the book?

Billy Lee is Washington’s best friend, his right-hand man. And it’s true, he was the exception in Washington’s mind, but to introduce him into the narrative whenever you need to make sure that people know that he could see black people as humans is a disservice to the entire production. There is a misconception that Billy Lee had always been owned, for example, by Washington because of the way that they talk about him.

[Other historians] also often say that Billy Lee was sold to Washington, which I hate. No, Washington went and bought [Billy Lee]. He was looking for slaves to purchase and that’s what he did. It’s a funny way of sort of shifting responsibility just a little bit to make them feel better.

Billy Lee served Washington during the Revolution and was injured in Washington’s service. He injured his knees twice, once during a fox hunt, once during the Revolution. And as a result, he couldn’t keep up. And when he couldn’t keep up, Washington retired him. But upon his death, Billy Lee was the only enslaved person who Washington liberated.

I know you know this, but the reason I review it is because we’re talking about one man out of hundreds of people he enslaved, and yet all I see throughout the narratives is Billy Lee. So if we’re going to talk about how exceptional Washington thought Billy Lee was, then we also have to talk about all the times he wrote that black people just didn’t work hard, that they didn’t seem to have much pride in their appearance when, in fact, he wasn’t giving them enough clothing sometimes to shield their bodies. Women were observed as being in tattered clothing. Their breasts were sometimes visible.

If we’re going to talk about Billy Lee, then we’re going to talk about the other people, too. And we’re going to say how he only saw someone who was dark skinned as human, as human as he was, when they literally almost killed themselves in service to him.

There’s a lot of magical thinking when it comes to Washington’s road to emancipating his slaves upon Martha’s death. The declaration that’s usually made is that Washington began to think differently during the Revolution, which I challenge. It’s not that he began to think differently. It’s that he became the most famous person in the world and was exposed to people who he respected, like the Marquis of Lafayette, who were telling him, “Listen, this is terrible and you could change the world and everyone would love you for it.” He was well aware from that moment forward that it did affect his legacy. Let’s be realistic about this, and let’s also talk about the times that he could’ve emancipated them.

And didn’t.

The [Thigh Men] often talk about how hypocritical Jefferson was. He wrote these beautiful words and then he enslaved people, including his own children. [But] Jefferson could not have changed the trajectory of America; he wasn’t important enough. Sure, he became really important, but Jefferson was not as important as Washington. He was not as famous as Washington. He was not as well-respected as Washington.

I interviewed Annette Gordon-Reed [a historian best known for her searing analysis of the Jefferson-Sally Hemings relationship] a few years ago and she told me that, had Jefferson emancipated his slaves, or argued for the emancipation of slavery immediately upon America’s independence, that we wouldn’t know his name. That’s not true for Washington. He could’ve done it, he didn’t. And had he done it, it could’ve changed the trajectory of America.

Washington biographers have shaped and really kind of mediated all understanding of George Washington, but I wonder about how George Washington did that himself. How is he the curator of his life and how are we, in a sense, receiving what Washington wanted us to have?

Washington wanted to shape his legacy, but he didn’t totally understand what we would think about him. I do feel as though the paving the road to emancipation for the people he enslaved [as he famously did in his will] was mostly legacy building, but it’s interesting to look at instances in which he didn’t know that he would be judged. He knew that he would be judged on slavery, but he didn’t know that he would be judged, for example, on [his treatment of Native] Americans. So as Washington was preparing his letters, his documents, he did not take anything out about how he didn’t trust Indians because they couldn’t fundamentally be trusted or how they basically just needed to give up their way of life.

He didn’t think that we would be horrified by any of that. And so he left it right there for us. So I think he was self-conscious, but he also couldn’t [completely self-censor] ... not about everything because he simply didn’t think it was bad.

In some sense he is his own archivist. His first introduction to the world is the journal that he writes about his experience in what would be the opening of what’s referred to as the French and Indian War in North America. During and after the Revolution, he is so particular about the care and preservation of his papers. I wondered how that struck you.

Washington did his best to shape the narrative. His journal was published when he was a young man, when he started a world war , and it got away from him a little bit. He became quite famous, but he was very sensitive, he did not like being ridiculed. Certain members of Parliament thought he was a dumb kid; he learned the importance of archives, at that moment. And he was also very aware that this was an incredible moment in history, as they all were. They were all careful with their papers. They sold their papers later. They knew the importance of it.

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Karin Wulf | | READ MORE

Karin Wulf is the director of the John Carter Brown Library and a historian at Brown University. She was previously the executive director of the Omohundro Institute of American History & Culture and a professor of history at William & Mary.

My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies

The Best Biographies of George Washington

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Steve in Best Biographies Posts , President #01 - G Washington

≈ 61 Comments

American history , best biographies , book reviews , George Washington , James Thomas Flexner , John Ferling , Joseph Ellis , presidential biographies , Presidents , Ron Chernow

The journey to read the best biographies of every president from George Washington to Barack Obama seems a long and ambitious one. With just a single president in the rearview mirror now, the path ahead still seems quite formidable.

Having just finished nine biographies (by five authors) on Washington, it seems natural to pause for a moment to reflect on how far we have traveled. And since few people possess the burning desire to read a half dozen or more books on Washington to find one that is “just right” it also seems appropriate to provide some parting thoughts before pressing ahead to meet John Adams.

Thus far, the adventure has been far more satisfying than expected. Although I knew George Washington’s life was certain to be interesting, it proved immensely more so than imagined. His evolution – from an underprivileged but ambitious youth into a judicious and astute leader – was captivating and could hardly be better constructed in a work of fiction. My education on Washington was made easier, of course, by the fact that many of the biographies I read were outstanding.

Volume 1 (“ George Washington: The Forge of Experience 1732-1775 “) was published in 1965 and covers the first two-thirds of Washington’s life (ending just as the American Revolution begins). Volume 2 (“ George Washington in the American Revolution 1775-1783 “) was published two years later and reviews Washington’s life during the American Revolution.

Volume 3 (“ George Washington and the New Nation 1783-1793 “) was published in 1970 and covers Washington’s brief post-war retirement and his first presidential term. Volume 4 (“ George Washington: Anguish and Farewell 1793-1799 “) was published in 1972 and covers Washington’s second presidential term through the time of his death.

Though these 1,800 pages required a significant time commitment, the reward was an understanding of Washington so deep and thorough that no other biography exceeded the experience. The individual volumes varied slightly (earlier volumes were written in a less contemporary style) and Flexner’s writing style is not nearly as engaging as David McCullough’s or Ron Chernow’s. But overall, the series was fantastic. (Full reviews here , here , here and here )

* Recognizing that many readers will not consume a four-volume series, Flexner published an abridgment in 1974: “ Washington: The Indispensable Man .”

Here, in just over 400 pages, Flexner captures the essence of what made Washington a unique historical figure. This biography includes a large number of charts, illustrations, maps and pictures which were not present in his earlier, larger work. Despite my fondness for this biography, his four-volume series was so strong that this abbreviation falls a bit short by comparison. But it is still one of the best single-volume biographies of Washington I read. ( Full review here )

* The third biography of Washington I read was Ron Chernow’s 2010 “ Washington: A Life .” This 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner is astonishingly fabulous. It is excellent in every respect and is by far the best single-volume Washington biography I read.

Chernow’s masterful storytelling skills are on full display, and despite being the longest Washington biography in my library (with 817 pages) it proved brilliantly engaging. If this book is not already in your library, get it. Now! You won’t regret the decision. ( Full review here )

* Next I read Joseph Ellis’s “ His Excellency: George Washington. ” Although it fell short of the standard set by Chernow, this was also a great reading experience. This biography is probably the best choice for someone with extremely limited time or shelf space. It was the shortest of the biographies I read (at 275 pages), but far from the least worthy. And in terms of impact-per-page, this may have been the best of the group. ( Full review here )

* The last two Washington biographies I read were “ Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation ” by Richard Norton Smith and “ The Ascent of George Washington ” by John Ferlin. While they each have merit, they fell far short of the rest of the group. In a world overflowing with an abundance of great biographies of George Washington, I would leave these two on the shelf.

Neither is adequate for a reader hoping to get a comprehensive, and interesting, view of Washington from a single source. Ferling’s “The Ascent of George Washington” is a somewhat provocative stab at the conventional wisdom on Washington. Although much of the analysis seems reasonable, the tone of the book is needlessly one-sided. ( Full review here )

Richard Norton Smith’s biography is focused on Washington’s presidency. While it provides some unique insight into that period of his life, it proves quite dry and the narrow focus requires the author to leave aside much which could otherwise be of interest. ( Full review here )

– – – – – – –

[ Added September 2020 ]

* More than 7 years after my first tour through George Washington’s best biographies I read Richard Harwell’s 1968 abridgment of Douglas Southall Freeman’s 7-volume series which was published between 1948 and 1957. Condensing this 3,600 page behemoth was no small task and Harwell admitted early in this 754-page abridgment to many of the required compromises.

And while there is much to be admired about Harwell’s abridgment of the underlying Pulitzer Prize-winning series, there is also much to be disappointed about – for both the casual reader and the serious scholar. The former will find this an often laborious, dense and colorless reading experience devoid of context, foreshadowing and conclusory remarks. The latter will find it is lacking footnotes, bibliography and a large number of maps and illustrations. So although the abridgment was almost as enormous a feat of literary genius as was writing the original series, it is far from ideal for most of its likely audience. ( Full review here )

Best Biography of Washington: “ Washington: A Life ” by Ron Chernow

Also Recommended: James Thomas Flexner’s series

Best Short Bio of Washington: “ His Excellency: George Washington ” by J. Ellis

I have not yet read Marshall’s biography of Washington, but I absolutely do have it on my “to read” list. I finished reading Washington eight months ago, but I’ve already got another four biographies about him on that list. After I finish my current journey through the presidents I plan on circling back and making another pass with the best of the books I missed first time through. Marshall’s is certainly on it!

September 29, 2013 at 11:05 am

Oh, I love people like you. 🙂 Will definitely be following your journey.

October 13, 2016 at 12:56 pm

you think that might cover Washington Irving’s multi-volume as well? I’m seriously considering tackling the presidential project next year

October 13, 2016 at 3:32 pm

I have Charles Neider’s abridgement of the 5-volume Irving series on my follow-up list. If I can find the entire series – affordably – I will probably read the entire series. Let me know if/when you get started on “the project”!

December 13, 2013 at 11:05 am

I don’t know that I could handle the 4 volume set. I wouldn’t be able to read it consecutively because I would probably get distracted.

I find that there are many books for the presidents I would term “companion books”. Maybe not about the entire life of the President, but instead focusing on a specific aspect or what was going on at that time. A perfect example is Jefferson’s War by Joseph Wheelan. It is about the fight against the Barbary Pirates – Jefferson himself is given a small role in the book but the glimpse into his policies and what was happening at the time was fascinating. Great book.

January 18, 2014 at 9:33 pm

I am also endeavoring to ready by way through the president’s (new years resolution) and I am grateful for these thorough reviews – THANKS.

January 18, 2014 at 9:38 pm

What a great New Year’s resolution! I hope you’re giving yourself longer than a year…!?!

February 26, 2014 at 12:30 pm

Why not read the Washington Irving book? I’m in the process of reading a biography about each president and was under the impression that Irving’s book was the standard aside from the 4 volume monster.

I’m taking your recommendations on Tyler, Taylor and Polk.

February 26, 2014 at 12:36 pm

Because of its age, I was reluctant to include this rarely-read work on my short list. As I look back at what I “missed” I’m adding biographies for a second round, and Washington Irving’s classic is first on my must-read list for Washington! If you’ve read it or eventually do get to it, I’d love to know you think/thought of it-

March 13, 2014 at 2:08 pm

Thanks for the reviews! You’ve inspired me to read more presidential biographies. I read Flexner’s one volume years ago and loved Chernow’s when it came out. Have you considered reading Douglas Southall Freeman’s six volume bio? I received it as a gift but haven’t started due to its daunting size!

March 13, 2014 at 2:27 pm

I’ve been interested in the Freeman multi-volume series for awhile but haven’t been able to find for less than the cost of a car payment. When I do, I’ll grab it and read it on the next go-through of the presidents. But I’ve resisted reading the “abridgment” by Harwell. I’d rather wait and read the “real thing.” If you do get to it, let me know if it’s worth the effort(!)

July 12, 2019 at 9:58 pm

I wish that the Library of America would consider putting out an affordable edition of Freeman’s Washington!

September 22, 2020 at 10:06 am

That is an excellent idea! And while they are at it they could do Irving Brant’s 6 volume life of James Madison without it costing a mortgage payment. Narrative history is virtually absent from Library of America.

July 18, 2015 at 12:37 pm

I’m wondering if anyone out there has read the recently released, Washington’s Circle: The Creation of the President?

July 18, 2015 at 5:40 pm

I haven’t read it (yet) but have heard that it’s quite good. Apparently brings Washington to life in a colorful way and brings an interesting perspective to his post-Revolutionary life. I’ll definitely be reading this once I finish the presidents once-through and start my follow-up phase-

July 19, 2015 at 10:10 pm

It sounds interesting. I may fit it in between my Grant and Hayes bios.

February 27, 2016 at 5:32 pm

douglas southall freeman won a pulitzer for his 7 volume treatment of washington, later condensed into a single work by richard harvell.

June 6, 2016 at 5:14 am

I have the Pulitzer Prize winning 7 volume bio of Washington by Douglas Southall Freeman. If you’re interested, I’d be happy to sell them to you.

June 7, 2016 at 5:57 am

Many thanks; but in the couple of years since I finished my first pass through Washington’s biographies I’ve been collecting the pieces of that series and am almost finished. But I’m still uncertain whether I’ll read the whole series, the abridgement or perhaps both as part of my follow-up list?

October 17, 2017 at 2:53 pm

No, no, no…..you must read the entire Freeman. I’ve read all seven, as well as the Flexners and a number of other Washington bios (although not the Chernow…that one is on my shelf patiently waiting its turn.) The Freeman is a work of art all by itself….the finest presidential biography I have read of any president….or any person. Other than Robert Caro, no one today seems to be taking on the task of writing multi-volume biographies of our statesmen…partly, I’m sure, because it might limit readership. But if you’re willing to slowly take your time with the Freeman work I think—certainly hope—that you’ll agree that it will rank as one of the finest pieces of historical writing you will have read. Enjoy it!

November 28, 2017 at 8:25 am

I’ve been trying to find a set of Freeman’s 7 volume series. They are so expensive! However did you manage to get that set? I’m still hoping to find a set to purchase someday…

December 5, 2017 at 7:22 am

Oh, I’m not nearly done collecting the series! I’ve been at it, and trying not to overpay for any single volume, but for the time being I’ll read the abridgement and keep looking for the individual components of the entire series.

December 5, 2017 at 9:28 am

It took me years….starting in the late 1980’s when the internet was nothing in terms of the book collector’s business. I found a book dealer in NJ (I’m in San Francisco) who dealt specifically with biographies. We became very good friends until he passed away, but he helped me track down a first edition of each volume I would say over a period of 5-7 years. He and his partner eventually introduced me to this site used by book dealers and antiquarians, which makes all these searches so much easier….and cheaper.

https://www.bookfinder.com/

It’ll seem archaic by today’s web design standards, but it works. It works especially well for out-of-print works like this one. If you want first editions, make sure you check all the right boxes and read the search results carefully. There can be different printings of the first edition or other kinds of “first editions,” like first British edition, first American edition, etc. You must also become familiar with the different grades of condition that antiquarians use to describe books and dust jackets: good, very good, near fine, fine. Those are all standard descriptions in the business and book dealers take them seriously. I’d be happy to take this off-line if/when you are ready to dive into this. Even now, after some 20 years of using the site, I have made a mistake or two in buying what I thought was a true first edition because I got a little careless. By the way, you can find anything from first editions (if available) to paperbacks and abridged versions. In short, this is useful to any one looking for any kind of book and in any condition.

I hope you find your Freemans. Maybe Santa can help!

December 5, 2017 at 9:37 am

Why do you favor bookfinder over ABE or vialibri?

A SF dealer has been instrumental in helping me build my collection over the years. Even finding the elusive 7th volume in dust jacket.

December 5, 2017 at 12:52 pm

I’m not sure if I’m doing this right in terms of replying to HBM, but here it goes….

Since the “early days” of this system Alibris, AbeBooks and many other dealers and retailers also sell through this website. It’s become a one-stop shop. Do a quick search and you’ll see them all pop up. If you choose a book sold by Alibris (by clicking on the price link, it’ll take you straight to their own website and you deal with them directly, using your existing account (if you have one) and so on. This site has the benefit of also showing a number of smaller, individual booksellers from all over the world (I know I’ve bought at least two books from British shoppes.)

December 5, 2017 at 5:02 pm

Bookfinder reminds me of vialibri which aggregates ABE, Amazon, ABAA, alibris, etc. listings into one set of search results. Historically, I have found ABE to the be best source. Like you, I have missed on a few as well, but – to date – no dealer has refused a return or issued a refund.

The trick now is finding out which dealers are real and which ones are bulk re-sellers. I asked a question of one such bulk re-seller (it had a cleverly disguised name) who replied “We cannot answer your question because we do not have access to the book.” I am still unsure how they would have shipped it to me if I purchased it, since they didn’t respond when I pointed the obvious out to them.

December 5, 2017 at 5:28 pm

Hmmm….Haven’t fallen into that trap yet. But give me time…. 🙂

December 5, 2017 at 5:30 pm

BTW, I don’t know if it’s still the case, but when I start my search for the Freeman Washington, it was Volume 6 that was the hardest—and most expensive—one to get as a first edition.

December 5, 2017 at 5:37 pm

The winner for me was a jacketed first of Volume 7.

December 6, 2017 at 11:30 am

Good. You should properly treasure it. The bookseller friend I mentioned before gave me the greatest gift. After I had assembled my 7 volumes, which we not all first editions, he asked me to bring them to his home in New Jersey the next time I had to be in NY for business. I lugged the box full of books to his place and, to my astonishment, he took my seven volumes and gave me back another seven. But these seven were all first editions/first printings, in pristine shape, in their original boxes and/or dust jackets. No charge. He just wanted me to have them and only asked I didn’t spoil them by so much as even writing my name on them. To this day, it’s one of the greatest gifts anyone has ever given me. If I ever have to evacuate my home, that set is the first thing I’m grabbing on the way out.

June 14, 2016 at 1:07 am

I first read The President’s Club five years ago, and have since read a handful of mini-biographies which have all left me wishing that I could learn more about the men who have led our country. Inspired by this, I have decided to read biographies of our presidents but wasn’t sure where to start. Your blog has been and inspiration and your reviews very thorough. Thank you for documenting your journey!

June 16, 2016 at 6:35 am

Fantastic! Let me know how your own effort goes. There are some really fantastic presidential biographies out there! (And I’ve got The President’s Club but haven’t read it yet-)

August 21, 2016 at 1:02 pm

I also started my presidential biography journey with the Flexner volumes, which were fantastic. I am far from a professional reader/critic, but Flexner was almost the ideal mix of academic and practical writing for me. I have not read any other Washington bios to compare, but I am glad to see it’s your current choice for “best bio!”

September 2, 2016 at 11:39 am

I started my presidential biography journey about a year and a half ago with the Flexner series. I wanted to read the Douglass Southall Freeman anthology, but the books were to hard to find and expensive. I loved the Flexner series and would definitely recommend.

December 20, 2016 at 2:07 pm

Officially starting “The Project” today. Decided to go with Chernow for Washington. I already covered Adams with McCullough a few years back, so I figured why not go for them all? I have decided to cover one president a month, and I’m not ruling out memoirs for Presidents. Some will be multi volumes (like Burlingame for Lincoln, and Morris for TR) Wish me luck!

December 21, 2016 at 7:01 am

That’s huge news – congratulations! If you aren’t careful this will try to become your new day job, particularly when you stumble upon something compelling like the Morris series on TR. I obviously haven’t read any memoirs yet but when you read one I can’t miss as part of my “follow-up” round, please let me know!

December 6, 2017 at 11:41 am

If either of you care about first or significant editions, the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant have been re-released in hard cover, supposedly fully annotated for the first time (under the direction of renowned Grant/Sherman and Civil War scholar, John Marszalek.) I had bought, read and enjoyed a paperback copy years ago, but I decided to buy this one as well since I get the feeling it’s going to be considered THE version to own. I will probably re-read it at some point, because I have read a lot more about the Civil War and Grant himself since the first time I read it. I’m sure I’ll get a lot more out of it the second time around.

I mention all this because if you’re going to think about reading “presidential memoirs,” Grant’s are considered to be the best, so far. Caveat: Grant was racing against death as he wrote the memoirs, so he decided to only write of his life only up to the end of the Civil War. It does not cover his presidency or life after that.

Here’s the Amazon.com link:

February 21, 2017 at 10:08 pm

given the state of our country right now I had the thought of reading a biography of every president from #1 on…tonight as I searched “best biography of George Washington I can’t believe I came across this site from someone doing exactly that. I will definitely take your recommendations under consideration and check back here. I do have a few in my library but most I do not.

February 22, 2017 at 4:49 am

Reading a biography of each president turns out to fairly popular – but takes a bit of commitment (particularly when you get to the first tough stretch, which many people feel starts with Zachary Taylor and ends with James Buchanan…)! Let me know how your journey progresses!

July 4, 2017 at 11:55 am

https://www.statnews.com/2017/07/03/george-washington-teeth/ 🙂

August 5, 2017 at 12:37 pm

The sport life of George Washington: http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2017/08/04/phillip-smucker-book-president 🙂

April 9, 2018 at 5:20 pm

Thank you for doing this. 🙂 I hope you’ll continue reviewing and ranking the best biographies (at least for our greatest leaders): it helps guys like me decide which book would be most valuable.

Respectfully, Will

April 9, 2018 at 5:38 pm

I’m not stopping until I get to Obama…and then as I read the recently-published biographies of the presidents I will review those as well and back-fill the “Best of…” posts to include my updated views!

August 19, 2019 at 11:48 pm

Hi there. I just discovered this wonderful site. Thank you so much for all the effort you’ve put into it. Are you familiar with John Rhodehamel’s “George Washington: The Wonder of the Age”? This was the biography I initially started my presidential journey with. It’s a great first-time bio for those unfamiliar with Washington’s history.

August 20, 2019 at 5:03 am

I remember it coming out a couple years ago – but well after I had already completed my first complete tour through Washington. Until your note, I wasn’t aware of anyone who had read it but I’m glad to hear it fills an important niche. And its relatively short length makes it more approachable for folks who just can’t see themselves tackling a multi-volume series or a book as weighty as Chernow’s excellent bio of Washington.

November 29, 2019 at 4:02 pm

I started the George Washington biography out of order. However various circumstances converged to get me to Washington. The first was I had just finished POTUS #31. It was becoming depressing to me reading about one POTUS after another in chronological order. Second, it was depressing listening about the impeachment inquiry. An so, with hope, I decided to read James Thomas Flexner’s 4-volume series on George Washington to see if it would infuse me with a positive attitude. It also provided an opportunity to be critical of both Washington and the biographer now that I have thirty POTUS bios under my belt and can see how Washington really compares to other Presidents.

As this is lengthy, Steve suggested I just provide a link http://paperwarriorcomicsandgames.com/magnesium/GWashington.htm

October 20, 2020 at 12:36 am

Have you considered reading “You Never Forget Your First”? I recently read it and, while it wasn’t nearly as comprehensive (nor as well written) as some of the other volumes, I feel like it added a welcome perspective to all the “old men” who tend to be his biographers.

October 20, 2020 at 4:47 am

Its recent publication did not pass unnoticed by me, but I have a lengthy list of “follow-up” presidential bios to read and at the moment I’m tending towards old classics I missed the first time through and recently-published comprehensive biographies that are in the running to become that particular president’s “go to” biography. BUT a friend who is a fellow presidential history enthusiast (and a television reporter in Florida) recently did an hour-long podcast/interview (#10 in his list) with her which I’m planning to listen to later this week! —> Alexis Coe podcast with Evan Axelbank

October 20, 2020 at 10:43 am

The WSJ review in September put the nail in the coffin on this one for me. It’s an irreverent look at Washington and it sounds like history-lite. Her own podcast – Presidents are People Too – was fairly disappointing. The opposite of Lillian Cunningham’s stellar Presidential Podcast. Of course, they were each aiming at different targets.

October 29, 2020 at 10:39 pm

I just decided that I want to read at least one book about each president and I knew that someone would have a great list. Thank you! I love the reviews you do of each president–so helpful in choosing where I want to spend my precious reading time.

November 1, 2020 at 5:58 pm

Fantastic! If nothing else, I’ve created the list that *I* hoped to find (but didn’t) when I was starting out.

December 20, 2020 at 7:51 pm

Steve, I did a search for “best biography of George Washington” and found your blog. What a relief for me to find someone who is as nerdy as me because I’ve read five books about Washington, and want to read more. I was glad that you share my feeling that Chernow’s was the best I’ve read; are you restricting yourself to straight up full biographies or can you do some breakouts? If you can, 1776 by David McCullough is not to be missed. I really loved a little thing called George Washington’s Christmas Farewell, A Mount Vernon Homecoming, by Stanley Weintraub, which is about the final months at war’s end, bringing all to a close and riding home by way of Annapolis. Just 195 pages. Wonderful narrative. I just finished The Long Retreat by Arthur Lefkowitz, about the New Jersey ordeal prior to Trenton. I have Ellis’ book and will read it next. Prior to The Long Retreat I completed the four-volume set A History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill, so maybe that’s an indication I’m a candidate to consider something like Freeman’s epic. Not sure… I haven’t even read War and Peace…. thanks for all your work and commitment to sharing YOUR epic journey. It was helpful and I continued reading your comments because it was obvious that someone with your commitment had something worthwhile to say and your opinion would be valuable to me. Thanks again and good luck. I look forward to reading about your progress.

December 21, 2020 at 6:28 am

I’m glad you stumbled across my little corner of the internet, and thanks for your note!

I have McCullough’s 1776 (among others of the same type) but haven’t gotten to them yet. You might think it would be easy enough, except I’ve got somewhat limited time and a couple hundred books that are vying for my attention. And I haven’t yet dared to read more than one book at a time, though I may need to become a bit more flexible on that point soon 🙂

You mentioned a few potentially intriguing books I’m not familiar with – so I’ll have to look into those! And if I *am* going to begin multi-tasking at some point, I’ll probably find myself reading a biography alongside something like Weintraub’s book (I don’t see myself reading two bios at once).

Thanks again and as you come across books you found compelling – traditional bio or not – do let me know!

January 2, 2021 at 5:33 pm

I did forget to mention a gem by David Hackett Fischer called Washington’s Crossing that was so engrossing I practically cried when I finished it. The scholarship was astonishing to me and his narrative superb. I know you would treasure it. Fischer also wrote another called Paul Revere’s Ride, also a marvel of intriquing detail. I finished Ellis’ book a few days ago and found it to be a different kind of biography altogether, well constructed and with a tilt toward plausible explanations of what Washington was thinking when he made decisions of lasting consequence, all well supported, a fabulous contribution for folks like us! Thanks for responding. I am moving on now to Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, after I finish a quick little novel, the new one by Jane Smiley I received for Christmas.

May 11, 2021 at 8:11 pm

Is Douglas Southall Freeman’s multi volume work on George Washington of any value now? How does it compare with Ron Chernow’s and James Thomas Flexner’s publications?

February 13, 2024 at 9:52 pm

I have read Flexner’s four volumes, but not Chernow’s single volume. I have read six of Freeman’s seven volumes; I’m about to start volume seven this week. Freeman’s multi-volume biography is definitely still of value. In particular, he recounts Washington’s experience during the American Revolution on an almost day-by-day basis. Freeman’s biography increased my appreciation for Washington’s almost superhuman ability to persevere during the American Revolution when, frankly, just about anyone else would have despaired. He literally held the country together during the years from Boston (1775) to Yorktown (1781). In contemplating whether to read Freeman’s series, I learned that historians John Ferling and Douglas Brinkley both considered Freeman’s multi-volume set to be the definitive biography of Washington. (In reviewing Chernow’s Washington, Brinkley said that Freeman “still owns the franchise in Washington studies.” Ferling’s comment was made before the publication of Chernow’s book.) I am a big fan of Flexner’s effort, but Freeman’s seven volumes simply provide a deeper portrait.

February 14, 2024 at 11:26 am

I have read the Freeman, Flexner and Chernow Washington biographies. I think Freeman is still, by far, the most detailed and scholarly but it’s truly an investment of time. Chernow’s is by far the best one-volume condensation and written for today’s sensibilites and readers, meaning he spends more time on slavery and race issues and is more critical of Washington in that regard, even allowing for “his times.” (There was an attempt to condense Freeman’s seven volumes into an abridged one-volume, but I don’t think it is very highly regarded.)

Freeman was a southerner writing his work in the 1940s and 50s, so he didn’t spend almost any time on race/slavery topics or Washington’s thoughts on those issues….he certainly wasn’t as critical as Chernow and today’s writers. That might be a turn-off for someone today. It does’t take away from the scholarship and beautiful writing of what he did choose to focus on. The writing on Washington’s trials leading the Revolutionary War and then leading the Constitutional Convention before getting our government off the ground in the turbulent 1780s and ’90s I think is still as good as anything that has been written on the subject and still forms a big portion of the basis for any serious historical work on Washington. I would say it’s “sympathetic” to Washington, but having read a lot about the man, I think it is justifiably so. Well worth the read if you have the time.

May 28, 2021 at 1:58 pm

Ron Chernow’s bias in his Hamilton work was a real turn off for me. Does any bias towards any one person show up in his Washington book?

19 Best Books on George Washington (2022 Review)

September 20, 2020 by James Wilson

DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, I receive a commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

George Washington served as an American political leader, military general and one of the founding fathers. He’s known as a patriot for leading forces to victory in America’s war for independence. As one of the most pivotal figures in American history, his leadership and character have been studied over generations.

What are the Best George Washington Books to read?

George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution

If you’ve ever been interested in the life of George Washington and you would like to read more about his life and story, you should consider a number of top books that are available about his life. With someone as well known as George Washington it can be difficult to narrow down the right types of books that you should pick up.

Luckily there have been a number of recent works about George Washington that you can check out on you’re e reader, phone or tablet. They’re all readily available on Amazon and you can pick them up in paper format or read them online.

Best Books on George Washington: Our Top 19 Picks

Here is our definitive guide of some of the best books on George Washington for your own curiosity and research:

1. George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution

This book by Ron Chernow is a complete biography of George Washington. The book carries a portrait of George Washington as a boy through his exports in the French and Indian war as well as his time with the Continental Army.

There are vast details including his involvement with the Constitutional convention and notable stories from his time as America’s first president. If you are seeking a true biological retelling of George Washington’s life, this is a wonderful and celebrated background about the man himself. Chernow completed a massive amount of research to establish one of the most complete portraits of George Washington we have ever seen.

Authors : Brian Kilmeade (Author), Don Yaeger (Author)
Publisher : Sentinel; Reprint Edition (October 18, 2016)
Pages : 320 pages

2. Washington: A Life

In this biography published by Joseph J. Ellis, we gain another biographical retelling of George Washington’s political career. Focusing on Washington’s impact on the nation as well as his thoughts on imperial power, this is a novel that looks more into George Washington’s motivations and his true energy throughout politics.

We learn more about George Washington’s stories of battle, his struggles with land ownership as well as an indispensable understanding of his impact on America today. His Excellency is a biography that can give you true appreciation for it the way the George Washington shaped America as a nation.

Authors : Ron Chernow (Author)
Publisher : Penguin Press (October 5, 2010)
Pages : 904 pages

3. The First Conspiracy (Young Reader’s Edition)

This book is far different than other novels on George Washington in the sense that it was written by George Washington himself. This book was adapted from the notebooks of George Washington and in established 110 rules to live. By getting this insight into his past and the way that he saw the world, these pages are designed to help anyone that is interested in discovering the path towards living more like George Washington.

If you are interested in following some of his teachings and discoving the way that George Washington truly lived, this is a book that you should highly consider. George Washington’s rules set includes a number of subjects and was inspired by a set of rules composed by French just so it’s in the year 1595. It includes a list of etiquette on how to walk, eat in public, address one superiors, dress and more.

Authors : Brad Meltzer (Author), Josh Mensch (Author)
Publisher : Roaring Brook Press; Young Reader’s ed. Edition (January 7, 2020)
Pages : 368 pages

4. Being George Washington: The Indispensable Man, as You’ve Never Seen Him

With a riveting tale from Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch we learn about a previously untold aspect of American history in which George Washington was the target of a counterintelligence case. Elite soldiers were picked to serve as George Washington’s bodyguards in the year 1776.

This would serve as some of the original secret service members but without Washington’s knowledge, there were a series of these men that were part of a plan to eliminate George Washington before the Revolutionary war. The Cedar plot was revealed, but in this dramatic retelling we learn just how close America came to losing the Revolutionary war and one of its greatest military leaders.

Authors : Glenn Beck (Author)
Publisher : Threshold Editions; First Edition/First Printing (November 22, 2011)
Pages : 304 pages

5. His Excellency: George Washington

Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger delivers a historically accurate retelling of Washington’s recovery after a retreat from New York City in 1776. This book includes information on the Culper Spy Ring which was part of the plan to defeat the British in a sophisticated intelligence ring.

The two authors spent extensive time researching the spires including the back story of a mysterious woman, a Long Island bachelor, a young longshoremen, a tavern keeper, a coffee shop owner, and a Quaker merchant. The secret six are true American heroes and this is a story of George Washington and this group of incredible spies.

Authors : Joseph J. Ellis (Author)
Publisher : Vintage; Illustrated Edition (November 8, 2005)
Pages : 352 pages

6. The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789

Hourly history published a short read guide on the history of George Washington. The goal of this hourly history biography is to take an in-depth look at the life of George Washington with a distilled research focus. This is the perfect guide to pick up before coming to Washington DC or exploring sites associated with George Washington.

Gaining an appreciation for his life and impact on America can be easy after examining this distilled experience. With comprehensive back story and a full memoir concerning George Washington, this is an easy read that can bring you up to speed on the life of a great man.

Authors : Edward J. Larson (Author)
Publisher : William Morrow; 1st Edition (October 7, 2014)
Pages : 384 pages

7. The Real George Washington (American Classic Series)

Janice T. Connell shares the story of the brilliant leadership of the first and only unanimously elected president of the United States. With an improved picture of his past and modern circumstances to his self-taught education, this is an intensive look at his life and past.

This biography relates his leadership towards some of the events in his past that shaped his lifestyle. Seeing this great leader rise to power after the boyhood trauma of losing his father is a story that will give you a completely unique perspective on Washington and his past.

Authors : Jay A. Parry (Author), Andrew M. Allison (Author)
Publisher : National Center for Constitutional Studies; Illustrated Edition (December 1, 1991)
Pages : 928 pages

8. George Washington’s Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation (Little Books of Wisdom)

Nathaniel Pilbrick shares a historical account of the Naval Battle from 1780. In the Hurricanes Eye tells the story of making the impossible happen and how George Washington was able to orchestrate one of the most important naval engagements in the history of the world.

Culminating with the battle of Chesapeake, this wide-ranging story explains the lead up to the battle including every unexpected turn at sea and while coordinating the vessels involved. In the hurricanes eye explains the true fate of this battle and how it impacted the American Revolution. This book is the perfect window into Washington’s mind as a strategist.

Authors : George Washington (Author)
Publisher : Applewood Books; Here are the 110 rules which George Washington copied into his early notebooks a Edition (August 1, 1989)
Pages : 36 pages

9. In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown (The American Revolution Series)

This historical novel reveals one of the most overlooked chapters of George Washington’s life. Pulitzer Prize winning author Edward Larson writes unique details on this timespan. Detailing the way the George Washington say the United States by coming out of retirement to lead the constitutional convention and the decisions made during this time, this is a unique perspective on this specific aspect of Washington’s life.

After retiring in December of 1783, George Washington stepped down and was called upon once again in this unique chapter of his life. Learn how his direct involvement was able to reach new national policy that affected the United States permanently. This chapter is just one of the many times that George Washington was able to save the nation.

Authors : Nathaniel Philbrick (Author)
Publisher : Viking; Illustrated Edition (October 16, 2018)

10. Washington: The Indispensable Man

Written by Jay A Parry and Andrew M. Allison, this story details the impact that George Washington had on mankind and the story of his life. Told as a biographical approach, this novel details the founding of America as well as more on the dominant personality that was George Washington.

Details include a focus on the Constitutional convention, and the Revolutionary war as was the first national administration. The story and the impact of George Washington is highlighted throughout and the biography showcases many of the ways that Washington became one of the most into sensible people in American history. This is a novel that is regularly highlighted amongst some of the best classic books on George Washington’s life.

Authors : James Thomas Flexner (Author)
Publisher : Back Bay Books; Back Bay Books Edition (February 22, 1994)
Pages : 448 pages

11. George Washington: A Life From Beginning to End (Biographies of US Presidents Book 1)

Authors : Hourly History (Author)
Publisher : Independently published (May 13, 2019)
Pages : 46 pages

12. Ascent of George Washington

As one of the most revered Americans in history, George Washington is widely considered to be a stoic leader. In John Ferling’s telling of the political journey of George Washington, we learn more about the way Washington was as a politician and as a true leader.

We can discover more about his involvement with the Army, how his political savvy enabled him to out maneuver British forces and how he was able to manage uniting the nation. This ‘s detailed account showcases Washington’s ability to out maneuver rival generals, utilize his political prowess and more. If you are interested in learning more about George Washington as a political leader, this is an excellent starting point.

Authors : John Ferling (Author)
Publisher : Bloomsbury Press; Illustrated Edition (June 2, 2009)
Pages : 464 pages

13. The Spiritual Journey of George Washington

Authors : Janice T. Connell (Author)
Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 8/31/13 Edition (September 30, 2013)
Pages : 246 pages

14. The Bulletproof George Washington

The bulletproof George Washington is a novel from David Barton detailing his experiences in the French and Indian war. Many of these dramatic retellings of Washington’s time in this era do not detail the peril that he faced.

This action-packed retelling showcases that Washington truly was bulletproof as one of the only officers on horseback to avoid being shot down. His Dracula’s escape as well as the stories of adventure that he faced give a newfound appreciation of Washington at war and the brilliant tactician that he was.

Authors : David Barton (Author)
Publisher : WallBuilder Press; 3rd Edition (December 19, 2002)
Pages : 62 pages

15. George Washington, Spymaster

This award-winning National Geographic book presents the untold story of the war that occurred throughout the American Revolution between spies and counter spies. George Washington created one of America’s first spy rings and this National Geographic detailed look delivers an entertaining and unique account on some of the most important individuals in the history of the nation.

This is a quite compelling narrative that details the roles played by George Washington as well as each one of the spies in his spy ring. With an interesting look into covert operations, codes and ciphers, double agents and more this is a detailed historical account filled with intrigue and suspense. Learn how the nation was won with spies in this Thomas B. Allen novel.

Authors : Thomas B. Allen (Author)
Publisher : National Geographic Children’s Books; Illustrated Edition (January 9, 2007)
Pages : 184 pages

16. George Washington’s Secret Six (Young Readers Adaptation)

George Washington’s secret six adapted for young readers is a Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger novel detailing more on the spies that saved America. Throughout the American Revolution, Gen.

George Washington produced his own spy ring. In this young adult series, youth readers can learn more about the unique group of spies that were conscripted by George Washington and how they were able to infiltrate the British Army. As an accessible novel for young readers, this is one of the best ways to learn more about one of the most crucial times in American history. Written as a historical thriller, this is a book that can keep you on the edge of your seat as it details an influential time in group Washington’s life as a tactician.

Publisher : Puffin Books; Illustrated Edition (January 28, 2020)
Pages : 176 pages

17. George Washington: The Wonder of the Age

The wonder of the age is an award-winning library of America collection of George Washington’s best writings. John Rhodehamel curated a wide range of Washington’s papers. Including detailed descriptions of the correspondence, this is the perfect way to learn more about George Washington’s unique writing style and see some of his most interesting works.

With writing that dates all the way back to his early 20s to correspondence published later on in his life, these are works that can put you further in touch with the man that George Washington was in his day-to-day life and with his closest correspondence.

Authors : John Rhodehamel (Author)
Publisher : Yale University Press; 1st Edition (February 22, 2017)

18. George Washington: Writings (Library of America)

The George Washington writings from the Library of America includes a volume of his writing edited by John H. Rhodehamel. This is one of the most extensive collections of over five decades of Washington’s life work.

In this series of volumes we can learn more about the over 440 letters, orders and addresses the George Washington published throughout his life. Many of the early writings include details from George Washington’s Journal that he was publishing at the age of 16 as well as future correspondence. Gain a detailed insight into the world of George Washington by reading some of his most important writing through this volume.

Authors : George Washington (Author), John H. Rhodehamel (Editor)
Publisher : Library of America (February 22, 1997)
Pages : 1184 pages

19. National Geographic Readers: George Washington (Readers Bios)

In this volume of historical articles published by National Geographic, the contents have been edited and designed for children of all ages to learn. Based at a level to reading level, Caroline Crosson Gilpin dipped into National Geographic’s extensive archives to pull unique articles and artifacts from George Washington to presented a historical format for kids.

This carefully levelled reader is written in a manner that any young historian can follow and there are a wealth of interesting fax throughout George Washington’s life from his a time in war, to his retirement and more.

Authors : Caroline Crosson Gilpin (Author)
Publisher : National Geographic Kids (January 7, 2014)
Pages : 32 pages

Choosing the Best George Washington Books

If you would like to learn more about George Washington any of these top books could be a great start. With many perspectives on this great man, you can further your knowledge while gaining a more in-depth appreciation on how he lived his life.

Youth of George Washington

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The youth of George Washington (1732-1799), the first President of the United States, remains the least understood chapter of his life, shrouded in folklore and myths. Yet the experiences of his youth, and the bond he felt toward his older half-brother Lawrence, shaped the man he was to become and helped put him on the path toward revolution and the presidency.

This article examines what is known about the lineage and youth of George Washington, from the first time his great-grandfather set foot on the shores of Virginia in 1657 until George's own coming of age in 1753, a year before the shots fired at the Battle of Fort Necessity changed the trajectory of his own life and, it can be argued, of world history.

Tall, strong, and somewhat physically awkward, the young George Washington grew up on a plantation just outside of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and moved to Mount Vernon as his brother's ward shortly after the death of their father. He became a land surveyor at the age of 16, measuring over 60,000 acres of land along the unmapped western frontier of Virginia. When Lawrence contracted a fatal case of tuberculosis, George accompanied him to Barbados, the only time he ever left the boundaries of the future United States; while there, he had a short but painful bout with smallpox, and for the first time came face to face with the military might of Great Britain . He had experienced much by his 21st birthday in 1753, although nothing could have prepared him for what was still to come.

Family & Parentage

The story of the Washington family in Virginia begins with a shipwreck. On 28 February 1657, the merchant vessel Seahorse of London ran aground on the shoals of the Potomac River during a storm; laden with precious tobacco, the ship had just embarked on its return voyage to England . Among its crew was a young Englishman named John Washington (b. 1633), who had taken to a life at sea after his father, an Anglican rector, had had his properties confiscated for his support of the Royalists during the English Civil Wars (1642-1651). As the crewmen went to work repairing the Seahorse of London , John Washington befriended several locals including Anne Pope, the daughter of a wealthy Maryland planter. It was perhaps out of love for Anne – or perhaps because he spied more opportunity in America than on the open seas – that induced John to stay behind after the crewmen sailed the repaired vessel back to England. John Washington married Anne Pope in late 1658, with the marriage ultimately producing five children.

Before his death in August 1677, John Washington made quite an impression on his adoptive home of Virginia. He had purchased or inherited upwards of 5,000 acres of land, upon which tobacco was planted and harvested by both enslaved Africans and white indentured servants. John's eldest son, Lawrence (b. 1659) was therefore left with a decent inheritance and was perfectly poised to enter public service. Before the age of 25, he served as both the Justice of the Peace and in the House of Burgesses , cementing the place of the Washington family among the colony's landed gentry. Around 1686, he married Mildred Warner, the daughter of the Speaker of the House of Burgesses, with whom he would have three children: John (1692-1746), Augustine (1694-1743), and Mildred (1698-1747). Lawrence died an early death in 1698, after which his widow remarried to an English merchant, George Gale, and moved her children to Whitehaven, England, before she died in 1701. Gale took care of the orphaned Washington children, enrolling the boys in the nearby grammar school at Appleby.

Augustine Washington, the middle child of Lawrence and Mildred, returned to Virginia sometime before he came of age in 1715 to claim his inheritance. Called 'Gus' by family and friends, he was tall, blond, and muscular, and was said to have been as gentle as he was strong. Upon his 21st birthday, he inherited 1,000 acres of land as well as six enslaved people; his marriage to Jane Butler that same year added another 1,700 acres to his already considerable amount of property. The couple settled on Gus' main plot of land at Pope's Creek in Westmoreland County, Virginia, where construction soon began on a home called Wakefield. It was here that Jane gave birth to three surviving children: Lawrence (1718-1752), Augustine, Jr. (1720-1762), and Jane (1722-1735).

Wakefield House at Pope's Creek, Virginia

Like his own father, Augustine entered public life, serving as Justice of the Peace and sheriff for Westmoreland County. He also continued buying up properties, including a tract of land near Accokeek Creek, 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Fredericksburg. It was on this land that rich deposits of iron were discovered in the late 1720s; looking to capitalize on this, Augustine began negotiating with the Principio Company, an association of British ironmasters and merchants, to construct an ironworks on the land. In 1729, Augustine went to England to finalize negotiations with his new business partners only to discover upon his return that his wife Jane had died. Distraught though he was, it was not customary for Virginian widowers to stay single for long, and, on 6 March 1731, Augustine Washington was remarried to 23-year-old Mary Ball.

Childhood & Education

Mary Ball Washington gave birth to her firstborn son at Wakefield at 10 a.m. on 22 February 1732. His name was George. His birth would be followed by five younger siblings: Elizabeth (1733-1797), Samuel (1734-1781), John Augustine (1736-1787), Charles (1738-1799), and Mildred (1739-1740). In 1734, Augustine moved his rapidly growing family 60 miles (96 km) up the Potomac River to the Little Hunting Creek plantation, where he could keep a closer eye on his lucrative ironworks. He ordered the construction of a house on this property that would form the basis for Mount Vernon. Before long, Augustine moved the family once again, this time to the Ferry Farm estate near Fredericksburg, Virginia; it was here where George Washington spent much of his youth.

Not much is known about George's childhood; indeed, in terms of historical scholarship, it remains the murkiest chapter of his life. He was certainly raised on the Ferry Farm plantation, and likely attended a local school in Fredericksburg, where he excelled in the subjects of geometry, trigonometry, and mapmaking. Some of his school papers survive, in which he copied out sets of moral teachings from the book Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation ; these 'rules', which included such counsel as "in the presence of others, sing not to yourself with a humming noise, nor drum with your fingers or feet", showed George how to be a proper Virginian gentleman, guidance he would follow for the rest of his life. Folkloric stories about George's childhood – such as the supposed instance in which he was unable to lie to his father about chopping down a prized cherry tree – were later fabricated, to fill in the gaps in this unknown part of his life.

In 1743, Augustine Washington unexpectedly died. At only 11 years old, George inherited Ferry Farm as well as ten enslaved people. Too young to fend for himself, he was sent to live with his eldest half-brother, Lawrence, who had inherited the Little Hunting Creek estate and had renamed it Mount Vernon, in honor of British Admiral Edward Vernon, his commanding officer in the War of Jenkins' Ear. George idolized and adored Lawrence and soon tried to emulate the "grace, bearing, and manners" of his refined older brother (Freeman, 5). Eventually, George would come to regard Lawrence as both a father figure and a best friend. Lawrence Washington seemed to be a good role model for the young George as he was quickly making a name for himself in Virginia. In 1744, he was elected to the House of Burgesses and, a few years later, helped found the Ohio Company, a land speculation company that was chartered to settle the uncolonized lands of the Ohio River Valley. Lawrence also married Anne Fairfax, the daughter of his influential neighbor Thomas Fairfax, whose patronage would soon affect George's life.

Surveying Career

After finishing his education, George's proficiency in mathematics led him to consider a career in land surveying, which at the time was considered a respectable path to wealth and social advancement. In 1748, at the age of 16, George Washington set out on an expedition into the wilderness of the Shenandoah Valley to survey the properties of Lawrence's father-in- law Thomas Fairfax. It was to be the first time George set foot off the lands where he had grown up on the Virginia Neck, and he kept a diary to recount his experiences on this, his first real adventure. Led by Thomas' son, George William Fairfax, the surveying party proceeded along the bank of the Potomac River, setting out on 14 March 1748; that night, after a long day of journeying, George was disappointed to find there was nothing to sleep on except a "thread bare blanket with double its weight of vermin such as lice fleas". Then, on 22 March, George encountered Native Americans for the first time, their party carrying a scalp. George recorded in his journal how one of the natives constructed a drum by stretching deerskin over a half-filled pot of water, while the others danced around a roaring fire.

This first expedition was, ultimately, a success, and George received his land surveyor's license the following year. Impressed with the young man's abilities, Thomas Fairfax used his influence to get George appointed as a land surveyor for the newly formed Culpeper County, on Virginia's western frontier. Over the course of the next three years, George Washington conducted 200 surveys, measuring a combined total of 60,000 acres of land. These surveying trips took him far beyond the limits of Culpeper County, and he was soon venturing into the Blue Ridge Mountains and other unsettled territories in the west. This experience would give him a lifelong interest in the western lands, an interest that influenced the choices that led to him taking up arms in both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution . He stopped surveying land professionally in 1752 but would continue to do so for his own properties for the rest of his life.

Trip to Barbados

In the spring of 1749, as George's land surveying career was taking off, Lawrence came down with a heavy cough. At first, he tried to ignore it and carry on with his duties, but the cough would not go away and became so bad that he had to take a leave of absence from the House of Burgesses in May. By early 1751, it was clear that the oldest Washington brother was suffering from tuberculosis (commonly known as 'consumption' in those days), prompting him to seek a more tropical climate in the hopes that the balmy air might restore his health. Barbados, a small island in the southeastern Caribbean, was known to be a popular destination for tuberculosis patients, leading Lawrence to select it as his destination. His wife Anne was unable to accompany him – she had an infant daughter to look after whose health she did not want to risk on a long voyage – so 19-year-old George agreed to go instead. The brothers' vessel set sail from the Potomac on 28 September 1751, arriving on the east coast of Barbados at 4 a.m. on 2 November.

The brothers disembarked and went to Bridgetown, the island's main settlement, and eventually found lodgings at the home of Captain Crofton, overlooking Carlisle Bay. As Lawrence consulted with his physicians, George marveled at the tropical landscape of Barbados, which was unlike anything he had ever seen, and found that he was 'perfectly ravished' by the island's beauty (mountvernon.org). He and Lawrence often dined at the homes of important Barbados officials, one of whom offered George a tour of Charles Fort on Needham Point. The 36-gun fort, which guarded the entrance to Carlisle Bay, was the first such fortress George had ever seen, and had a significant impact on the young Virginian; whereas previously he had given little thought to military matters, his glimpse of Britain's military might in Barbados fascinated him and may have convinced him to pursue a military career of his own once he returned to Virginia.

On 17 November, amidst the intoxicating rush of social life in Bridgetown, George came down with a fever. By the evening, he was complaining of a severe headache and pains in his back and sides, and small red dots appeared on his forehead three days later. George had contracted smallpox, one of the most feared diseases of his time – while it was much rarer in Virginia, it was common in the Caribbean. For several days, George was confined to bed, fighting his painful battle with the pox. But he was young and healthy and recovered soon enough, although his face was marred with the telltale scars that denoted a smallpox survivor. George would never forget his bout of smallpox, nor how close to death he had come. During the American Revolution, when a smallpox outbreak was ravaging the colonies, he would mandate that all his soldiers be inoculated against the disease, an act that several historians credit with having saved the Continental Army from destruction.

Death of Lawrence

On 21 December, shortly after his recovery, George sailed for Virginia alone; Lawrence, whose condition had not much improved, decided to try Bermuda instead but urged his younger brother to return home. George arrived at Yorktown on 28 January 1752 and immediately went on to Williamsburg to pay his respects to the governor, Robert Dinwiddie, who would soon play an important role in his life. He then returned to Mount Vernon and fell hopelessly in love with Elizabeth 'Betsy' Fauntleroy, daughter of a respected family. This was far from the first time George had been in love; as a teenager, he had written poetry about girls he had crushes on, but he had never formally courted any of them. Now that he was of a marriageable age, he made two romantic overtures to Betsy Fauntleroy but was rejected each time. It would be another seven years before he would marry the widowed Martha Dandridge Custis, his future First Lady.

Sometime in early June 1752, Lawrence returned from Bermuda, but not because he had recovered; having realized he was dying, he had decided to "hurry home to [his] grave " so that he might put his affairs in order and die in the land on which he had been born (Freeman, 31). Lawrence completed and signed his will on 20 June and died six days later at the age of 34; the grief-stricken George was entrusted with putting together the funeral arrangements and building a burial vault for his beloved half-brother. The ownership of Mount Vernon passed to Lawrence's widow, Anne, but because she did not live there, she agreed to lease the property to George; upon Anne's own death in 1761, George became the official owners of Mount Vernon (Lawrence and Anne's only daughter, Sarah, had died in infancy in 1754).

Conclusion: Washington the Soldier

In 1753, George Washington turned 21, considered the age of maturity in Colonial America. Like his father, he was physically strong and stood over 6 feet tall (183 cm) in his stockings, towering over most of his contemporaries. He had grey-blue eyes and reddish hair that he powdered and curled in the fashion of the time. He was known to be a graceful dancer, a skilled horseback rider, and fond of hunting, traits that marked him out as a proper Virginian gentleman. Yet like other young gentlemen of that time, George Washington thirsted for adventure; the awe-inspiring sight of Charles Fort in Barbados had led him to dream of martial glory, much like his idolized brother Lawrence had achieved at the Siege of Cartagena during his service in the War of Jenkins' Ear.

He would soon have his chance. In 1753, word reached Virginia that the French had begun to build forts in the Ohio River Valley, on lands that had been claimed by the Ohio Company, which had been partially founded by Lawrence Washington. Governor Dinwiddie, who was an investor in the Ohio Company, dispatched George to demand that the French leave the territory at once. George Washington's decision to accept the mission, although undoubtedly fueled by his lust for glory, was also made from the experiences of his youth. He was compelled to defend the claims of the Ohio Company both out of love and loyalty to his older brother and because of his own experiences as a surveyor of western lands, lands he believed rightfully belonged to Virginians. Whatever his reasons, Washington's journey into the West in 1753 would change the trajectory of his life, putting him on the path to becoming a soldier and, ultimately, president of a nation he would help forge, the United States of America.

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Bibliography

A Journal of My Journey Over the Mountains | George Washington's Mount Vernon , accessed 25 Jul 2024.
Chernow, Ron. Washington. Penguin Books, 2011.
Freeman, Douglas Southall. Washington. Scribner, 2011.
George Washington - Encyclopedia Britannica , accessed 25 Jul 2024.
George Washington's Journey to Barbados | George Washington's Mount Vernon , accessed 25 Jul 2024.
Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. Oxford University Press, 2007.
Washington as Public Land Surveyor | George Washington: Surveyor and Mapmaker | Articles and Essays | George Washington Papers | Digital Collections | Library of Congress , accessed 25 Jul 2024.

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George Washington: A Biography Paperback – Abridged, August 22, 1994

Print length 790 pages
Language English
Publication date August 22, 1994
Dimensions 5.5 x 1.82 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10 0306805936
ISBN-13 978-0306805936
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George Washington: A Captivating Guide to an American Founding Father Who Served as the First President of the United States of America (Exploring the Founding Fathers)

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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Da Capo Press; Reprint edition (August 22, 1994)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 790 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0306805936
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0306805936
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.9 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.82 x 8.5 inches
#722 in American Revolution Biographies (Books)
#1,897 in US Presidents
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Golden Dreams: True Stories of Adventure in the California Gold Rush

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Five things to know about Tim Walz

On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris decided on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in her bid for the White House.

Minnesota voters gathered outside Governor Tim Walz’s residence react as Walz was announced as the running mate of Kamala Harris in the U.S. presidential election. (AP Video by Mark Vancleave)

Vice President Kamala Harris has picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, turning to a Midwestern governor, military veteran and union supporter who helped enact an ambitious Democratic agenda for his state.

FILE - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, right, laughs as he stands with Fridley, Minn., Mayor Scott Lund during a visit to the Cummins Power Generation Facility in Fridley, Minn., Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

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FILE - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz applauds as President Joe Biden speaks at Dutch Creek Farms in Northfield, Minn., Nov. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

FILE - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz listens after meeting with President Joe Biden, July 3, 2024, at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a news conference for the Biden-Harris campaign discussing the Project 2025 plan during the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention near the Fiserv Forum, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti)

FILE - Minnesota Governor Tim Walz greets reporters before Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Planned Parenthood, March 14, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher, File)

FILE - Rep. Betty McCullum, D-Minn., left, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, listen as Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Planned Parenthood, March 14, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher, File)

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has decided on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in her bid for the White House. The 60-year-old Democrat and military veteran rose to the forefront with a series of plain-spoken television appearances in the days after President Joe Biden decided not to seek a second term. He has made his state a bastion of liberal policy and, this year, one of the few states to protect fans buying tickets online for Taylor Swift concerts and other live events.

Some things to know about Walz:

Walz comes from rural America

It would be hard to find a more vivid representative of the American heartland than Walz. Born in West Point, Nebraska, a community of about 3,500 people northwest of Omaha, Walz joined the Army National Guard and became a teacher in Nebraska.

He and his wife moved to Mankato in southern Minnesota in the 1990s. That’s where he taught social studies and coached football at Mankato West High School, including for the 1999 team that won the first of the school’s four state championships. He still points to his union membership there.

Walz served 24 years in the Army National Guard, rising to command sergeant major, one of the highest enlisted ranks in the military, although he didn’t complete all the training before he retired so his rank for benefits purposes was set at master sergeant.

He has a proven ability to connect with conservative voters

In his first race for Congress, Walz upset a Republican incumbent. That was in 2006, when he won in a largely rural, southern Minnesota congressional district against six-term Rep. Gil Gutknecht. Walz capitalized on voter anger with then-President George W. Bush and the Iraq war.

During six terms in the U.S. House, Walz championed veterans’ issues.

He’s also shown a down-to-earth side, partly through social media video posts with his daughter, Hope. One last fall showed them trying a Minnesota State Fair ride, “The Slingshot,” after they bantered about fair food and her being a vegetarian.

He could help the ticket in key Midwestern states

While Walz isn’t from one of the crucial “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where both sides believe they need to win, he’s right next door. He also could ensure that Minnesota stays in the hands of Democrats.

That’s important because former President Donald Trump has portrayed Minnesota as being in play this year, even though the state hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006. A GOP presidential candidate hasn’t carried the state since President Richard Nixon’s landslide in 1972, but Trump has already campaigned there .

When Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton decided not to seek a third term in 2018, Walz campaigned and won the office on a “One Minnesota” theme.

Walz also speaks comfortably about issues that matter to voters in the Rust Belt. He’s been a champion of Democratic causes, including union organizing, workers’ rights and a $15-an-hour minimum wage.

He has experience with divided government

In his first term as governor, Walz faced a Legislature split between a Democratic-led House and a Republican-controlled Senate that resisted his proposals to use higher taxes to boost money for schools, health care and roads. But he and lawmakers brokered compromises that made the state’s divided government still seem productive.

Bipartisan cooperation became tougher during his second year as he used the governor’s emergency power during the COVID-19 pandemic to shutter businesses and close schools. Republicans pushed back and forced out some agency heads. Republicans also remain critical of Walz over what they see as his slow response to sometimes violent unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

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Things got easier for Walz in his second term, after he defeated Republican Scott Jensen , a physician known nationally as a vaccine skeptic. Democrats gained control of both legislative chambers, clearing the way for a more liberal course in state government, aided by a huge budget surplus.

Walz and lawmakers eliminated nearly all of the state abortion restrictions enacted in the past by Republicans, protected gender-affirming care for transgender youth and legalized the recreational use of marijuana.

Rejecting Republican pleas that the state budget surplus be used to cut taxes, Democrats funded free school meals for children, free tuition at public colleges for students in families earning under $80,000 a year, a paid family and medical leave program and health insurance coverage regardless of a person’s immigration status.

He has an ear for sound-bite politics

Walz called Republican nominee Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance “just weird” in an MSNBC interview last month and the Democratic Governors Association — which Walz chairs — amplified the point in a post on X . Walz later reiterated the characterization on CNN, citing Trump’s repeated mentions of the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter from the film “Silence of the Lambs” in stump speeches.

The word quickly morphed into a theme for Harris and other Democrats and has a chance to be a watchword of the undoubtedly weird 2024 election.

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.

IMAGES

George Washington: A Biography of an American President (Hardcover
The Best George Washington Biographies
The Life & Times of George Washington
National Geographic Kids Biographies: George Washington
Amazon.com: George Washington: A Life from Beginning to End: President
George Washington: A Biography by James Jeffries, Paperback

COMMENTS

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George Washington: A Biography by Washington Irving. Washington Irving's Life of George Washington (published in five volumes in 1856-59) was the product of his last years and remains his most personal work. Christened with the name of the great general, Irving was blessed by Washington while still a boy of seven, and later came to know many ...
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His first book, The House of Morgan, won the National Book Award, Washington: A Life won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and Alexander Hamilton— the inspiration for the Broadway musical—won the George Washington Book Prize. A past president of PEN America, Chernow has been the recipient of eight honorary doctorates.
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Alexis Coe is the author of YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST and ALICE+FREDA FOREVER, a host of PRESIDENTS ARE PEOPLE TOO and NO MAN'S LAND. She's a producer on Doris Kearns Goodwin's forthcoming Washington series on the History Channel and a consultant on the adaptation of her first book. She has frequently appeared on CNN and the History Channel ...
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Follow. James Thomas Flexner was an American historian and biographer best known for the four-volume biography of George Washington that earned him a National Book Award in Biography and a special Pulitzer Prize. A cum laude graduate of Harvard University, Flexner worked as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune from 1929 until 1931, after ...
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AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AN NPR CONCIERGE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "In her form-shattering and myth-crushing book….Coe examines myths with mirth, and writes history with humor… [You Never Forget Your First] is an accessible look at a president who always finishes in the first ranks of our leaders."— Boston Globe Alexis Coe takes a closer look at our first--and finds he is ...
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Ferling's "The Ascent of George Washington" is a somewhat provocative stab at the conventional wisdom on Washington. Although much of the analysis seems reasonable, the tone of the book is needlessly one-sided. ( Full review here) Richard Norton Smith's biography is focused on Washington's presidency.
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George Washington (February 22, 1732 [O.S. February 11, 1731] - December 14, 1799) was the first president of the United States (1789-1797), the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the current United States Constitution and during his lifetime was ...
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This encyclopedia offers an A-Z retrospective of George Washington's life, career, and historical significance, based in large part on Washington's own words and those of his contemporaries.George Washington dominated his era like few other Americans. Yet the complexity of the historic events he was involved in and the sheer magnitude of his correspondence—the most voluminous in colonial ...
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Tall, strong, and somewhat physically awkward, the young George Washington grew up on a plantation just outside of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and moved to Mount Vernon as his brother's ward shortly after the death of their father. He became a land surveyor at the age of 16, measuring over 60,000 acres of land along the unmapped western frontier of Virginia.
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1. Walz was born in West Point, a Nebraska town of just 3,500 people. But he was raised in an even smaller town called Butte. 2. Walz graduated from Butte High School in 1982. "I come from a ...
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Washington Irving's Life of George Washington (published in five volumes in 1856-59) was the product of his last years and remains his most personal work. Christened with the name of the great general, Irving was blessed by Washington while still a boy of seven, and later came to know many of the prominent figures of the Revolution.
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In his first race for Congress, Walz upset a Republican incumbent. That was in 2006, when he won in a largely rural, southern Minnesota congressional district against six-term Rep. Gil Gutknecht. Walz capitalized on voter anger with then-President George W. Bush and the Iraq war.
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