13 July 2011

In Which I Review Washington by Ron Chernow

It’s time again!

That’s right, time for Kate’s Non-Fiction Read of the Quarter. Except I might actually be slower than once-per-quarter.

My latest car-pick was Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow, who I would now put in the same ohmyholyhellawesome category as the ohmyholyhellawesome David McCullough.

I don’t remember my specific reasons for picking George Washington as my next biography subject, because I can’t say that he’s ever interested me before. In fact, talking to some peeps (you know, some peeps), it struck/continues to strike me that he’s not someone who has interested many people.

He was the first President of the United States. He’s the reason we won the Revolutionary War. He’s on the one dollar bill. He owned Mount Vernon. Our nation’s capital is named after him. He has a phallic-looking monument.

What more is there to say than that?

Tons.

As interesting as it is to read 1776 and to understand how many times we almost did not become the United States of America (A buttload of times. Those boys were flying by the seat of their pants), it is just as interesting to read Washington and to understand how close George Washington was to not becoming the father of our country. His father died, leaving everything to his older brother. Then his brother died leaving everything to his family. Then his family died, and Washington inherited by default. His commission in the army during the French and Indian War was based on who he knew as a result of all of the upheaval in his life, and if not for the death of her first husband (and the subsequent load if cash he left to her), Martha Custis would never have been on the marriage market to begin with.

Washington was a religious man, but he did not belong to a particular religion. He would better be classified as a man of faith. He owned slaves and was not always an awesome master, but he at least tried to be fair most of the time, refusing to break up families, etc.

Once again, it was striking to me (and a little heartening) to learn that American politics was and has always been a dirty business. By the end of Washington's first term, the Jeffersonians were conspiring against him to undercut him on just about every level, and it got very nasty. In fact, I have officially decided, after some research into the subject (including but not limited to John Adams and Washington) that Thomas Jefferson was a douchebag. Differences in politics aside, the dude was an asshole.

At the end of the day, I feel like I have a better understanding if the man who founded our great nation, who lead a rag-tag bunch of foot soldiers to defeat the greatest empire on the planet (at the time). He was a pretty cool dude. I wouldn't go so far as to say I like him more than, say, John Adams (his Vice President), but the stoic and silent Washington is now infinitely more real to me than he was before. For that reason alone, I highly recommend this book.

Up next? I'm definitely going to have to check out Alexander Hamilton, also by Ron Chernow. Did you know Hamilton was one of Washington's lieutenants? Yeah, me neither. Here we go.

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