Book description
The celebrated Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the
father of America. With a breadth and depth matched by no other
one-volume life, he carries the reader through Washington s troubled
boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian Wars, his
creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army,
his presiding over the Constitutional Convention and his magnificent
performance as America s first president. Despite the reverence his name
inspires Washington remains a waxwork to many readers, worthy but dull,
a laconic man of remarkable self-control. But in this groundbreaking
work Chernow revises forever the uninspiring stereotype. He portrays
Washington as a strapping, celebrated horseman, elegant dancer and
tireless hunter, who guarded his emotional life with intriguing
ferocity. Not only did Washington gather around himself the foremost
figures of the age, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John
Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, he orchestrated their actions to help
realise his vision for the new federal government, define the separation
of powers, and establish the office of the presidency. Ron Chernow takes
us on a page-turning journey through all the formative events of America
s founding. This is a magisterial work from one of America s foremost
writers and historians. Ron Chernow is the prize-winning author of
five previous books. His first, The House of Morgan, won the National
Book Award. His two most recent books, Alexander Hamilton and Titan: The
Life of John D. Rockefeller, were both nominated for the National Book
Critics Circle Award in biography. Chernow lives in Brooklyn, New York.
