Book

Washington : a life / Ron Chernow.

Summary:

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.

Record details

ISBN: 9781594202667
ISBN: 1594202664
ISBN: 9780143119968
ISBN: 0143119966
Physical Description: xxi, 904 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Publisher: New York : Penguin Press, 2010.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 859-867) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Prelude: the portrait artist -- Pt. 1: the frontiersman -- A short-lived family -- Fortune's favorite -- Wilderness mission -- Bloodbath -- Shades of death -- The soul of an army -- A votary to love -- Darling of a grateful country -- Pt. 2: the planter-- The man of mode -- A certain species of property -- The prodigy -- Providence -- A world of his own -- The Asiatic prince -- A shock of electricity -- Pt. 3: the general -- The glorious cause -- Magnificent bluff -- Land of freedom -- The heights -- All London afloat -- Disaster -- An indecisive mind -- The crossing -- The busy scenes of a camp -- Darkness visible -- Rapping a demigod over the knuckles -- A dreary kind of place -- The long retreat -- Pests of society -- The storm thickens -- The traitor -- Mutiny -- Plundering scoundrels -- The world turned upside down -- Man of moderation -- Closing the drama with applause -- Cincinnatus -- Pt. 4: the statesman -- American celebrity -- Gentleman farmer -- Devil's bargain -- The ruins of the past -- A masterly hand -- A house on fire -- Rising sun -- Mounting the seat -- Pt. 5: the president -- The place of execution -- Acting the presidency -- The cares of office -- Rays of genius -- The traveling presidency -- The state of the president -- Capital matters -- Southern exposure -- Running into extremes -- A tissue of machinations -- Citizen Genet -- Bring out your dead -- Hercules in the field -- Crowns and coronets -- Mad dog -- The colossus of the people -- The master of farewells -- Exiting the stage -- Pt. 6: the legend -- Samson and Solomon -- A mind on the stretch -- Freedom -- Homecoming.
Awards Note:	Pulitzer Prize for Biography, 2011.