. Instaread - Summary of Washington: by Ron Chernow

Guide to

Ron Chernows

Washington

A Life

by

Instaread

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This is a companion to the original book.

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Table of Contents

Ron Chernows 2010 biography Washington: A Life is a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of George Washingtons life from birth to death. It is based on newly available archival material from the most recent edition of Washingtons papers, which allows Chernow to focus on Washington as a public and especially as a private figure. For example, the biography dwells on Washingtons relationship with his difficult mother, Mary.

Washington was known for his tight self-control and his refusal to show emotions. Beneath his calm exterior, however, he was a man of strong passions. When he exploded at his subordinates, his fury was great. He also was a man of powerful ambitions who valued and defended his reputation for honor and probity.

Washington was born to a landowning Virginia family, but not into wealth, circumstances that distinguished him from wealthier and well-to-do founders such as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Mary Ball Washington raised George and his four younger siblings by herself following the early death of her husband, Augustine. She was successful in managing the estate of Mount Vernon, but she was severe and critical of her children. Washingtons intense self-control and his occasional volcanic temper may have been formed in response to years of attempting to placate his mother.

Washington first gained recognition after he published the Journal of Major George Washington in 1754, which gave an account of his journey through the Ohio Valley as a major in the Virginia militia and of the threat posed by the French in the region. The journal was widely distributed and made Washington a celebrity. However, Washingtons subsequent military engagements in the French and Indian War were unsuccessful. Washington seems to have lost control of his force of colonial and native troops in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, resulting in a massacre of their French and Indian opponents after they had surrendered. Later that July, Washington lost the Battle of Fort Necessity in present-day Pennsylvania and had to surrender.

Nonetheless, Washingtons celebrity outlasted the war and helped him begin a career in politics in Virginia, where he was elected to the House of Burgesses. Like many leading Virginians, Washington became increasingly convinced that the British government would never respect the colonists rights. When war was declared, he was appointed commander in chief of the colonial army.

Washington was not a brilliant general. He suffered numerous defeats, most stingingly in 1776 at New York. Even the final victory at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781 was really due to French troops, ships, and strategies more than to Washingtons military acumen. Still, Washington showed great ability in preserving the morale of his men and in choosing able officers. He kept the Continental Army together despite insufficient funds and congressional refusal to draft a permanent army. Perhaps most of all, Washington did a great service to the country when he retired after the British defeat in 1783. He could have tried to retain personal power, but instead he asserted the importance of civilian rule.

It was widely believed that only Washington had the prestige necessary to unite the disparate and often feuding colonies under one government. He served as the president of the Continental Congress as it drafted a new Constitution and helped to ensure that the document was seen as fair and desirable. He was then elected as the first president of the United States in 1789.

As the first president, Washington set standards for the relationship between the executive and the legislative and judicial branches of government. As chief executive, he was responsible for enforcing new taxes levied by Congress. Washington is credited with putting the young nations finances on a stable footing. Although many of the practical details of governing were left to Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, Washington was closely concerned with managing and overseeing policy. He also worked to maintain US neutrality in the escalating conflict between Britain and France following the French Revolution.

Outside of his public life, Washingtons main attachments were to his family and his estates. He married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow, in 1759, after the French and Indian War. They raised Marthas children and grandchildren from her first husband but had no offspring of their own.

When Washington was not away on government business, he lived at Mount Vernon on the banks of the Potomac River. He loved to experiment with new farming techniques and supervise the estate. Washingtons plans for improvements were often stymied, however, by his extended absences for military and political service. Washington employed overseers to tend the property, but he was never satisfied with them and the land was never as lucrative as he wished.

Ron Chernow is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and biographer best known for his 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton. The book became the basis for the hit hip-hop musical Hamilton, which premiered in 2015.

George Washington (1732-1799) was the commander in chief of the colonial army during the Revolutionary War and the first president of the United States.

Martha Washington (1731-1802) was George Washingtons wife and the original first lady of the United States.

Alexander Hamilton (c.1755-1804) was the chief author of the Federalist Papers and the first US secretary of the Treasury.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the chief author of the Declaration of Independence, the first US secretary of state, and the third president of the United States.

John Adams (1735-1826) was the second president of the United States.

Henry Knox (1750-1806) was a friend of George Washingtons who served beside him as chief artillery officer in the Continental Army. He went on to join Washingtons administration as the first US secretary of war.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) was a French nobleman who fought in the American Revolution and befriended George Washington.

George Washington

Everyone knows the story about George Washington admitting to chopping down his fathers cherry tree. Ironically, the story is a lie. An opportunistic author named Mason Parson Weems wove the tale into his biography of Washington because it was sentimental and appealing. Still, the story perhaps stuck in part because theres some truth to it. Washington certainly lied on occasion; he could be unscrupulous in business. But he was driven throughout his life by a strong sense of duty, propriety, and rightness. It was important to him to appear to be doing the correct thing. But Washington had a powerful temper, which he struggled to control, and a desire for mastery, which often controlled him. Washingtons peevishness led Alexander Hamilton to leave his service during the Revolutionary War even though Washington found him indispensable. Similarly, when President John Adams, who was also short-tempered and touchy, appointed Washington to head the army for the last time at the end of his career, the two quarreled over who should get to choose generals.