George Washington: The Founding Father

by Paul Johnson

Book Overview

By far the most important figure in the history of the United States, George Washington liberated the thirteen colonies from the superior forces of the British Empire against all military odds, and presided over the production and ratification of a constitution that (suitably amended) has lasted for more than two hundred years. Yet today Washington remains a distant figure to many Americans--a failing that acclaimed author Paul Johnson sets out...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060753676
• ISBN13: 9780060753672
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

A Different View of the Founding Father

In "George Washington: The Founding Father," the eminent British historian Paul Johnson supplements the level of outstanding scholarship found in his other great works (Modern Times, Napolean, Intellectuals)with a European view of this greatest American. Despite its brevity, this illuminating biography of George Washington places the great man as the prototypical late 18th century figure. In contrast with American biographers who tend to think of the American Revolution as a discrete beginning, Johnson shows the American Revolution to be both revolution and evolution resulting from the confluence of the Age of Reason, English tradition and values and the long independent history of the American colonies prior to King George.

A big book in a little box

This excellent biography distills so much from Washington's life into 123 pages. I've read much longer volumes, yet still learned new things about Washington from this book. The author captures the essence of the man in all phases of life with admirable brevity. Yet the picture he paints is rich in depth. Highly recommended.

Superb short biography

Paul Johnson is a British historian who admires the United States and wrote a lengthy history of the United States. Now, he has written a very short biography of George Washington. Mr. Johnson is clearly an admirer of his subject, particularly of his military record. In just 123 pages, Johnson covers Washington's entire career, from his days as a surveyer, to his early military career in the French and Indian war, to his Revolutionary War generalship, to his chairing the constitutional convention and to his presidency. Naturally, Johnson cannot go into much detail but he certainly provides a good overview. An example of the inability to go into detail is the discussion of the Jay Treaty with Great Britain. Among the issues were territory in North America and impressment of American sailors on the high seas. The treaty was very controversial and many in Congress felt that John Jay had sold out the United States in negotiating the treaty. Johnson feels that the treaty was a fair one but we never really understand the controversy since the brevity of the book prevents an in depth analysis. The book also makes some interesting blanket statements. For example, prior to the French and Indian War, Washington was involved in a skirmish with the French which resulted in a number of deaths. Johnson credits Washington with having started the French and Indian War by virtue of this conflict. Perhaps due to the short length of the book, a little exageration helps make the point. There was another short biography of Washington that was recently written by James MacGregor Burns and which is part of a series of short presidential biographies. Since that book is slightly longer and tends to concentrate a little more on washington's presidential years, issues are explored in a little more depth. Nonetheless, I give Johnson's effort 5 stars because it purports to be an overview. For waht it sets out to do, it does it well. Still, as in the Jay Treaty example, this overview cannot give the reader a full understanding of the issues.

A Paragon of Paradox

This is one of several volumes in the HarperCollins Eminent Lives series. Each offers a concise rather than comprehensive, much less definitive biography. However, just as Al Hirschfeld's illustrations of various celebrities capture their defining physical characteristics, the authors of books in this series focus on the defining influences and developments during the lives and careers of their respective subjects. In this instance, George Washington. Johnson observes that "As the central actor in the American Revolution, George Washington was one of the most important figures in world history. As America's commander in chief throughout the eight-year struggle against Britain he effectively liberated the thirteen colonies from imperial rule. He then presided over the process whereby the new nation drafted, ratified, and enacted its Federal Constitution. Finally, for eight years he directed the administration that put the Constitution to work, with such success that, suitably updated and amended, it has lasted for nearly a quarter of a millennium." That said, Johnson goes on to point out that Washington remains a remote and mysterious figure. "He puzzled those who knew and worked with him, and who often disagreed violently about his merits and abilities. He puzzles us. No man's mind is so hard to enter and dwell within. Everyone agreed, and agrees, he was a paragon. But a rich or empty one? A titan of flesh and blood or a clockwork figure programmed to do wisely?" Within only 123 pages, Johnson responds to these and other questions. Of special interest to me is the interdependence of Washington's ambitions with those of the thirteen colonies which he led to military victory and then to constitutional federation. Throughout his adult life, Washington was driven by "the paramountcy of land" and his notion of "interest." He wanted to own, manage, and develop as much acreage as possible. This would increase his net worth, of course, but also establish for him important connections (i.e. through family ties, friendship, local ties, or clan) "which put a man ahead of his immediate competitors in getting something he wanted -- a place, a promotion, a contract, a favor." Although Washington had hoped to avoid it, he eventually realized that the separation of America from Britain served both his own and the colonies' best interests. "To Washington, the sealing of the open frontier to the west was the fundamental reason for resisting Britain, but was also symptomatic of the conflict of rights between colonial assemblies and Westminster." Hence the significance of the Stamp Act (1765) and then the Declaratory Act (1766). I was also interested in what Johnson has to say about another aspect of Washington's multi-faceted personality. "It is true that he was a bit of an actor. He liked to play the Old Man card when needed. He did his little scenes, as when addressing officers at Newburgh, of fumbling for his glasses and repeating: `I have already grown gre

The standard

This last weekend, viewers of a cable TV miniseries voted Ronald Reagan history's "Greatest American." George Washington finished fourth, behind the Gipper, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Whatever this may say about the Americans who participate in television phone-in polls, it certainly shows the esteem in which Washington continues to be held by the nation he did so much to create. Personally, I would argue that George Washington is the standard against which American greatness has to be judged. And similarly, this thin volume by Paul Johnson has set a standard against which future portraits of the man should be measured. Washington's life was a monumental one, and so it naturally attracts monumental biographies -- from Freeman's seven volume work, Clark's two-volume All Cloudless Glory: the Life of George Washington or Joseph Ellis' recent and hefty His Excellency: George Washington. Summing up the man in barely 100 pages, as Johnson (himself no stranger to weighty tomes) has done, is a far more challenging, and necessarily more selective, undertaking. It would be easy to come up with a list of things Johnson "should have" included or "ought to have" covered in more depth. But within the confines of the Eminent Lives series, Johnson has done a magnificent job focusing on the essentials of the man and his impact on his world and ours. Despite the brevity of the book, Washington comes through strongly as a flesh and blood man, not an ivory god. Far from the Olympian reserve Washington himself cultivated, Johnson shows how the man was clever, opinionated, sometimes self-seeking, sometimes hypocritical, and simultaneously revered and underestimated by those around him. I found the latter stages of the book especially interesting, as Johnson charted Washington's influence on the new government under the Constitution, and Washington's own efforts in promotion of a strong, centralized government. The American presidency, today and for some time the most powerful post in the world, is an office shaped for, indeed designed in the image of, George Washington. Johnson makes a case that the strong powers later exercised by presidents like Jackson and Lincoln were not usurpations, but rather honest interpretations of powers the Framers intended Washington to have. In my experience, pocket-sized biographies like this series and the similar Penguin Lives series can vary greatly in quality from volume to volume. This is the first Eminent Lives edition I've read (Thomas Jefferson: Author of America (Eminent Lives) by Christopher Hitchens comes next), and the series is, for me, off to a wonderful start. Johnson has packed an awful lot into one slim book, and has put to shame many more verbose but less instructive views of the same subject. It won't take you long to read this, but it will more than repay the time.