Now, some of you may be thinking that he immediately became president, but that’s not what happened. This happened in 1783 when Washington was 51 years old. Washington: A Life will surely stand as the best portrait of its subject for our time.Alright! This final part starts right after the peace treaty was signed in Paris. Of even more interest for historians, he has made this famously elusive and distant figure come alive as never before. Washington was not perfect, but Chernow proves he is still relevant. Chernow’s book is certainly not hagiography, but it does demonstrate that despite his inadequacies Washington’s personal makeup uniquely qualified him to lead America in a war for independence, in the formation of a government, and even in a reluctant but consequential personal statement on the incapatibility of slavery with the nation’s professed guiding principles. Scrupulous almost to a fault, he became the very embodiment of a cause and a government which could have easily gone astray had he sought personal gain from his fame, and his opportunities to do so were more abundant than most today realize. Not only do some of his exploits have the ring of legend, he managed to rise above faction and party in an era in which the country desperately needed a visionary and resolute statesman. Washington, Chernow demonstrates, lived a life worth knowing about, and not just because he played such a central role in so many events in America’s founding. The Washington that emerges from these pages is a complex man consumed by appearances, steadfast in observing formalities, plagued by physical ailments that might have weakened the resolve of other men, and although remembered as stoic, possessed of a fiery emotional temperament. Despite its length, Chernow’s narrative provides consistent, fresh, and well-placed insight into the true character of Washington that places in context what might otherwise be a mere chronicle of events in our nation’s formative years. But this book is no dry recitation of facts. Naturally, Chernow’s work is inclusive of just about everything one would want to know about the remarkable life of Washington, alleged wooden teeth (they were not!) and all. It is nothing less than the new standard work on this “indispensable” founding father, and well worth your time. Though lengthy, I found Washington: A Life to be one of the most engrossing books I have come across in quite a while. I’ve been listening to an audiobook recording of Ron Chernow’s acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of our first president-the printed book weighs in at a doorstopping 928 pages-for several weeks now during my travels. I thought George Washington would never die.

Washington a life book review