Stars: 5
Review by: MandyApgar
By far and away the best biography I have read on Washington. Problem I have with most military biographies is that they focus too much on the battles / war itself, which is of course relevant to a degree, but when checking out something on Washington I do not need to know all of his movements at Trenton. A combination book with his wife Martha, focusing mainly on their marriage, it does an excellent job of showing Washington's at time stubborn, elegant, and above all conflicting personality. A man who did not like the institution of slavery but that thought it would be impractical to abolish it during his term, one who loathed excess yet liked to dress himself in the best, and a person of bright focus yet one who became so lost at times his wife would have to half slap him to attention, Washington was a complicated guy. Martha served as an excellent first lady not only in the presidential sense but also as a woman of great warmth and strength. Widowed in her first marriage, her new husband raised her surviving two children more or less as his own and became devoted to them and subsequent grandchildren. The book also goes a lot into the daily operations of their various estates and the basic schedule of their family. As long as you do not mind the lack of absolute battle detail, a wonderful way to examine our first commanding officer.
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