Book Review: George Washington: His Excellency

1. TITLE - His Excellency
2. AUTHOR - Joseph J. Ellis
3. PUBLISHER - Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc.
4. PUBLISHING DATE - November 2005

5. Ellis focused on three or four main points about Washington's life throughout this book. First off, it is incorrectly believed that Washington was one of the best Generals ever to control American troops. This belief was simply not true. Washington was not a good general; in fact he lost more battles than he won. However, Washington was an exceptional leader. These leadership abilities combined with the fact that Washington was a very liked person, allowed Washington to rally the troops behind him even though he lacked the necessary skills to be able to plan out a decisive plan for battle. This was evident in the French and Indian War. Washington was given the job of driving out the Indian and French at Fort Necessity. However they were not well positioned, "The more unattractive truth was that Washington had placed his troops in a hopelessly vulnerable position at Fort Necessity"(16-17). Washington eventually lost and returned to Virginia.

Secondly, Washington set the precedent for all future Presidents. George Washington was the one that stepped down as President after two terms, on his own power. This precedent is something that is still followed to this day. He also showed great character, characteristics that would have to be followed by future presidents. "Washington's grasp of the dynamics of power and his grip on himself. Morris observed that Washington's legendary calmness and statue-like solidly truly masked volcanic energies and emotions. Washington showed that a President of the United States needed to be able to be calm and thinks things through, even if inside he was excited or worried about something. This characteristic was what every President needed.

Lastly, the young Washington was a very cheap and self-important person who later became selfless and put aside his own beliefs for the common good of the United State of America. This change was evident when he was given the duty to assess the strength of the French military. Before that he was just a planter, but once he delivered this the world became aware. "The world first became aware of Washington at this moment, and we got the first extended look at him." Washington of course would have liked power, but he set aside that temptation in order to keep the United States as a republican state, not a dictatorship.

6. In my opinion, which is supported by Ellis, Washington made two important contributions to the world. Firstly, Many leaders of the time were power hungry. They wanted to rule the world. Washington on the other hand knew that in order for a democratic state to exist, there had to be change of leadership. He stepped down as President after two terms. This precedent would be followed by future presidents, both in American and in other countries around the world.
The second important contribution he made was in his Farewell Address. Washington stated, "the relationship between nations was not like the relationship between individuals, which could periodically be conducted on the basis of mutual trust. Nations always had and always would behave solely on the basis of interest"(235). The warning for America not to get involved in other countries affairs and not to make alliances as shown above, would be something that would not be carried out but was the best advice ever given by a leader, in my opinion.

7. It is not quite a proven fact, but one could come to the belief that Washington did have an affair with Susan Fairfax. Ellis explains, "The evidence is scanty, but convincing beyond any reasonable doubt, that Washington had fallen in love with his best friends wife earlier"(36). He wrote letters to her confessing their love, but even though there isn't any definite facts, it is believed he did have an affair. That is just like The Lewinsky Scandal. Even though there aren't definite facts that Bill cheated on Hillary with Monica, it can be believed that he did in indeed have an affair.

Another parallel involves the Revolutionary War and the Iraq War. President Bush's approval rating skyrocketed downward because it is not a war that everyone believed in and it is still dragged on. Even though the Revolutionary War was very necessary many did not want to go to War with Britain and would have rather dealt with it in a different way. I believe they parallel because everyone did not accept the Revolutionary War but it was necessary, just like the Iraq War is not accepted but it is necessary to stop terrorism.

The third parallel is how Washington always said it was necessary to avoid war. This parallels to how the United States stayed out of World War 2 as long as they possibly could. They followed Washington's belief of not getting involved in foreign affairs.

8.
I thought Joseph Ellis did a great job of not being biased throughout this book. I am unable to show bias in any of his writings throughout this book. Ellis is a master in my opinion of not being biased. He simply presents the facts and lets you draw your own conclusion, for example, the Fairfax portion on page 36.

9.
The most obvious cause and effect relationship was the fact the Washington led the Virginia Regiment, which ended up leading him to become the first President of the United State by unanimous decision. He led the first all-colonial military force ever established by the country and obviously that proved him to be an excellent leader. Those leadership abilities allowed Washington to have the characteristics to become the first and best President.

10.
Throughout this book Ellis is very serious and scholarly in his writings. He never made any jokes like the American Pageant does, which made this a much more enjoyable read. He was neutral thoughout the book and did not make assumptions. Ass I said before he allowed you to come to your own conclusions. I think this style was very effective because this made for a factual, serious read compared to a joking, assumptional read compared to other non-fiction writings, such as Zinn.

11. I think the only part of this book that could be challenged was the Susan Fairfax affair. Ellis never came out and said that he did have an affair, but this was the only point in the book where he may have pointed the reader toward something that was not a proven fact. Other than that I agreed with most of the text because it was factual.

12. Throughout this I realized that Washington was kind of a jerk. Even though he was a great leader he seemed to come off like he treated others badly sometimes. This was evident to me when it seemed he was selfish in the Cary situation. But it also showed me he had great pride. In his case though, I think it was a good thing. He was a man of honor and would rather lose all of his possessions rather than lose the way people looked at him.

13. I actually liked this book, unlike the two other texts we have to read. I think Washington is a very interesting person, especially with his wooden teeth and all. I am glad Ellis kept his opinions out of the text and used fact to explain Washington and his life. I did however believe that this book would have been better utilized as a reference instead of a novel. This could be a Washington textbook if Ellis broke it up into different easy to find sections. He also used an ample amount of facts to show all of his points, which provided more knowledge to the reader.

14. Overall I thought this was an enjoyable read. I believe Washington was a great leader who set many precedents for future presidents to follow in this country. I am interested to know more about Washington's personal life, as I feel Ellis did not really explain much of that. Mostly Ellis wrote about what he did as a leader, but not about what his family life was like. This gave me great insight to the qualities that Washington possessed and how Washington truly was the Great American President.