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A review by zelanator
Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington by Richard Brookhiser
4.0
First, anyone who approaches this biography should know something its author beforehand. Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor at the National Review and a conservative stalwart in twenty-first century politics. At the time of his writing this book (early to mid-1990s), he was similarly a public intellectual in the conservative world.
To an extent, Brookhiser's political leanings color his portrayal of George Washington. Ironically, Brookhiser extols as a virtue Washington's reluctance to take a firm political stance on numerous hot button issues during his age while simultaneously showing his own political cards by lambasting the 1990-era public school system in the United States for teaching children anti-American values. Just a funny bit!
Brookhiser sets out to write a "moral biography" of George Washington which, he argues, will achieve two aims: to sketch an accurate portrait of the subject's life and to distill the essence of that individual's character in a way that can inspire others. In other words, this biography errs toward hagiography and you will not find many instances (nay, perhaps not a single instance) of Brookhiser criticizing Washington. Even his military failures during the American Revolution are tossed aside in an effort to portray the broader military genius that Washington embodied.
The book is divided into three parts. The first focuses on Washington's public life from 1776 until his death in 1799. The second looks at his personal traits—morals, character, and reputation. Finally, the third attempts to understand Washington through the lens of the "Founding Father" of the United States, and what exactly that means, or should mean in the twentieth-century. All three sections are concise and the whole book weighs in at only 200 pages, making it a very quick read.
There is much to like here. In an era where we now see the "Founding Fathers" vilified in the media and specific intellectual circles, it is refreshing to see a fairly dispassionate account of Washington's life that tries to place the decisions he made within the context of the time. In other words, Brookhiser achieves a remarkable level of empathy for his subject here. On the subject of slavery, Brookhiser avoids categorically condemning Washington as a white supremacist slave-holder. Instead, he looks at Washington's complex views (and his guilt) about the peculiar institution and places his decision to posthumously emancipate his slaves from Mt. Vernon in a light that makes it strikingly radical for 1799. Washington had ambivalence feelings about the persistence of slavery and in many cases perceived it as something that must eventually be abolished through a legislative process. However, he was careful to keep mum on most of his "radical" views for fear that the issue of slavery could cause irreparable harm to a very fragile and nascent Republican experiment during the 1790s.
To be fair, though, questions about slavery and Washington's personal status as a slave-holder do receive short shrift in this book. And those wishing to see a complex rendering of Washington's virtues and vices will be utterly disappointed here. However, it strikes that that Brookhiser's biography of Washington, while a timely corrective during the 1990s, is likely dated now by newer and fresher takes on the man and his times.
I would also be curious to see if Joseph J. Ellis would still stand by his 1990s blurb of this book that "Founding Father is a tour de force [that belongs] on the same shelf with Plutarch."
To an extent, Brookhiser's political leanings color his portrayal of George Washington. Ironically, Brookhiser extols as a virtue Washington's reluctance to take a firm political stance on numerous hot button issues during his age while simultaneously showing his own political cards by lambasting the 1990-era public school system in the United States for teaching children anti-American values. Just a funny bit!
Brookhiser sets out to write a "moral biography" of George Washington which, he argues, will achieve two aims: to sketch an accurate portrait of the subject's life and to distill the essence of that individual's character in a way that can inspire others. In other words, this biography errs toward hagiography and you will not find many instances (nay, perhaps not a single instance) of Brookhiser criticizing Washington. Even his military failures during the American Revolution are tossed aside in an effort to portray the broader military genius that Washington embodied.
The book is divided into three parts. The first focuses on Washington's public life from 1776 until his death in 1799. The second looks at his personal traits—morals, character, and reputation. Finally, the third attempts to understand Washington through the lens of the "Founding Father" of the United States, and what exactly that means, or should mean in the twentieth-century. All three sections are concise and the whole book weighs in at only 200 pages, making it a very quick read.
There is much to like here. In an era where we now see the "Founding Fathers" vilified in the media and specific intellectual circles, it is refreshing to see a fairly dispassionate account of Washington's life that tries to place the decisions he made within the context of the time. In other words, Brookhiser achieves a remarkable level of empathy for his subject here. On the subject of slavery, Brookhiser avoids categorically condemning Washington as a white supremacist slave-holder. Instead, he looks at Washington's complex views (and his guilt) about the peculiar institution and places his decision to posthumously emancipate his slaves from Mt. Vernon in a light that makes it strikingly radical for 1799. Washington had ambivalence feelings about the persistence of slavery and in many cases perceived it as something that must eventually be abolished through a legislative process. However, he was careful to keep mum on most of his "radical" views for fear that the issue of slavery could cause irreparable harm to a very fragile and nascent Republican experiment during the 1790s.
To be fair, though, questions about slavery and Washington's personal status as a slave-holder do receive short shrift in this book. And those wishing to see a complex rendering of Washington's virtues and vices will be utterly disappointed here. However, it strikes that that Brookhiser's biography of Washington, while a timely corrective during the 1990s, is likely dated now by newer and fresher takes on the man and his times.
I would also be curious to see if Joseph J. Ellis would still stand by his 1990s blurb of this book that "Founding Father is a tour de force [that belongs] on the same shelf with Plutarch."