A review by mjsteimle
His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
4.0
I really like Ellis as a historian and biographer. He does a good job of exploring Washington as a person without making a lot of unfounded assumptions. I think I'd really like George Washington as a person. He was moral and ambitious, but most of all, practical.
The following two statements from the biography really encapsulate who Washington was:
"Ideals were not irrelevant to Washington, but he was deeply suspicious of any idealistic agenda that floated above the realities of power on the ground."
"Ultimately, his life was all about power: facing it, taming it, channeling it, projecting it. His remarkable reliable judgment derived from his elemental understanding of how power worked in the world."
The following two statements from the biography really encapsulate who Washington was:
"Ideals were not irrelevant to Washington, but he was deeply suspicious of any idealistic agenda that floated above the realities of power on the ground."
"Ultimately, his life was all about power: facing it, taming it, channeling it, projecting it. His remarkable reliable judgment derived from his elemental understanding of how power worked in the world."