A review by wwatts1734
His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis

3.0

There are hundreds of volumes of biographies written about the Father of our Country, George Washington. This one was a highly touted volume, and I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with it. Perhaps this was due to the fact that this was a short volume that didn't go into tremendous details about the specifics of his life. I have seen biographies of Washington that have run into multi-volumes and thousands of pages in length, so Ellis's book which runs only about 300 pages would provide only a small amount of what these other works would provide. Ellis provides lots of interesting factoids about Washington. He talks about how Washington was a member of the colonial gentry of Virginia that was caught in the economic pincers of the British mercantile system, whereby he sold his crops to British agents at a discount and then bought imported goods from these same agents at a premium. Anyone who was caught in this money grab would certainly want to get out from under it. Ellis also talks about Washington's progressive attitudes toward slavery and blacks. He noted that Washington refused to sell slaves in such a way as to break up families at Mount Vernon, nor did he sell off unproductive slaves, with the result being that he fed and provided for a population of slaves of whom less than half were able to provide work for him. Ellis describes in detail Washington's struggles as commander of the Continental Army and the miracle of winning the war. Ellis also talks about Washington's administration as the first President of the Republic, whereby he kept together an administration that held such conflicting and brilliant individuals as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. All of this was interesting and well presented.

What bothered me about this biography was that it failed to capture the essence of Washington. A good biography does not just present factoids and cocktail party data about a person, it leaves the reader with the feeling that he actually knows the subject. After reading this biography I really didn't feel as though I knew Washington. Here is a very complex man who lived in complex times, and this book did not really give me that feeling.

Nonetheless, this is a well written biography and I would recommend it to people who are interested in George Washington.