Washington: The Indispensable Man

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Summary: Meet the Real George Washington
Review: "Washington: The Indispensable Man" introduces the reader to the personality and career of the Father of Our Country. To many Americans, Washington is largely an unknown quantity, an immovable face on the one dollar bill, known as a Revolutionary War General and First President, but not as a human being. This book shows Washington, hero and failure, surveyor and farmer, soldier and statesman, body and soul.

Son of a minor aristocrat, Washington, unaware that his social standing precluded his advancement beyond the colonial militia, sought positions in the British Navy and Army. A Virginia militiaman, he stumbled into the world's consciousness in 1753 in a minor skirmish with a French party in the area that is now Pittsburgh. In a rematch the next year, the question arose as to whether Washington had fought a French military force or murdered an ambassador. Washington was chastised in battle with the French in 1754, but not before he had created a stir in the chanceries of Europe. Accompanying Gen. Braddock into the wilderness in 1754-5, Washington's failure to convince Braddock that the French-Canadians did not fight like the Continental French had fatal consequences for Braddock. Succeeding to command, Washington extricated the army, thereby becoming the hero of a tragic engagement. This made Washington a military hero in colonial eyes.

Having returned to Virginia, we see Washington, the colonial businessman, managing his plantation. The author gives us an insight into the business of a Virginia planter of Washington's day, a business which involved speculation in western lands as well as the production of tidewater crops. We see Washington, initially, a grower of tobacco and later of wheat and corn, the change made because tobacco tended to wear out the soil and kept the planter is a position of subservience to the British factor who sold his crop and, in return, sold the planter European manufactured goods, all at prices set by the factor.

The coming of the Independence movement found Washington a delegate to the Continental Congress. Flexner reports the forces within Congress which lead to Washington's appointment as Army Commander.

The section on the Revolution is informative while moving at a good pace. The personalities, battles and overall movements of the course of the conflict become clear. Here we meet Marquis de Layfayette, Lighthorse Harry Lee, and Alexander Hamilton and feel the betrayal of Benedict Arnold.

The intervention of the French forces, without which the Revolution would have failed, is skillfully documented. The relationships between the French and the Americans in general and Washington in particular are explored.

Two years after victory at Yorktown we are present at Washington's emotional farewell to his army during which he observed that he had grown "gray and nearly blind in the service of my country." Washington's long-awaited return to Mount Vernon would be merely temporary.

Washington's time at Mount Vernon between 1783 and 1789 were enjoyable years during which he played the roles of planter, canal promoter and host to all who passed by Mount Vernon.

Washington's domestic bliss would end as the need for a new form of government to replace the Articles of Confederation became obvious. Summoned to preside at the Constitutional Convention, Washington understood and carried out the role of the "Indispensable Man", the man without whom his country could not survive. Washington had become a symbol, a presence which made things happen. His availability made a single executive possible.

Throughout his presidency, Washington was more important for what he was, rather than for what he did. Washington, the symbol, was not the substance of his administration. The substance was Alexander Hamilton and, to a lesser extent, Thomas Jefferson and others.

The first term was largely devoted to setting the precedents for his successors. Washington had to set the standard on a variety of issues. The form of address for the president, the extent and form of senatorial "advice and consent", the role of the heads of the executive departments and many other precedents had to be established by trial. The main accomplishments of the first administration were the establishment of the financial underpinnings for the national government and the location of the national capitol. Foreshadowing future problems was the beginning of the break between Hamilton and Jefferson, resulting in the split between Jefferson and Washington.

Washington's desire to retire after one term was frustrated by the fact that he, again, was indispensable to the harmonious continuation of the national government. The second term was to be a disappointing one for Washington as his prestige was no longer sufficient to preserve himself from attack. The return of Jefferson to Monticello made administration totally Hamiltonian. What soon would become partisan politics crept into public affairs. The Whiskey Rebellion would be suppressed in a way which would seem to be an attack on societies allied with Jefferson. Disputes over the treaties with France and England split along the Hamiltonian/Jeffersonian fault lines. Relations with Revolutionary France would prove to be a contentious issue, bringing even Jefferson under suspicion of possible treason. By the end of his second term, Washington was determined to retire from public life permanently.

Washington's long awaited retirement to Mount Vernon lasted only two years. At the time of his return, Mount Vernon was showing the signs of the master's absence during the years of national service. The ground was badly eroded, crop yields were low and the plantation was over staffed with slaves. Washington's decision to neither buy nor sell slaves had left Mount Vernon with more labor than it could profitably employ. Upon Martha's death, the slaves owned by Washington were freed.

At the end of this book the reader is left with an acquaintance with Washington the entrepreneur, soldier, statesman, colonial and national aristocrat, as well as Washington the man. It is an acquaintance we all should make.

Rating:
Summary: does well by George....
Review: ....and the shorter version of the multivolume work was perfect for my purposes. Not a particularly well-trained strategist and only unevenly seasoned as a general, Washington really comes across, primarily by the force of his character, as the right man at the right time.

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Summary: Every American should read this book...
Review: ...and if you do, you'll be forever grateful you did. Flexner is a wonderful writer. George Washington is a subject more than worthy of his talents. Flexner takes this man, someone reduced through the years to a stiff plaster saint, and shows the real human being. Amazingly, the portrait reveals someone entirely worthy of all the adulation his contemporaries heaped upon him. Washington had faults, including enormous pride, a terrible temper, a great yen for money. He became, worst of all to modern eyes, a slave owner. Yet despite all these things, Flexner's distillation of his four volume life shows that, in the creation of these United States, Washington truly was indespensable. Though America's list of so-called Founding Fathers is legion, filled with people of extraordinary talents, the American Revolution succeeded largely because of Washington. He managed, first, to keep an army in the field despite loss after loss and the essential apathy of the Continental Congress. At the close of the war, he single-handedly kept the army from taking over the civilian government, thereby sustaining the freedom and democracy in whose name the war had been fought. Because Washington lent his prestige, support, and presence to the constitutional convention, men of substance attended and managed in the face of great controversy to craft the amazingly flexible and inclusive document which is the basis of our nation. Because everyone knew Washtington must be the first president, the Constitution that resulted did not have a weakened executive branch, which would certainly have proven unworkable. The men who wrote the Constitution held deep antipathy for a strong executive--a king, in other words. But such was their trust in Washington--the only US President ever elected unanimously--that the executive branch was made an equal partner to the legislative. Washington was fully aware that, as the first President, his every act and gesture set precedents for the future; what is astonishing is that he felt unworthy for the task and humbled by the honor. What is astonishing in Flexner's book is how the author lets his readers inside the mind of the times so that we understand the politics and emotions and lofty ideals of that now-remote time, and can see and appreciate a great man in terms that still speak eloquently today.

Rating:
Summary: Washington: Biography of his Political Life
Review: A biography is intended to be an account of someone's life - considered as a whole. Though I learned much about the working life and ethical priorities of Washington that I did not know - little was revealed about Washington; the child, the husband, the friend, etc. Flexner touches on these subjects, but to the mere extreme - and I am left wanting in knowing Washington as a whole man.

Rating:
Summary: A terrific, inspiring biography of a hero.
Review: A terrific, inspiring biography of a hero. Read this book and be amazed at (and grateful for) George Washington's dedication to an ideal and the hardships he chose to endure to make it happen. Full of personal, illuminating details, ranging from his preference for fine Madeira wine to what may have been an obsession with fancy uniforms. What a guy.

Rating:
Summary: We Need More Like Him
Review: Ahh, to have more presidents of Washington's caliber. Ahh, to have more authors of Flexner's caliber. James Thomas Flexner does an outstanding job of presenting to the reader the real Washington. This is not a biography written in the fallicious debunking tradition: "Presenting Washington as stupid, dishonest, and venal is still an occupation of hack writers, whose effusions seemingly rise in the best-seller lists in exact relation to their inaccuracy"(409). If you're at all interested in how America really began, in all of its guts and glory, and the man who played an integral part in its shaping, this book is an excellent place to start. We can learn much from the first president of this great country!

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: As I read the obituary column regarding James Flexner, today, at 95 years old, I am reminded of this book I read a few years ago. Anyone who is interested in Washington should read this book. A great biography.

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Summary: The touchstone of our country
Review: As much as anyone could deserve to be called the father of his country, Washington deserved it. And because of his competence, humility, sagaciousness, moderation, and unpretentious wisdom, he can still be a model and guide for us today.

Flexner covers all aspects of Washington's life in a clear, well organized, and vivacious narrative well-suited to the general reader. His follows solid historical practice by avoiding speculation, especially on Washington's psyche or sex life, beyond what the surviving evidence will support. I would only suggest that Flexner could have written a little more about the reasons for George's meteoric rise to popularity and prominence during the French and Indian War.

Perhaps some readers will consider a meat-and-potatoes approach disappointing, thinking it fails to shed sufficient light on the man behind the monumental image. I was persuaded however that Flexner's portrait is essentially complete. He strove for, and often reached, the ideal standards of behavior of his time, which were modeled on the classical virtues. Washington was called the "American Cincinattus", and the old Roman hero was not famous for having been garrulous and colorful.

A certain incident near the end of the Revolutionary War reveals much about Washington's character and influence. The Continental Army had been unpaid for years, and many officers had had enough. They proposed to Washington that he overthrow the feckless Continental Congress and install himself as king or dictator. Of course he made clear his absolute opposition to such an idea, but reacted with such calm and dignity, the officers left his tent in tears. The plan collapsed.

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Summary: This is not a review, but some information...
Review: Flexner also has a multivolume biogaphy which adds more detail and more thorough explanation to the events of Washington's life.

If this short biography captured your interest, then the multivolume biography will satify more o f your interest in Washington's life.

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Summary: Simply the Best Single Volume Life of Washington
Review: Flexner is considered, along with Douglas Freeman, to be the great Washington scholar. His four volume biography is a masterpiece of scholarship and historical writing. However, most readers will not have the time to plow through such a large work. Fortunately, Flexner wrote this fantastic book. He has managed to condense the essence of Washington's remarkable life into this single volume. It is every bit as informed and well written as the larger work, and for the curious, by far the best single volume biography of G.W. Every American should read this book. It's impossible to study GW as presented by Flexner and not be impressed. There is a reason why men such as Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, Madison, et al deferred to Washington. In these pages you will learn why.