His writing is majestic and masterful, but so accessible for even the amateur historian. Chernow offers constant modern psychological analyses of George the man, honest and sympathetic, yet does it so subtly that it never breaks the beautiful narrative of the past. The depth of his research is remarkable-the amount of primary sources he references is amazing, and the quality of his writing is beyond compare.
After remarking that "George Washington has receded so much in our collective memory that he has become an impossibly stiff and inflexible figure, composed of too much marble to be quite human" (a stunningly written sentence!), Chernow goes on to excavate the flesh and blood man from this marble prison and introduce the reader to the real Washington in wonderful detail. But in reading Ron Chernow's masterful biography, I was thrilled to discover that the real George Washington, with all his rage, insecurity, sarcasm, inappropriate romantic crushes, and profound internal conflicts, is far more fascinating than the legend.Ĭhernow accomplishes something in this book that is incredibly admirable to me, something difficult to achieve, yet of unmeasurable importance for any great history. But for all his fame, George Washington has been mythologized so thoroughly that we hardly see his humanity, his flaws and passions we only see his god-like reign in the American Revolution and as first President of the United States, his inability to tell a lie, his horrific dental problems and still more horrific dentures, and something to do with a cherry tree. The majestic view of the Potomac from his luxurious piazza remains nearly unchanged, and even his bedroom where he died in 1799 is untouched, forever holding the ghost of the man who is perhaps one of the most famous American historical figures of all time. The mansion still stands exactly as George left it the outbuildings with his stables, overseer's quarters, slaves' cabins, meat drying hut, blacksmith hut, all preserved as he would have known them. It was beautiful, elegant in its simplicity and cunning in its attempts to appear richer than it really was. I recently visited Mount Vernon, George Washington's prized estate and residence in Northern Virginia.
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