George Washington: A Biography Book

This book shared a lot of details about George Washington's life that I did not know, so I learned a lot. It pretty lengthy = 717 pages long, which meant it took me many months of reading, since it was just a lunch-time read at work.

He died at the young age of 67 after taking a horse ride on his estate in the month of December. He did not wear a hat, nor did he change out of his somewhat wet clothes in the evening, so he developed a cough and a cold, which eventually took his life. From accounts of people who knew him, they thought he was in the best health of his life, but Irving makes it sound like Washington felt his life was to end soon. In fact, Washington states that he knew from the beginning of the cold/cough/flu that it would take his life. He had made detailed plans and completed his will not many months previously.

Washington Irving was named after General Washington, and it sounds that he actually met him once in a bookstore in New York (if I remember correctly). Irving is a good writer, but if you are looking for a quick read that tells you about the exciting things in Washington's life, this may not be the biography you want. He quotes from many letters and documents and tells about Washington's life, including many details about the Revolutionary War, so many of those sections are quite exciting, but it is 19th-century writing that tries to be elevated and erudite, which can be taxing at times for the modern reader.

Yes, there's so little I knew about the Revolutionary War that this book really was helpful in putting together pieces and painting a more complete picture of what actually happened.

Irving never says anything negative about General Washington and paints him as nearly perfect and yet he also details some of the intense pains that he suffered during the war trying to keep soldiers, fighting against a better-trained army, and working with Congress which rarely gave him the money or resources required. Our first president surely was an incredible man who sacrificed much so that our country could gain its independence and get started on the right foot.

I'm glad he remained neutral and ratified the treaty with England in the late 1790s. I didn't know that the year he died they were asking him to be in charge of the army should France continue hostilities against them. He could not say "No" when his country needed him.