An excellent look at the life of America's father.

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	• His Excellency: George Washington Joseph J. Ellis Vintage, 2005 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 218 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An excellent look at the life of America's father.

I found this book to be a refreshing look at the life of America's greatest founding father. Ellis does a fantastic job of getting to the meat of a seemingly endless list of resources including numerous pieces of personal correspondence, and provides a more personal look into the mind of the notoriously elusive George Washington. This work does what many other similar books don't, and that is look at Washington in the context of the broader social and historical realities of his time. Without this, many of Washington's actions seem illogical or empty. Some reviewers don't appreciate the more critical aspects of the work, but it is naive to believe that Washington was totally devoid of personal flaws and internal conflicts. In fact, I believe, as Ellis describes, that these flaws are part of what made him a great leader; what he learned from his mistakes helped guide him on his journey through a very uncertain and volatile time in world history. What is more impressive, is that Ellis is able to condense such a rich and interesting life into a relatively short volume that doesn't seem lacking. It provides enough insight for those who are looking for the basics, but gives enough for those looking for more in-depth analysis and provides a foundation for more intense study. Overall, Ellis has created a fantastic biography that I would recommend to anyone interested in early American history.

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Excellent

Some have wanted to reserve 5 stars to a "War and Peace" type book. To me 5 stars means the book did what it set out to do and did it well. "His Excellency" indeed did. It is an excellent short biography of the father of our country. When I picked this book up, I realized all I knew about Washington was what I had been taught in grade school.

Ellis is an excellent biographer who delves into many aspects of Washington's life. The narrative moved well and was entertaining. Some may be put off by Ellis' style of going into analysis of issues. I found that this added to my understanding.

Washington indeed was a great man who's influence reaches us to this day. Now I know why!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

To this landmark biography of our first president, Joseph J. Ellis brings the exacting scholarship, shrewd analysis, and lyric prose that have made him one of the premier historians of the Revolutionary era. Training his lens on a figure who sometimes seems as remote as his effigy on Mount Rushmore, Ellis assesses George Washington as a military and political leader and a man whose ?statue-like solidity? concealed volcanic energies and emotions.

Here is the impetuous young officer whose miraculous survival in combat half-convinced him that he could not be killed. Here is the free-spending landowner whose debts to English merchants instilled him with a prickly resentment of imperial power. We see the general who lost more battles than he won and the reluctant president who tried to float above the partisan feuding of his cabinet. His Excellency is a magnificent work, indispensable to an understanding not only of its subject but also of the nation he brought into being.

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