Marcus Cunliffe (1922–1990)

This was a decent biography about this puzzling man. Even the author admits that, even with all of Washington's letters, and journals, recorded conversations, incidents in politics, there is really very little we know about him and how he truly felt about all sorts of issues and events, so in some things, all historians can only speculate since he revealed little of his own thoughts. It would be interesting to be able to talk to the man himself and get his take on so much. I often wonder, since all the historians seem to vary wildly on what Washington actually thought and felt about things, are they imputing to him what they would actually feel/think in a given situation? As the saying goes, "What we know of ourselves, we often suspect in others"-- and at some points in the book, when the author would say "we don't really know what Mr. Washington was thinking at this point, but maybe it was....", I often thought he might have been projecting himself in that situation. But all in all, from a historical perspective and covering major events that Washington himself was a witness to or involved in, I found the book enlightening.… (more)