Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington (1996)

“Founding Father” by Richard Brookhiser, is a biography about George Washington and divided into three parts: Washington’s career, his character, and Washington as founding father. I came to this book knowing next to nothing about George Washington or the history of the United States. And while it is clear Brookhiser writes for an American audience – as evident by some remarks about “common knowledge” that are totally unknown in Europe by the majority of people – his story about Washington was easily to follow. Throughout the book, there’s a dry wit in the writing that I enjoyed.

The first part about his career left me with the impression Washington was a good, honorable man with high morals, possessing the intelligence to know when to speak up and when to keep silent. The chapter about the constitution dragged a bit in places, but that’s probably due to personal taste, as I didn’t particularly care for the back-and-forth quoted opinions in this part. What most struck me after reading about Washington’s career was how much influence he had on the forming of the United States of America as we know it now. I believe that the independence of the USA would have been lost under any other political leader, or it would have fallen apart in self-governed states or regions eventually.

In the part about Washington’s character, I thought that Brookhiser truly showed his objectivity. He neither hero-worshipped Washington, nor did he put him down as some of the other biographers (contemporary and historically) have done. He presented his arguments clearly and showed how he formed them, so that the reader could either agree or disagree based on the evidence he presented to make his point. It’s this that many biographers fail at, and I commend Brookhiser for doing it right.

The last part, about Washington as founding father, was not as strong as the rest of the book. I understand what Brookhiser was trying to do here, namely exploring the term founding father as it applied to Washington, but compared to the other two parts it fell flat. There was a lot of philosophical ideas discussed here, and that made it more about an abstract idea than about Washington. However, the part about slavery stood out as being strong again, mainly because it did deal directly with Washington.

All in all this was a moving book about a great man. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a good overview of Washington’s life and a balanced view of who he was as a man. ( )

In Richard Brookhiser's perspective, George Washington appears to us as a remote and aloof figure, a man whose character is nearly inaccessible to us after the hero- worship of the 19th century and cynicism of the 20th. The author seeks in Founding Father to present a "moral biography" of "the real" George Washington. His approach is first to survey Washington's accomplishments (military and political) and second, to explain why he "was able to do what he did" by reference to "his nature, his morals, and his ideas."

What results is a series of sketches -- essays on aspects of Washington that add up to much less than a full- scale biography. No new ground is broken by this work in terms of its factual content. If anything, its main goal apparently is to replace current perspectives with a counter- revisionist one more palatable to conservative tastes. Whether the author's approach is any less political than other recent biographies may be a matter of opinion. For my part, I found this account disappointingly bloodless for a book that sought to present the "real" George Washington, perhaps because it omits most details of the subject's personal life. The result, in my view, is a mildly interesting sketch of an admirable figure who (despite the author's intent) remains remote and difficult to understand as a human being. Readers seeking a true biography can find plenty of others that are likely to be more to their liking. ( )

I really enjoy Richard Brookhiser's writing. However, Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington was short on "new" information. This book was very similar to another of his books on our first president, George Washington on Leadership.

Reading his introduction I became very excited about what came next, anticipating a take that was unlike any other book on the Revolutionary War hero. Brookhiser's idea was to separate Washington's influence and life experiences into three distinct categories: war; presidency and politics; and personal life concluding with his death. It was the first chapter that I grew disheartened. The substance read like most other contemporary books on the General who cut his wooden teeth on skirmishes with the French. Very little new or interesting revelations were incorporated into the classic Brookhiser writing - which was the chapter's saving grace.

With the next two sections, the information became new and fresh. Richard Brookhiser wove his ideology into relating his opinions of the time to relate not only George Washington's political side, but the cultural norms of the period. Brookhiser took time to cover other influences of the time to put into context President Washington's actions and efforts. And the author spent a lot of time discussing the President's love of theater and incorporating his frequent analogies in letters and speeches to life's stage.

Over all, if you don't find Richard Brookhiser's prose enjoyable, there is little to read this book for. Yet, if you are like me and enjoy his brisk, poignant observations of politics this book might be of interest. ( )

Short, but decent. ( )