Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation - Hardcover

Smith, Richard Norton

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395524423 ISBN 13: 9780395524428

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1993

Synopsis

Presents an intimate account of Washington during his presidency, recounting his struggle to contain the conflicts in his cabinet (especially the celebrated feud between Jefferson and Hamilton) and to keep the new nation out of Europe's influence. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Richard Norton Smith is the author ofThomas E. Dewey and His Times and biographies of George Washington and Herbert Hoover. A distinguished political speechwriter, he has worked especially closely with Bob and Elizabeth Dole, with whom he collaborated on their best-selling memoir Unlimited Partners. The director of the Gerald R. Ford Museum and Library, he lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

From Library Journal:

George Washington's ascent to the presidency of the new republic was at once a personal triumph and a great gamble with something he held most dear--his reputation. Smith (director, Hoover Library) captures well the bittersweet presidential years, when Washington used the vast capital of his personal prestige to cement the bands of a shaky union. With wonderful use of detail and anecdote, Smith argues that Washington was not the mere figurehead that other historians have portrayed but a canny politician who mastered and controlled his brilliant subordinates, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. In a lively and engaging style, the author describes Washington's world in New York, Philadelphia, and Mt. Vernon and the major policy issues of the 1790s, especially the vituperative politics of the era. If Norton is not always careful with detail and his chronology is sometimes confusing, this is, nonetheless, history painted in broad strokes with vivid characterization, sure to attract a general readership. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/92.
- David B. Mattern, Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0395524423
• ISBN 13: 9780395524428
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 424