His Excellency: George Washington
by Joseph J. Ellis
Copyright: 2004
Pages: 275
Read: Jan. 24-30, 2018
Rating: 3.5/5
Source: Paperbackswap
Blurb: To this landmark biography of our first president, Joseph J. Ellis brings the exacting scholarship, shrewd analysis, and lyric rose 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. And here is the general who lost more battles than he won, and the reluctant president to tried to float above the partisan feuding to an understanding not only of its subject but also of the nation he brought into being.
Review: With this book I embark on my presidential reading challenge!
I chose this book to start with because it appeared to be a short, all-encompassing biography. I figured it would give me a good decent background before I really got started into the meat of George Washington’s life. And for the most part, this book definitely fulfilled that. But it definitely left me wanting more. There were a lot of places that I really wanted more information on, but I realize that it’s not feasible to put every single thing about his entire life into one small volume such as this.
The writing itself in this book was extremely good. There were some dry parts, but those usually occurred when there was discussion of battle details and strategy – those topics just don’t interest me all that much. Overall I found this one easy to read and it kept my interest throughout.
The overall picture that Mr. Ellis paints of George Washington is interesting to me. What I personally came away from it was that he seemed to be a man who wanted everything he did. He claimed to not want to do this or that, namely the presidency, yet he kept coming back. He could have stepped away had he truly wanted to. Yet he was needed. And I think it was that need that kept driving him. His earlier years, he came across as extremely arrogant and not very likable to be honest. But it was his later years that you could definitely see him mature and realize that what he was living was something a lot bigger than anyone at the time could even imagine. His eye never seemed to be on the present, it always seemed to be on the future – I suppose that’s why he edited a lot of his earlier writings…. he wasn’t really writing for his immediate audience; he was writing for future audiences.
Overall, I’m very pleased that this is where I started my presidential reading challenge at. I found it to be a wonderful overview of Washington. It is an easy read, one that will most certainly appeal to casual readers. It also made me realize that my knowledge of the history of the American Revolution is severely lacking (!).
I do believe that going forward from here, when I begin a new president, I will start with something similar to this – a brief, all-encompassing volume that will give me a good starting place. This will be especially helpful with those presidents that I am truly unfamiliar with.
By the time psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware reaches the school, the damage is done: A sniper has opened fire on a crowded playground, though he’s gunned down before any children are hurt.
Madeline Dare has at last escaped rust-belt Syracuse, New York, for the lush Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. After her husband’s job offer falls through, Maddie signs on as a teacher at the Santangelo Academy, a boarding school for disturbed teenagers.
In a drab room in a hospital for the criminally insane, Dr. Paul Lucas can tell whether a patient is lying or lost, salvageable, evil, or insane. Paul interviews criminals and killers all the time. But he has never had an interview like this one …
It’s been ten years since Sasha Keeton left her West Virginia hometown … since she escaped the twisted serial killer known as the Groom. Returning to help run her family inn means being whole again, except for one missing piece. The piece that falls into place when Sasha’s threatened – and FBI agent Cole Landis vows to protect her the way he couldn’t a decade ago.
In a quiet English seaside town, antiquarian bookseller Robin Jessop has acquired an odd medieval volume. What appears to be a book isn’t a book at all but a cleverly disguised safe, in which she finds a single rolled parchment written in code.
Four days later, Louise Rick still has no answers. An unidentified woman’s body has been discovered in a local forest. The large scar on her face should have made the identification easy, but strangely nobody has reported her missing.
For thirty-five years the identity of the dismembered woman found under the Las Piernas pier has remained a mystery. What secret did she take to her grave? Southern California reporter Irene Kelly has uncovered a maze of forensic records and confidential files that suggest a motive far more sinister than anyone imagined. The discovery has brought her close to Detective Frank Harriman, and closer still to exposing a killer who will resort to anything to keep his secrets buried – and Irene silenced forever.
When the student is ready, the teacher appears. The only problem is, in this online classroom, the students are would-be serial killers eager to learn the tricks of the trade from a master, the enigmatic Cain42.
It’s a beautiful house – a perfect place to live. To dream. To start a life together. It’s the perfect place for so many things, he thinks as he puts on the gloves and reaches for her, enjoying her screams. But today, it’s a perfect place to die.
When Emily Pollifax answered the phone that Sunday morning she quickly forgot about her Garden Club tea in the afternoon. The last time she had heard the voice on the other end of the line it had sent her off on a journey that plunged her into a wild tangle of secret agents and high adventure – an exciting change from her quiet life in the New jersey suburbs. Now the man from the CIA was asking if she could leave immediately on a mission that would take her half-way across the world. What else could Mrs. Pollifax say but yes?
Adam Chase is passionate and misunderstood, a fighter. When narrowly acquitted of a murder charge, he disappears for five long years: not a clue, not a trace. Now, he’s back and nobody knows why – not his family or the cops, not the women he left behind. But Adam has his reasons.
Johnny Merrimon was twelve when his twin sister disappeared. A year later, his mother is devastated, his father gone, and life will never be the same. But Johnny has a map, a bike, and a plan. He’s going to find his sister, even if he has to track every dangerous man in the country. Meanwhile, detective Clyde Hunt has also been searching for Johnny’s sister, and he knows to what dark places a case like this can lead. But even Hunt can’t imagine how far Johnny will go to learn the truth – or what he will find when he gets there.
Chief resident Steve Mitchell is the quintessential surgeon: ambitious, intelligent, confident. Charged with molding a group of medical trainees into doctors, and in line for a coveted job, Steve has a bright future. But when a hospital patient mysteriously dies, it becomes clear that it’s a case of foul play. And the killer is set on playing a deadly game with Steve.
Tension between America and Russia is high as the UN convenes in New York City. Snow blankets the avenues of Manhattan’s exclusive Upper West Side. The storm is the perfect cover for a fashionable, highly trained team of lethal assassins as they prowl the streets. Their first hit is target practice. Their next hit could turn the Cold War red-hot once again – because they’re aiming for the president of the United States.
Tales of a Book Addict 