The author, a lady, notes that her entire personal library of books on Washington were all written by men, and finds out that no woman had written an adult biography of him in more than 40 years. Stories like this have been by men, about men, for men, with women/people of color in supporting roles, and women biographers try to focus on others in the story. She said that when telling people what she was working on, they assumed it was about his wife/marriage. "No. It's a biography. Like a man would write."
She said she got interested in Washington when reading between the lines of famous biographies like Chernow's. "At first, I found the male historians' fixation on his manliness entertaining, but the sheer repetition of their narratives needled me. She has amusing snark about how Washington's thighs drive men wild, and biographies have a stiff photo of his head or posing on a horse, a "visual coffin of a cover with a verbal coffin of a title, often adhering to the same stale format." Titles are something like "George Washington: A Biography, George Washington, A Life, George Washington, A President." "With titles this stodgy, presidential biographies will always appear to be as if they are for men of a certain age, intended to be purchased on Presidents' or Father's Day." She calls the reviewers the "Thigh Men" who write giant books (I note that hers is around 250ish) and constantly go on about how manly Washington is. She's amused at how people focus on how he wasn't a biological father, but nobody really seemed to care at the time about that.
The author also notes that Mary Washington, his mother, is portrayed as a total shrew in a lot of books, and she dubs Chernow's descriptions as "creative writing." There is a chart of all of the bad words he uses about her in the book. God forbid the woman not let her 14-year-old join the navy, apparently, what with the rumors of disease, deprivation and death that went on there. But the author gives her respect for losing a lot of her family members, losing her husband at a young age, and plugging along anyway. Later, she mentions that when Mary needed money, George offered to have her move in, but warned her that life at Mount Vernon "may be compared to a well resorted tavern," where you always needed to be dressed for company or hide in her room to avoid people. I guess she didn't move in :P
Let me quote from the start of chapter 5: "Great love stories don't often begin with dysentery. But had George Washington not contracted the disease during his final year of British military service, he would never have met Martha Dandridge Custis." LOL. Anyway, he was getting a checkup from the doctor and decided to check out the social scene. Later, we have "after a couple of failed attempts, Washington finally got the jackass he'd always wanted" (re: mule breeding).
I do enjoy how the author put short, informative charts in throughout the book to make some more facts more digestible, such as explaining briefly about how Washington's battles went during the Revolutionary War and how he lost more than he won. Washington "became the only president to take up arms against his own citizens" during the Whiskey Rebellion. He also basically started the French and Indian War. Oops.
I'm also amused at the "Frenemies" chapter, which starts out with a note saying that when Washington became president, he was beloved and by the end of his terms, he was estranged from most of his original cabinet members and future presidents, with "before and after" quotes about him from said frenemies. Thomas Paine in particular had good reason to be vengeful. And during his second term, the House of Representatives refused in 1796 to wish him well for his birthday :P I'm also amused at the letters Washington wrote to Jefferson and Hamilton trying to get them to settle down. Hamilton said he'd try to improve the situation, Jefferson quit after writing 3,000 words of rebuttal :P I'm amused at the remark about how Jefferson never realized why he always lost when he went up against Hamilton--Washington and Hamilton shared the same worldview and Hamilton was very good at articulating that.
I've always felt kind of bad that George's stepson Jacky and stepgrandson Wash were basically rich flaky layabouts with no ambition, but I did enjoy the letter from Jacky thanking Washington for being such a good guardian and that few had experienced such attention and care from real parents as he has. Wash was even worse, always hitting up for money and wanting to quit school.
Washington and his slaves were...kinda sleazy/hinky at times. On the one hand, we're told that he did request the wife of one of his slaves to be brought to him, even though Washington clearly didn't like the wife. On the other hand, once he found out that the law in Philadelphia freed slaves after they lived there for six months, he'd ship his slaves in and out. Washington was always land rich and cash poor and while he didn't go around buying slaves, a good chunk of them were from his wife's first husband's estate and he'd have to pay for them if they escaped. I note that a favorite slave, Hercules, originally indicated he didn't ever plan to run, but changed his mind after he got screwed out of his chef's job. While Washington could have freed his own slaves individually, he'd have to pay for the support of anyone he freed, and he couldn't afford it. Attempts at selling the land didn't go well--either there were no takers, or he didn't like the few there were. Also, his slaves had intermarried with the Custis slaves, and the Custis slaves weren't getting freed by that family. Finally, he put it in his will that his slaves would get freed after Martha's death--which of course made her realize her own life was at stake.
Anyway, this is a fun, shorter read, and I did enjoy the charts and snark on other biographers. If you're interested in Washington but can't do Chernow or any other "thigh men," pick this one up. I kind of feel like it gets a little slower/duller as time goes on, but that's probably how one would describe how his life went IRL as well there. Three and a half stars.
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