George Washington (American Heroes S.) - Hardcover

"Washington remains an American hero, in every definition of the word," Crutchfield says. "He was a man who rose above the political uncertainty of the infant United States to chart its destiny for two centuries into the future."

George Washington rose from anonymity as a minor landowner and surveyor to become America's first national hero. With no military training he led the thirteen fledgling colonies through five years of gruelling war against England, steering proceedings of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and served two terms as the first president of the United States. He was so revered that by the end of the war some of his generals urged him to install himself as king, an idea he looked upon with "abhorrence." Nor would he consider standing for a third term as president. In this revealing book, James Crutchfield writes of Washington as an enigmatic man ("No more elusive personality exists in history," an eminent Harvard historian observed) whose outward commonness concealed a quick, analytic mind, capable of learning from mistakes, gauging his successes not by battles but by the effect his decisions would have on of his country.