| His Excellency: George Washington | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Joseph Ellis |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Biography |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Publication date | 2004 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 320 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 1-4000-4031-0 hardcover ISBN 1-4000-3253-9 paperback |
| OCLC Number | 54817026 |
| Dewey Decimal | 973.4/1/092 B |
| LC Classification | E312 .E245 2004 |
His Excellency: George Washington is a 2004 biography of the first President of the United States, General George Washington. It was written by Joseph Ellis, a professor of History at Mount Holyoke College.
Contents |
Through examination of the George Washington Papers, among other sources, Ellis indicates that his purpose in writing the text was to explore Washington's periods in order to offer a profile of the man "first in War, first in Peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Indeed Ellis states that his goal in writing His Excellency was to produce a work that examined not George Washington's life, but his personality and how his life shaped it.[1]
In the text, Ellis focuses on three main areas of Washington's life:
According to Ellis, Washington was always searching for a means to control his inner passions and his destiny. He fumed under the control that the British held over him during the Colonial America period. In particular, he was frustrated by the lack of respect offered for his military achievements to granting land claim rights in the west. As a general, he bemoaned the lack of control the fledgling Continental Congress had over the colonies which composed it (later as President, he created acts to ensure control of the federal government over the states).
As a man forced to make his own destiny, the theme of control would become a central issue for him. This was particularly true in the case of his beloved Mount Vernon.
Gordon S. Wood of The New Republic commented that, "Joseph J. Ellis ... has been a one-man historical machine... Ellis has entered the ranks of that tiny group of popular historians, including David McCullough, Walter Isaacson, and Ron Chernow, who sell copies of their books in the tens and even hundreds of thousands." [2]