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The 10 Best Books on President George Washington

Essential books on george washington.

There are countless books on George Washington, and it comes with good reason, beyond serving as America’s first President (1789-1797), he was commander in chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

“There is nothing which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of science and literature,” he believed. “Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”

In order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of history’s most consequential figures to the heights of societal contribution, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best books on George Washington.

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

Celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation and the first president of the United States. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume biography of George Washington, this crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his adventurous early years, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America’s first president.

Washington’s Revolution: The Making of America’s First Leader by Robert Middlekauff

Focusing on Washington’s early years, Bancroft Prize winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Robert Middlekauff penetrates his mystique, revealing his all-too-human fears, values, and passions. Rich in psychological detail regarding Washington’s temperament, idiosyncrasies, and experiences, this book shows a self-conscious Washington who grew in confidence and experience as a young soldier, businessman, and Virginia gentleman, and who was transformed into a patriot by the revolutionary ferment of the 1760s and ’70s.

Middlekauff makes clear that Washington was at the heart of not just the revolution’s course and outcome but also the success of the nation it produced. This vivid, insightful new account of the formative years that shaped a callow George Washington into an extraordinary leader is an indispensable book for truly understanding one of America’s great figures.

The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789 by Edward Larson

After leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, George Washington shocked the world: he retired. In December 1783, General Washington, the most powerful man in the country, stepped down as Commander in Chief and returned to private life at Mount Vernon. Yet as Washington contentedly grew his estate, the fledgling American experiment floundered. Under the Articles of Confederation, the weak central government was unable to raise revenue to pay its debts or reach a consensus on national policy.

The states bickered and grew apart. When a Constitutional Convention was established to address these problems, its chances of success were slim. Jefferson, Madison, and the other Founding Fathers realized that only one man could unite the fractious states: George Washington. Reluctant, but duty-bound, Washington rode to Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to preside over the Convention.

Although Washington is often overlooked in most accounts of the period, this masterful new history from Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward J. Larson brilliantly uncovers Washington’s vital role in shaping the Convention – and shows how it was only with Washington’s support and his willingness to serve as President that the states were brought together and ratified the Constitution, thereby saving the country.

His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis

To this landmark biography of our first president, Joseph J. Ellis brings the exacting scholarship, shrewd analysis, and lyric prose 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. We see the general who lost more battles than he won and the reluctant president who tried to float above the partisan feuding of his cabinet.

Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer

Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia.

Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington and many other Americans refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor’easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days.

The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis’s best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington’s men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined.

This gem among books on George Washington reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides.

Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Flexner

After more than two decades, this dramatic and concise single-volume distillation of James Thomas Flexner’s definitive four-volume biography of George Washington, which received a Pulitzer Prize citation and a National Book Award for the fourth volume, has itself become an American classic.

The author unflinchingly paints a portrait of Washington: slave owner, brave leader, man of passion, reluctant politician, and fierce general. His complex character and career are neither glorified nor vilified here; rather, Flexner sets up a brilliant counterpoint between Washington’s public and private lives and gives us a challenging look at the man who has become as much a national symbol as the American flag.

An Imperfect God  by Henry Wiencek

When George Washington wrote his will, he made the startling decision to set his slaves free; earlier he had said that holding slaves was his “only unavoidable subject of regret.” In this groundbreaking work, Henry Wiencek explores the founding father’s engagement with slavery at every stage of his life – as a Virginia planter, soldier, politician, president and statesman.

Washington was born and raised among blacks and mixed-race people; he and his wife had blood ties to the slave community. Yet as a young man he bought and sold slaves without scruple, even raffled off children to collect debts (an incident ignored by earlier biographers). Then, on the Revolutionary battlefields where he commanded both black and white troops, Washington’s attitudes began to change. He and the other framers enshrined slavery in the Constitution, but, Wiencek shows, even before he became president Washington had begun to see the system’s evil.

Wiencek’s revelatory narrative, based on a meticulous examination of private papers, court records, and the voluminous Washington archives, documents for the first time the moral transformation culminating in Washington’s determination to emancipate his slaves. He acted too late to keep the new republic from perpetuating slavery, but his repentance was genuine.

George Washington’s heroic stature as Father of Our Country is not diminished in this superb, nuanced portrait: now we see Washington in full as a man of his time and ahead of his time.

George Washington: A Biography by Washington Irving

Washington Irving’s  Life of George Washington (published in five volumes in 1856-59) was the product of his last years and remains his most personal work. Christened with the name of the great general, Irving was blessed by Washington while still a boy of seven, and later came to know many of the prominent figures of the Revolution. In these pages he describes them using firsthand source material and observation. The result is a book which is fascinating not only for its subject (the American Revolution), but also for how it reveals in illuminating detail the personality and humanity of a now remote, towering icon.

But one cannot read Irving’s  Life  without marveling at the supreme art behind it, for his biography is foremost a work of literature. Charles Neider’s abridgment and editing of Irving’s long out-of-print classic has created a literary work comparable in importance and elegance to the original.   George Washington, A Biography , Neider’s title for his edition of Irving’s  Life , makes the work accessible to modern audiences.

Founding Friendship by Stuart Eric Leibiger

Although the friendship between George Washington and James Madison was eclipsed in the early 1790s by the alliances of Madison with Jefferson and Washington with Hamilton, their collaboration remains central to the constitutional revolution that launched the American experiment in republican government. Washington relied heavily on Madison’s advice, pen, and legislative skill, while Madison found Washington’s prestige indispensable for achieving his goals for the new nation.

Observing these two founding fathers in light of their special relationship, this gem among books on George Washington argues against a series of misconceptions about the men. Madison emerges as neither a strong nationalist of the Hamiltonian variety nor a political consolidationist; he did not retreat from nationalism to states’ rights in the 1790s, as other historians have charged. Washington, far from being a majestic figurehead, exhibits a strong constitutional vision and firm control of his administration.

1776 by David McCullough

In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence – when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.

Based on extensive research in both American and British archives,  1776  is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King’s men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known.

If you enjoyed this guide to books on George Washington, be sure to check out our list of The 10 Best Books on President John Adams !

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19 Best Books on George Washington (2022 Review)

September 20, 2020 by James Wilson

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George Washington served as an American political leader, military general and one of the founding fathers. He’s known as a patriot for leading forces to victory in America’s war for independence. As one of the most pivotal figures in American history, his leadership and character have been studied over generations.

What are the Best George Washington Books to read?

If you’ve ever been interested in the life of George Washington and you would like to read more about his life and story, you should consider a number of top books that are available about his life. With someone as well known as George Washington it can be difficult to narrow down the right types of books that you should pick up.

Luckily there have been a number of recent works about George Washington that you can check out on you’re e reader, phone or tablet. They’re all readily available on Amazon and you can pick them up in paper format or read them online.

Best Books on George Washington: Our Top 19 Picks

Here is our definitive guide of some of the best books on George Washington for your own curiosity and research:

1. George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution

This book by Ron Chernow is a complete biography of George Washington. The book carries a portrait of George Washington as a boy through his exports in the French and Indian war as well as his time with the Continental Army.

There are vast details including his involvement with the Constitutional convention and notable stories from his time as America’s first president. If you are seeking a true biological retelling of George Washington’s life, this is a wonderful and celebrated background about the man himself. Chernow completed a massive amount of research to establish one of the most complete portraits of George Washington we have ever seen.

• Authors : Brian Kilmeade (Author), Don Yaeger (Author)
• Publisher : Sentinel; Reprint Edition (October 18, 2016)
• Pages : 320 pages

2. Washington: A Life

In this biography published by Joseph J. Ellis, we gain another biographical retelling of George Washington’s political career. Focusing on Washington’s impact on the nation as well as his thoughts on imperial power, this is a novel that looks more into George Washington’s motivations and his true energy throughout politics.

We learn more about George Washington’s stories of battle, his struggles with land ownership as well as an indispensable understanding of his impact on America today. His Excellency is a biography that can give you true appreciation for it the way the George Washington shaped America as a nation.

• Authors : Ron Chernow (Author)
• Publisher : Penguin Press (October 5, 2010)
• Pages : 904 pages

3. The First Conspiracy (Young Reader’s Edition)

This book is far different than other novels on George Washington in the sense that it was written by George Washington himself. This book was adapted from the notebooks of George Washington and in established 110 rules to live. By getting this insight into his past and the way that he saw the world, these pages are designed to help anyone that is interested in discovering the path towards living more like George Washington.

If you are interested in following some of his teachings and discoving the way that George Washington truly lived, this is a book that you should highly consider. George Washington’s rules set includes a number of subjects and was inspired by a set of rules composed by French just so it’s in the year 1595.  It includes a list of etiquette on how to walk, eat in public, address one superiors, dress and more.

• Authors : Brad Meltzer (Author), Josh Mensch (Author)
• Publisher : Roaring Brook Press; Young Reader’s ed. Edition (January 7, 2020)
• Pages : 368 pages

4. Being George Washington: The Indispensable Man, as You’ve Never Seen Him

With a riveting tale from Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch we learn about a previously untold aspect of American history in which George Washington was the target of a counterintelligence case. Elite soldiers were picked to serve as George Washington’s bodyguards in the year 1776.

This would serve as some of the original secret service members but without Washington’s knowledge, there were a series of these men that were part of a plan to eliminate George Washington before the Revolutionary war. The Cedar plot was revealed, but in this dramatic retelling we learn just how close America came to losing the Revolutionary war and one of its greatest military leaders.

• Authors : Glenn Beck (Author)
• Publisher : Threshold Editions; First Edition/First Printing (November 22, 2011)
• Pages : 304 pages

5. His Excellency: George Washington

Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger delivers a historically accurate retelling of Washington’s recovery after a retreat from New York City in 1776. This book includes information on the Culper Spy Ring which was part of the plan to defeat the British in a sophisticated intelligence ring.

The two authors spent extensive time researching the spires including the back story of a mysterious woman, a Long Island bachelor, a young longshoremen, a tavern keeper, a coffee shop owner, and a Quaker merchant. The secret six are true American heroes and this is a story of George Washington and this group of incredible spies.

• Authors : Joseph J. Ellis (Author)
• Publisher : Vintage; Illustrated Edition (November 8, 2005)
• Pages : 352 pages

6. The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789

Hourly history published a short read guide on the history of George Washington. The goal of this hourly history biography is to take an in-depth look at the life of George Washington with a distilled research focus. This is the perfect guide to pick up before coming to Washington DC or exploring sites associated with George Washington.

Gaining an appreciation for his life and impact on America can be easy after examining this distilled experience. With comprehensive back story and a full memoir concerning George Washington, this is an easy read that can bring you up to speed on the life of a great man.

• Authors : Edward J. Larson (Author)
• Publisher : William Morrow; 1st Edition (October 7, 2014)
• Pages : 384 pages

7. The Real George Washington (American Classic Series)

Janice T. Connell shares the story of the brilliant leadership of the first and only unanimously elected president of the United States. With an improved picture of his past and modern circumstances to his self-taught education, this is an intensive look at his life and past.

This biography relates his leadership towards some of the events in his past that shaped his lifestyle. Seeing this great leader rise to power after the boyhood trauma of losing his father is a story that will give you a completely unique perspective on Washington and his past.

• Authors : Jay A. Parry (Author), Andrew M. Allison (Author)
• Publisher : National Center for Constitutional Studies; Illustrated Edition (December 1, 1991)
• Pages : 928 pages

8. George Washington’s Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation (Little Books of Wisdom)

Nathaniel Pilbrick  shares a historical account of the Naval Battle from 1780. In the Hurricanes Eye tells the story of making the impossible happen and how George Washington was able to orchestrate one of the most important naval engagements in the history of the world.

Culminating with the battle of Chesapeake, this wide-ranging story explains the lead up to the battle including every unexpected turn at sea and while coordinating the vessels involved. In the hurricanes eye explains the true fate of this battle and how it impacted the American Revolution. This book is the perfect window into Washington’s mind as a strategist.

• Authors : George Washington (Author)
• Publisher : Applewood Books; Here are the 110 rules which George Washington copied into his early notebooks a Edition (August 1, 1989)
• Pages : 36 pages

9. In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown (The American Revolution Series)

This historical novel reveals one of the most overlooked chapters of George Washington’s life.  Pulitzer Prize winning author Edward Larson writes  unique details on this timespan.  Detailing the way the George Washington say the United States by coming out of retirement to lead the constitutional  convention and the  decisions made during this time, this is a  unique perspective on this specific aspect of Washington’s life.

After  retiring in December of 1783,  George Washington stepped down and was called upon once again in this unique chapter of his life. Learn how his direct involvement was able to reach new national policy that affected the  United States permanently.  This chapter is just one of the many times that George Washington was able to save the nation.

• Authors : Nathaniel Philbrick (Author)
• Publisher : Viking; Illustrated Edition (October 16, 2018)

10. Washington: The Indispensable Man

Written by Jay A Parry and Andrew M. Allison, this story details the impact that George Washington had on mankind and the story of his life.  Told as a biographical approach,  this novel details the founding of America as well as more on the dominant personality that was George Washington.

Details include a focus on the Constitutional convention,  and the Revolutionary war as was the first national administration.  The story and the impact of George Washington is highlighted throughout and the  biography showcases many of the ways that Washington became one of the most into sensible people in American history. This is a novel that is regularly highlighted amongst some of the best classic books on  George Washington’s life.

• Authors : James Thomas Flexner (Author)
• Publisher : Back Bay Books; Back Bay Books Edition (February 22, 1994)
• Pages : 448 pages

11. George Washington: A Life From Beginning to End (Biographies of US Presidents Book 1)

• Authors : Hourly History (Author)
• Publisher : Independently published (May 13, 2019)
• Pages : 46 pages

12. Ascent of George Washington

As one of the most revered Americans in history,  George Washington is widely considered to be a stoic leader. In  John Ferling’s  telling of the political journey of George Washington,  we learn more about the way  Washington was as a politician and as a  true leader.

We can discover more about his involvement with the Army,  how his political savvy  enabled him to out maneuver British forces and how he was able to manage  uniting the nation. This ‘s detailed account showcases Washington’s ability to out maneuver rival generals, utilize his  political prowess and more. If you are  interested in learning more about George Washington as a political leader,  this is an excellent starting point.

• Authors : John Ferling (Author)
• Publisher : Bloomsbury Press; Illustrated Edition (June 2, 2009)
• Pages : 464 pages

13. The Spiritual Journey of George Washington

• Authors : Janice T. Connell (Author)
• Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 8/31/13 Edition (September 30, 2013)
• Pages : 246 pages

14. The Bulletproof George Washington

The bulletproof George Washington is a novel from David Barton  detailing his experiences in the French and Indian war. Many of these  dramatic retellings of Washington’s time in this  era do not detail the  peril that he faced.

This  action-packed retelling showcases that Washington truly was bulletproof as one of the only officers on horseback to avoid being shot down.  His Dracula’s escape as well as the stories of adventure that he faced give a  newfound appreciation of Washington at war and the  brilliant tactician that he was.

• Authors : David Barton (Author)
• Publisher : WallBuilder Press; 3rd Edition (December 19, 2002)
• Pages : 62 pages

15. George Washington, Spymaster

This award-winning National Geographic book presents the untold story of the war that occurred throughout the American Revolution between spies and counter spies.  George Washington created one of  America’s first spy rings and this  National Geographic detailed look delivers an entertaining and unique account on some of the most important individuals in the history of the nation.

This is a quite compelling narrative that details the roles played by George Washington as well as each one of the spies in his spy ring. With an  interesting look into covert operations,  codes and ciphers,  double agents and more this is a  detailed historical account filled with intrigue and suspense. Learn how the nation was won with spies in this Thomas B. Allen novel.

• Authors : Thomas B. Allen (Author)
• Publisher : National Geographic Children’s Books; Illustrated Edition (January 9, 2007)
• Pages : 184 pages

16. George Washington’s Secret Six (Young Readers Adaptation)

George Washington’s secret six adapted for young readers is a Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger  novel detailing more on the spies that saved America.  Throughout the American Revolution, Gen.

George Washington produced his own spy ring. In this  young adult series,  youth readers can learn more about the unique group of spies that were conscripted by George Washington and how they were able to infiltrate the  British Army. As an  accessible novel for young readers,  this is one of the best ways to learn more about one of the most crucial times in American history.  Written as a historical thriller, this is a book that can  keep you on the edge of your seat as it details an  influential time in group Washington’s life as a tactician.

• Publisher : Puffin Books; Illustrated Edition (January 28, 2020)
• Pages : 176 pages

17. George Washington: The Wonder of the Age

The wonder of the age is an award-winning library of  America collection of George Washington’s best writings. John Rhodehamel curated a wide range of Washington’s papers.  Including detailed descriptions of the correspondence,  this is the perfect way to learn more about George Washington’s unique writing style and see some of his most interesting works.

With writing that dates all the way back to his early 20s to correspondence published later on in his life, these are works that can put you further in touch with the man that  George Washington was in his day-to-day life and with his closest correspondence.

• Authors : John Rhodehamel (Author)
• Publisher : Yale University Press; 1st Edition (February 22, 2017)

18. George Washington: Writings (Library of America)

The George Washington writings from the Library of America includes a volume of his writing edited by John H. Rhodehamel.  This is one of the most extensive collections of over five decades of Washington’s life work.

In this series of volumes we can learn more about the over 440 letters, orders and  addresses the George Washington published throughout his life.  Many of the early writings include details from George Washington’s Journal that he was publishing at the age of 16 as well as future correspondence. Gain a detailed insight into the world of George Washington by reading some of his most important writing through this volume.

• Authors : George Washington (Author), John H. Rhodehamel (Editor)
• Publisher : Library of America (February 22, 1997)
• Pages : 1184 pages

19. National Geographic Readers: George Washington (Readers Bios)

In this volume of historical articles published by National Geographic, the contents have been edited and designed for children of all ages to learn.  Based at a level to reading level, Caroline Crosson Gilpin dipped into National Geographic’s extensive archives to pull unique articles and artifacts from George Washington to presented a historical format for kids.

This carefully levelled reader is written in a manner that any young historian can follow and there are a  wealth of interesting fax throughout George Washington’s life from his  a time in war,  to his retirement and more.

• Authors : Caroline Crosson Gilpin (Author)
• Publisher : National Geographic Kids (January 7, 2014)
• Pages : 32 pages

Choosing the Best George Washington Books

If you would  like to learn more about George Washington any of these top books could be a great start.  With many perspectives on this great man, you can further your  knowledge while gaining a  more in-depth appreciation on how he lived his life.

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Rediscover America’s First President with the Best George Washington Books

Meet the man behind the legend. 

When we learned about George Washington in school, we were taught the basics: He was the first president, he wore a powdered white wig, and he was rumored to have cut down a cherry tree (not true, by the way). We're reminded of his everlasting influence when we grip one dollar bills or feed quarters into vending machines. But there’s a lot more to George Washington—from his policies to the precedents he set that later presidents followed for hundreds of years—that is worth exploring.

These informative and eye-opening George Washington books will challenge what you think you know about him and the legacy that he left for the United States. 

Dust off exclusive book deals and tales from the past when you join The Archive 's newsletter.

By James Thomas Flexner

This text includes all four volumes of Flexner’s ambitious biography of Washington’s life. It spans from Washington’s birth, to his work as a businessman in Virginia, to his views on the institution of slavery. From the very first sentence, Flexner makes the claim that “No American is more completely misunderstood than George Washington”, and the rest of the text proves just that. 

Related: "Villainous Perfidy": Benedict Arnold's Betrayal of George Washington  

Washington is often viewed as being above moral reproach. Flexner gives him a sense of realness and flawed humanity by describing how Washington’s policies could be contradictory and how England and France influenced the new American democracy.

Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington

By Richard Brookhiser

Brookhiser divided his book into concise sections: career, character, founding father, death. Noting that Washington distanced himself from others while he lived—which translated to his legacy—Brookhiser explores the idea of Washington really being an unknown hero. We revere him, but we know very little about who he was aside from politics. 

The book is mainly focused on Washington’s life once he became a strong military leader and, eventually, a respected politician. This book is perfect for those who wonder how Washington’s legacy and leadership shaped the current American political landscape. 

Washington: A Life

By Ron Chernow

Chernow wants the reader to know that George Washington was a man filled with passion, strong mood changes, and vivacity. The book won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography–with the breadth of information in the text, it is clear why. The book details the entirety of Washington’s life, from his boyhood days to his final days at Mount Vernon and everything in between. Chernow includes personal details about Washington, like his role as a mentor to his stepson, John Parke Custis, whose children Washington financially supported after Custis’s early death. This tenderness is juxtaposed with the rigid air that Washington favored when in public, which adds to his complicated portrayal in American history. 

Related: 12 Books That Offer Perspectives on the Presidents

George Washington: First Guardian of American Liberty

By Michael Crawley

Crawley tackles the details that are sometimes neglected in other biographies: Washington was a slaveholder, and much of his wealth came from his wife’s deceased ex husband. This book is best for beginners to our first president’s legacy, who want a basic understanding of Washington. Crawley’s take also manages to offer new perspectives to those who have read other works focused on Washington’s life and accomplishments. Crawley makes it clear in his introduction that he is trying to offer a full narrative of Washington’s life, not one that is meant to destroy his honor. He argues that Washington’s flaws are in part due to the time period that he lived in, and readers should understand and accept that.  

George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution

By Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaegar

America almost lost the Revolutionary War just after it started. After a failed battle in New York City in August 1776, General Washington and his troops retreated–but he had to devise a new strategy in order to stay in the war. How was he able to salvage the war and ultimately turn it into a victory for the independent cause? He recruited a network of spies called the Culper Spy Ring. 

Related: George Washington Was Nearly Impossible to Kill  

Kilmeade and Yaeger present the men who made up the Culper Spy Ring and their unexpected backgrounds. One owned a tavern, while another owned a coffee shop, a third was a known bachelor on Long Island, and one man was an unsuspecting Quaker merchant— just to describe a few. The six men in the Spy Ring are rarely written about, but without them, the outcome of the American Revolution may have been very different. A different take on a typical Washington biography, the book focuses on those who helped Washington become a successful general.

Young Washington

By Peter Stark

Released just this year, Young Washington is already making its mark in the world of George Washington biographies. Stark focuses on Washington before his success as a general–back when he was just a cocky, unfocused soldier in the British Army. The book details how Washington's actions set in motion the French and Indian War when he was only in his twenties, which ultimately influenced the beginnings of the American Revolution. Exploring Washington's wilderness adventures and the early battles that shaped his military career, Stark traces the path of the man who became America's first president.

George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War

By Thomas B. Allen

Another book detailing the network of spies that George Washington utilized during the American Revolution, George Washington, Spymaster is a riveting reconstruction of how Washington discovered, used and kept his spies secret. This book is accessible enough for children and informative enough to keep any adult invested.

Related: 9 Fascinating Books About the Founding Fathers of America  

Not all of the spies in Washington’s network had the purest of intentions. Some were double agents, and all had the ability to be duplicitous. Washington had never even met all of the spies working for him, but he trusted them to work for the betterment of the Patriot cause. The spies employed techniques like using invisible ink to send secret messages, which may leave you picturing the Revolutionary War as a spy movie.

By David McCullough

In order to understand George Washington’s goal in achieving independence, it is imperative to know more about the other key players involved in the American Revolution—on both sides of the issue. Though the text primarily focuses on Washington’s role as a military leader, McCullough also mentions King George III and Continental Army heavyweights Nathanael Greene and Henry Knox. One of the classics in the history of the American Revolution, anyone interested in the birth of our nation or the first president should read 1776 .

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A New Book About George Washington Breaks All the Rules on How to Write About George Washington

Alexis Coe’s cheeky biography of the first president pulls no punches

History Correspondent

No one would describe Alexis Coe’s unconventional biography of conventional biographical subject George Washington as boring. Starting with its cover illustration, a playful Washington grinning at the reader, You Never Forget Your First is a wink of sorts, at Washington biography and at the ways that Americans have very consistently misremembered the first president. Coe sets herself apart from the historians she refers to as the “Thigh Men” of history: biographers like Joseph Ellis, Harlow Giles Unger, and Ron Chernow, esteemed writers in their own rights but ones who seemingly focus on Washington as a marble Adonis (with impressive thighs—we’ll get to that), rather than as a flawed, but still impressive, human being.

Coe mixes up genre and presentation, beginning with a preface composed of listicles, with the first a set of basic things to know about Washington (“jobs held”). And the book is compact. While “weighty tome” is the typical format for founder’s biographies, this one comes in at just 304 lively pages. (Chernow’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Washington was an astounding 904 pages.) But Coe’s offering is still a full biography, covering birth to death and the highlights of his life and career between. And, because it’s a biography, George Washington remains at the center. For Smithsonian magazine, I sat down to talk at length about Washington, Washington biographies, and where You Never Forget Your First resides in the founder’s canon. The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

You describe that when you told people you were writing a biography of George Washington, they would assume you’re writing about his social life and you would respond, “No, it’s a biography , like a man would write.” And I’ve seen elsewhere you’ve referred to this as a feminist biography. Is it? Or is this what it looks like when a feminist writes biography?

That happened all the time; in the doctor’s office, at Mount Vernon when I went to research. And I actually borrowed that phrase, I realized later, from my first book [about a murder case involving young, female lovers]. When newspapers would try to describe same-sex love and they were at a loss for a word to identify it because lesbian was still 40 years into the future, they would simply say, “You know, like a man would do.”

And so I know that when all else failed, and people seemed to be grasping at the concept, I remind them that women are fully formed humans who are interested in the presidency as much as they are interested in his marriage.

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington

New York Times bestselling co-author of Notorious RBG Alexis Coe takes a closer look at our first--and finds he is not quite the man we remember

The book really just jumps up and asks you to pay attention; it’s not a book that you ease into. The preface presents a series of charts, like of the jobs Washington had, or the animals he raised, or the false information that still circulates about him. Other chapters begin with similar infographics. What was your approach to these?

If history is boring, it’s the historian’s fault. Obviously, the title is so provocative; it can get them to pick up the book, but how can I make them feel like they are well equipped to dive into George Washington’s life, the Revolutionary Era, to understand how someone fights for the British Army and ends up leading a rebellion against them? To understand Jefferson, Hamilton, the presidency?

I make these lists for myself [when researching], and it’s sort of like being [with me] in the archives. I wish readers could see everything, and they don’t get to. This is an offering from me to the reader, telling them, “You know how to read this book. You have everything you need to feel as though you’re an expert,”

And so there’s a ton of front matter, as I call it, that really introduces you to Washington as a whole person. We know that he’s the general, but we also have to acknowledge that another title he held was master. We should know that he was very into animals. We should know this his body was amazing not because he had great thighs, but because he survived so many things. There’s front matter in the beginning of the book and then there’s front matter in front of each section and then there are charts and graphs throughout the chapters.

I want this book to be a sort of equalizer and to be fun. History is fun, even when it’s difficult subject matter.

I was interested in your saying that people ask you, “Didn’t you approach Washington with reverence?” And you just didn’t have this reverent posture that previous biographers did. You just thought, “He’s a guy.”

I sometimes think that when Ellis and Chernow and all of these famous Pulitzer-Prize-winning historians were writing a book on Washington, they had to take an oath. Like, “I will write book in the exact same way. I will declare him too marble to be real, and then I will proceed just as the person before me did.”

The reverence jumps off the page. They’re so protective of him and are so impressed by him and his masculinity. I take [his masculinity] as a foregone conclusion. The diseases he survived taught me that, [as did] the war and the way that he was regarded by other people. I just don’t see why historians need to talk about it for pages and pages.

I don’t feel a need to protect Washington; he doesn’t need me to come to his defense, and I don’t think he needed his past biographers to, either, but they’re so worried about him. I’m not worried about him. He’s everywhere. He’s just fine. President Trump went to Mount Vernon and said, “Unless you put your name on things, nobody remembers you.” His name is everywhere. His name is on the city that Trump works in.

Instead of calling me irreverent, we should question why these men are so reverent and why we trust them to tell stories because that is, to me, a disconcerting bias. And a blind spot. My god, did they miss things. And they just repeat each other. In this pursuit of idolatry, they completely miss things and they have zero curiosity outside of what has been covered. They’re not interested in women. There’s just not variety, really until you look at Erica Dunbar and Never Caught . [Dunbar’s 2017 history, a National Book Award finalist, focuses on Ona Judge, an enslaved woman who ran for freedom and was pursued by George and Martha Washingto.] They’re not interested in considering other perspectives. I honestly didn’t know why certain people write books about him except to just have another book, to sort of write a book about Washington as if it was a check mark.

Do you think that this is a problem with biographies as a genre? After all, it was a genre designed to be about exemplary men!

I have a lot of issues with presidential biographies. This is not a problem particular to Washington, but it is acute when it comes to Washington biographies. If you read a biography on John Adams, they’re going to have a little bit of fun with it. They’re going to have fun with how verbose he is, his relationship with Abigail, his children. Everything is a little bit more comfortable.

What are Washington’s biographers missing, then?

Washington biographies need to be very different, going forward. And I hope that that is a contribution that I’ve made, that it is the start of change. It’s really important that, in a biography about Washington, we talk about what we know as historians, that we’re really honest, intellectually honest about what we saw in the archive. And that includes putting in anecdotes about Washington slapping an enslaved man because he could not lift a log on his own. Past biographers, and particularly Chernow, cannot deny that he was a slaveholder. They cannot deny that he would say he didn’t want to separate families, but sometimes did. Washington would say that his thoughts about slavery were changing, but he would talk about enslaved people in ways that showed that they were not.

Something that these biographers talk about is that Washington had very high expectations of other people, but if you just say that, I don’t know what that means. Does that mean that I expect you to be on time? Expecting someone to meet your needs, saying that generally—okay, I’d understand that quality. Imagining Washington assaulting someone he owns because he couldn’t lift a giant log on his own, that paints a very different picture and we need that there alongside all the other things that enable him to lead and win the Revolution and become the first president.

I loved the way you talked about Chernow and these other guys and their emphasis on Washington’s manly thighs.

To tell you the truth, I really never noticed Washington’s thighs in portraits, but [male biographers] wouldn’t stop talking about them. I’d never read a biography on a woman where they talked about her legs constantly. I’d never thought about a woman ... I’m thinking about someone like Sylvia Plath. I’d never looked at a photo of her and thought about her legs.

And the way that they would describe them, “He gripped the saddle with his thunderous thighs.” It was a little inappropriate, sometimes read like a romance novel. And I couldn’t really figure out why. Did they just really love his thighs? Were there a lack of great thighs in early America?

I Googled a portrait of Hamilton’s, just to see how they compared. They were also very nice, but ... why this fixation on [this part of] Washington’s masculinity. Then I would think about the things around sexuality and around reproduction that they also focused on. And together, what it told me was that they were very nervous about something. An example is, well, Washington had no biological children,but [the Thigh Men] don’t immediately say that he was the father to 15 wards during his lifetime.

He wrote them all very long letters. He was full of advice, so much advice. He was a really active father. He considered Martha’s children and grandchildren, he raised them, Washington considered them his own. So why don’t we?

And then [the Thigh Men] feel the need to explain [his lack of biological children], when it seems really obvious to me that Washington was unable to have children as a result of smallpox. And instead of just accepting that, they have to talk about his masculinity. They have to talk about how the reason that they didn’t have children was probably Martha’s fault, even though she had children so we know that she could, and there’s absolutely nothing to suggest that they were difficult childbirths. And yet, they introduce that as if it’s an option, so it’s misleading to the reader.

And from there, they really go off the rails. They start talking about how he was ... God forbid, anyone should suspect that he was gay or asexual or impotent. They jump ahead of you ten steps and start telling you why he isn’t, before you’ve even thought it because, honest, I wouldn’t have. I wouldn’t care enough, but they’re really nervous about this.

This defensiveness of Washington and of his masculinity is so conspicuous that I needed to point it out. And when you’re defending something, it also means you’re attacking something. So, they tend to defend men and attack women. And they attack his mother, and they really don’t want to attack Martha because she is a perfect foil to his mother, but when they have to, they’ll go after her ability to bear children, even though, again, she demonstrated that she could perfectly well.

I wanted to ask about race and slavery, too. You have these powerful moments in the book where you talk about Billy Lee, an enslaved man who was quite an important character in the life and exploits of Washington. But Billy Lee kinds of stands in for Washington’s attitude towards enslaved people in significant ways. What role do race and racism plays in the book?

Billy Lee is Washington’s best friend, his right-hand man. And it’s true, he was the exception in Washington’s mind, but to introduce him into the narrative whenever you need to make sure that people know that he could see black people as humans is a disservice to the entire production. There is a misconception that Billy Lee had always been owned, for example, by Washington because of the way that they talk about him.

[Other historians] also often say that Billy Lee was sold to Washington, which I hate. No, Washington went and bought [Billy Lee]. He was looking for slaves to purchase and that’s what he did. It’s a funny way of sort of shifting responsibility just a little bit to make them feel better.

Billy Lee served Washington during the Revolution and was injured in Washington’s service. He injured his knees twice, once during a fox hunt, once during the Revolution. And as a result, he couldn’t keep up. And when he couldn’t keep up, Washington retired him. But upon his death, Billy Lee was the only enslaved person who Washington liberated.

I know you know this, but the reason I review it is because we’re talking about one man out of hundreds of people he enslaved, and yet all I see throughout the narratives is Billy Lee. So if we’re going to talk about how exceptional Washington thought Billy Lee was, then we also have to talk about all the times he wrote that black people just didn’t work hard, that they didn’t seem to have much pride in their appearance when, in fact, he wasn’t giving them enough clothing sometimes to shield their bodies. Women were observed as being in tattered clothing. Their breasts were sometimes visible.

If we’re going to talk about Billy Lee, then we’re going to talk about the other people, too. And we’re going to say how he only saw someone who was dark skinned as human, as human as he was, when they literally almost killed themselves in service to him.

There’s a lot of magical thinking when it comes to Washington’s road to emancipating his slaves upon Martha’s death. The declaration that’s usually made is that Washington began to think differently during the Revolution, which I challenge. It’s not that he began to think differently. It’s that he became the most famous person in the world and was exposed to people who he respected, like the Marquis of Lafayette, who were telling him, “Listen, this is terrible and you could change the world and everyone would love you for it.” He was well aware from that moment forward that it did affect his legacy. Let’s be realistic about this, and let’s also talk about the times that he could’ve emancipated them.

And didn’t.

The [Thigh Men] often talk about how hypocritical Jefferson was. He wrote these beautiful words and then he enslaved people, including his own children. [But] Jefferson could not have changed the trajectory of America; he wasn’t important enough. Sure, he became really important, but Jefferson was not as important as Washington. He was not as famous as Washington. He was not as well-respected as Washington.

I interviewed Annette Gordon-Reed [a historian best known for her searing analysis of the Jefferson-Sally Hemings relationship] a few years ago and she told me that, had Jefferson emancipated his slaves, or argued for the emancipation of slavery immediately upon America’s independence, that we wouldn’t know his name. That’s not true for Washington. He could’ve done it, he didn’t. And had he done it, it could’ve changed the trajectory of America.

Washington biographers have shaped and really kind of mediated all understanding of George Washington, but I wonder about how George Washington did that himself. How is he the curator of his life and how are we, in a sense, receiving what Washington wanted us to have?

Washington wanted to shape his legacy, but he didn’t totally understand what we would think about him. I do feel as though the paving the road to emancipation for the people he enslaved [as he famously did in his will] was mostly legacy building, but it’s interesting to look at instances in which he didn’t know that he would be judged. He knew that he would be judged on slavery, but he didn’t know that he would be judged, for example, on [his treatment of Native] Americans. So as Washington was preparing his letters, his documents, he did not take anything out about how he didn’t trust Indians because they couldn’t fundamentally be trusted or how they basically just needed to give up their way of life.

He didn’t think that we would be horrified by any of that. And so he left it right there for us. So I think he was self-conscious, but he also couldn’t [completely self-censor] ... not about everything because he simply didn’t think it was bad.

In some sense he is his own archivist. His first introduction to the world is the journal that he writes about his experience in what would be the opening of what’s referred to as the French and Indian War in North America. During and after the Revolution, he is so particular about the care and preservation of his papers. I wondered how that struck you.

Washington did his best to shape the narrative. His journal was published when he was a young man, when he started a world war , and it got away from him a little bit. He became quite famous, but he was very sensitive, he did not like being ridiculed. Certain members of Parliament thought he was a dumb kid; he learned the importance of archives, at that moment. And he was also very aware that this was an incredible moment in history, as they all were. They were all careful with their papers. They sold their papers later. They knew the importance of it.

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Karin Wulf | | READ MORE

Karin Wulf is the director of the John Carter Brown Library and a historian at Brown University. She was previously the executive director of the Omohundro Institute of American History & Culture and a professor of history at William & Mary.

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