George Washington Project

This project invites you to study George Washington. Washington has been called the “indispensable man,” and he is the one figure in revolutionary American history whom many historians believed to have been the one person without whom the revolution might well have failed. That is not to suggest that men like Franklin, Adams. Jefferson, Madison and many others were not important players; it is to say, however, that Washington's contributions, which included leading the Army through seven long years of war, presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and serving as America's first president under the Constitution, were unmatched by any other figure.

Washington is such a gigantic historical presence that it is difficult to assess him fully in a project of this limited scope. Rather, this project invites you to begin to get acquainted with Washington by doing one or more of the following:

• Visit Mount Vernon in southern Fairfax County, listen to the guides, pick up whatever materials are offered, perhaps take pictures, take a small notebook with you and jot down things that you find interesting, and write a report of your visit and what it tells you about America's great founding Father.
• Read one of many excellent biographies of Washington, and write a critical report of your reading. I am providing a few titles below, but there are others. If you find an alternate biography I will be glad to consider it, but check with me in advance.
• Study Washington online by visiting the links below and others materials linked from those sites. Keep track of the titles and URLs of the sites you visit, take notes, and write a report in which you describe what you learned in those visits.

Books about George Washington:

• James Thomas Flexner. Washington: The Indispensable Man
• Richard Brookhiser. Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington
• Joseph J. Ellis. His Excellency: George Washington
• John H. Rhodehamel (Editor) George Washington: Writings (Library of America)
• Richard Norton Smith. Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation
• John E. Ferling. The First of Men: A Life of George Washington
• Milton Meltzer. George Washington and the Birth of Our Nation

Washington Links:

• The George Washington Papers Home page at the Library of Congress
• The National Park Service Washington Monument page
• Some notes abut Washington on a DC Tour site
• Description of Washington's Farewell to his officers, 1783
• Washington's Farewell Address to the Nation, 1796
• The Washington Pages at an American Revolution site
• Some Washington Documents at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, and a biographical sketch at the same site.
• A chronology of the life of Washington
• A collection of images and links on Washington
• This site has a lot of annoying popups, but it does have a biography of Washington

If you find other good links, send them to me and I'll add them in --JS.

Updated April 11, 2005