An edition of His Excellency (2004)

His Excellency

George Washington

1st ed.
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  • 4.00 ·
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Last edited by WikidataBot
February 3, 2024 | History
An edition of His Excellency (2004)

His Excellency

George Washington

1st ed.
  • 4.00 ·
  • 1 Rating
  • 12 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading
  • 2 Have read

The author of seven highly acclaimed books, Joseph J. Ellis has crafted a landmark biography that brings to life in all his complexity the most important and perhaps least understood figure in American history, George Washington. With his careful attention to detail and his lyrical prose, Ellis has set a new standard for biography.Drawing from the newly catalogued Washington papers at the University of Virginia, Joseph Ellis paints a full portraitof George Washington's life and career--from his military years through his two terms as president. Ellis illuminates the difficulties the first executive confronted as he worked to keep the emerging country united in the face of adversarial factions. He richly details Washington's private life and illustrates the ways in which it influenced his public persona. Through Ellis's artful narration, we look inside Washington's marriage and his subsequent entrance into the upper echelons of Virginia's plantation society. We come to understand that it was by managing his own large debts to British merchants that he experienced firsthand the imperiousness of the British Empire. And we watch the evolution of his attitude toward slavery, which led to his emancipating his own slaves in his will. Throughout, Ellis peels back the layers of myth and uncovers for us Washington in the context of eighteenth-century America, allowing us to comprehend the magnitude of his accomplishments and the character of his spirit and mind.When Washington died in 1799, Ellis tells us, he was eulogized as "first in the hearts of his countrymen." Since then, however, his image has been chisled onto Mount Rushmore and printed on the dollar bill. He is on our landscape and in our wallets but not, Ellis argues, in our hearts. Ellis strips away the ivy and legend that have grown up over the Washington statue and recovers the flesh-and-blood man in all his passionate and fully human prowess.In the pantheon of our republic's founders, there were many outstanding individuals. And yet each of them--Franklin, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison-- acknowledged Washington to be his superior, the only indispensable figure, the one and only "His Excellency." Both physically and politically, Washington towered over his peers for reasons this book elucidates. His Excellency is a full, glorious, and multifaceted portrait of the man behind our country's genesis, sure to become the authoritative biography of George Washington for many decades.From the Hardcover edition.

Publish Date
Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf
Language
English
Pages
320

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: His Excellency
His Excellency
August 30, 2005, Faber & Faber Ltd
Hardcover in English
Cover of: His Excellency
His Excellency: George Washington
November 8, 2005, Vintage
Paperback in English
Cover of: His Excellency
His Excellency: George Washington
2004, Alfred A. Knopf
in English - 1st ed.
Cover of: His Excellency
His Excellency: George Washington
2004, Alfred A. Knopf
in English - 1st ed.
Cover of: His Excellency
His Excellency: George Washington
2004, Random House Large Print
in English - 1st large print ed.
Cover of: His Excellency
His Excellency
2004, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Electronic resource in English

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Book Details


Published in

New York

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Genre
Biography.

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
973.4/1/092, B
Library of Congress
E312 .E245 2004

The Physical Object

Pagination
xiv, 320 p. :
Number of pages
320

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL3304276M
Internet Archive
hisexcellencygeo00elli
ISBN 10
1400040310
LCCN
2004046576
OCLC/WorldCat
54817026
Library Thing
3344
Wikidata
Q124329271
Goodreads
795923

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
February 3, 2024 Edited by WikidataBot [sync_edition_olids] add wikidata identifier
March 8, 2023 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 5, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
December 8, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from Scriblio MARC record.