Customer Reviews

George Washington: A Biography

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Washington Irving's biography on Washington is by far the most detailed review on our first President from youth through his post Presidential years. Given that Mr. Irving personally met George Washington at the young age of 7, Irving's book has all the more relavence than today's revisionist historians can ever provide. However, the "old english" that Washington used in his correspondence makes for difficult comprehension. It is interesting to note that by 1850 the change to a more modern writing style by Irving presents a clearer picture of Washington's time, but it still requires an occasional re-read to fully understand Irving's point. A person with a limited interest in the Revolutionary War may be better suited to purchasing a more contemporary biography for ease of reading.

However, this book does provide such insite into the minds of Washington and those around him and it allows the reader to finally start to understand why our Founding Fathers risked all for the sake of freedom and liberty from the English. Today we take for granted rights that never existed anywhere in the 1770's and such historical works penned in the mid 1850's provides an insite that should be required reading for both liberals and conservatives. Overall, the book is long and difficult to read, but well worth the time, effort and cost.

This edition of Washington Irving's biography of George Washington has been substantially reduced in size via editing from the original editions, published in the 1850's. Irving was one of, if not the first American author to receive literary acclaim in the salons of Europe. This book was Irving's life's dream. The book details Washington's life, military career, and political thoughts in a very deferential way, as the author appears to have remained in awe of the "Great Man" who had patted him on the head when he was but a child. Irving seems incapable of finding any fault with Washington, and his conclusions on that score probably do not fully reflect later historical thinking. The book does suffer from a lack of maps, as the stories of the military campaigns of the Revolutionary War are recounted in great detail. In addition, having been written almost 150 years ago, there is a substantial amount of archaic word usage that could give your dictionary a workout, if you are so inclined. In addition, the book treats the latter stages of Washington's life thinly, due largely, I believe, to Irving's declining health as the last editions of his multi-edition biography was being written. Thus, if your focus is on Washington's Presidential years, look elsewhere. Otherwise, one could hardly choose a better biography of Washington; it is probably the oldest biography of Washington that is easily accessible to the average reader today. Overall, the book was very enjoyable to read.

The life of Washington should be required reading for everyone. The amount of difficulty he faced throughout his life is unimaginable to modern man. Washington had a life of privilege which is the main reason he was placed in a position of responsibility so early in life. However, in all of his campaigns he was dealing with shortages, sicknesses and other difficulties that make our own seem not so difficult.
Reading this work will provide the reader with an understanding how lucky America was to have a man of such temperament at her founding. Washington was a man of great intellect. He proved that by defeating the British on a number of occasions. He was a man of high honor which he proved when the various cabals tried to remove him from his office and he answered them with excellent performance and an absence of the acrimony so many would have used. He was a man of incomprehendable determination. The crossing of the Deleware, the winter at Valley forge and hundreds of other examples prove this. He was a man of tremendous resourcefulness as is shown by his ability to field an army when provisions were always in want for many years and at the same time attend to so many other details.

Washington Irving's work will provide the reader with an excellent understanding of all of these qualities. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Washington's life. The vast majority of this work deals with the revolution so if you are interested in the early years or the later years you will not find a great deal of detail in this particular work.

The life of Washington should be required reading for everyone. The amount of difficulty he faced throughout his life is unimaginable to modern man. Washington had a life of privilege which is the main reason he was placed in a position of responsibility so early in life. However, in all of his campaigns he was dealing with shortages, sicknesses and other difficulties that make our own seem not so difficult.

Reading this work will provide the reader with an understanding how lucky America was to have a man of such temperament at her founding. Washington was a man of great intellect. He proved that by defeating the British on a number of occasions. He was a man of high honor which he proved when the various cabals tried to remove him from his office and he answered them with excellent performance and an absence of the acrimony so many would have used. He was a man of incomprehendable determination. The crossing of the Deleware, the winter at Valley forge and hundreds of other examples prove this. He was a man of tremendous resourcefulness as is shown by his ability to field an army when provisions were always in want for many years and at the same time attend to so many other details.

Washington Irving's work will provide the reader with an excellent understanding of all of these qualities. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Washington's life. The vast majority of this work deals with the revolution so if you are interested in the early years or the later years you will not find a great deal of detail in this particular work.

My sister, husband and I are reading about the history of our country from the founding on through to modern day. This book has been a part of a reading. It was a fabulous book with great detail. All you people that think they might enjoy a step back in time would really appreciate this journey.

This was an excellent book. However be warned! It was written in the 1800s, and it is in the old English language style. You will need to keep a dictionary on hand, because you will be looking up a lot of words. I found it difficult to read because of the language style, but I stuck with it. The author of this book actually met George Washington once.

I have read a lot about the Revolutionary War and George Washington. This book contained information that I had not found in any other book.

Now I want to say at the offset that although my review may become critical and doubtful of the brilliance of Washington as he is portrayed in this book, I am not looking for reasons to put the man down through nitpicking, but I felt that this was a very awestruck account of Washington and was a little biased as a result. This is really an excellent biography of a man whose name transcends the time and nation in which he helped to create and even now, when you mention the name, George Washington, to even the most simple of non-Americans 99% of them will tell you he was the first president of the United States of America. That's the image everyone has of him; but very few, including myself until I read this, are familiar with his military history and prowess in the times of the revolutionary war.

I'm not going to recite the history of Washington in brief terms as you can all find the stuff out you need to know by simply having a browse of Wikipedia, or better yet, buying this book. Washington Irving is a man who, as a young child, met George Washington and received a pat on the head from the great Commander-In-Chief. This definitely seems to have had an effect on the author as in his mind, the president can do no wrong and through recounting the man's history, he appears to be without flaw. As we know, however, George Washington was human and as a human he has his flaws like we all do. Irving seems to have missed any mention of a flaw of the great man and that made this feel more like biographical story book, rather than a full fledged biography which was disappointing.

The story of the great mans exploits are really something to enjoy when you sit down and get into it. The tales of the revolutionary war are very heavy in detail and, as another reviewer said, a lack of maps or diagrams made it a tad hard to follow when it came to descriptions of particular destinations and so on. The descriptions of landmark battles and so on are really well put together and create an exciting atmosphere around the story the author is trying to put across. Because of the time it was written, there is also a lot of archaic language within the book which for some may be a bit hard going, but you will get used to it and become enthralled by the story you witnessing and picturing in your own imagination.

There is no doubt that George Washington was a great man. After all, he led the United States to independence from Britain and became the first president of the independent United States of America. But, I still feel a bit disappointed by the bias displayed in this book and felt the man could have been better served had there been a more two sided analysis of his behaviour, rather than the obvious awe-struck discussion in this book. However, that's not to take away the fact that it is a superb read and if you have an interest in the revolutionary war, then this is certainly a book you want to pick up at one time or another.

The book is easy to read and very informative about George Washington's life. Unfortunately you can't get all the volumes, and so you are left hanging.

For Christmas, I sent my son(who lives in Europe) American history books, among others, because our young kids are forgetting what our ancestors endured to creat this great nation. They didn't risked their lives and treasure for us to become Socialism. They would turn in their graves if they could see what is happening to our "soon not to be" a great country.