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Garry Wills
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Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment Hardcover – January 1, 1984

by Garry Wills (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 22 ratings
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"Gary Wills has made George Washington interesting again. By investigating the interest Washington's contemporaries had in him, and by playing that interest off against some of the perennial problems of political morality and the uses of power, Wills gives us a fresh perspective on our first President. [He] shows how Washington solved the problem of charismatic leadership by embodying the eighteenth-century Enlightenment the creation of a revived classical republic. People responded to such leadership in verse, sermons, songs, paintings, and sculpture. This book differs from other historical studies of political power by its use of evidence from a wide range of sources. In Wills's hands art history becomes a new kind of political science. [He] finds forgotten messages in Parson Weems's account of Washington; he traces the use of classical images to such unsuspected places as the carving of American eagles and the disposition of Washington's hands in Greenough's notorious statue of the first President. The great actions of Washington are seen afresh, as in a restored the surrender of his military commission, his Farewell Address, and his indispensable role in the ratification of the Constitution of the United States." From front and back flaps.
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  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Doubleday
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1984
  5. ISBN-10
    0385175620
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0385175623
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday; First Edition (January 1, 1984)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385175620
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385175623
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.62 pounds
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 22 ratings

About the author

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Garry Wills

Garry Wills

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Garry Wills is one of the most respected writers on religion today. He is the author of Saint Augustine's Childhood, Saint Augustine's Memory, and Saint Augustine's Sin, the first three volumes in this series, as well as the Penguin Lives biography Saint Augustine. His other books include “Negro President”: Jefferson and the Slave Power, Why I Am a Catholic, Papal Sin, and Lincoln at Gettysburg, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
22 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Stephen Deasy
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the essential Washington books
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2014
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This book pleases on so many levels.

First off, starting with the cover photo of the Houdon life-based sculpture of the great man. We have been stuck with the Gilbert Stuart painting for so long and we are the worse for it. When a character in a film "Borat" can persuasively ask if the character on the dollar was "flaming" maybe it's time to reexamine how we present our Cincinnatus.

There was certainly no question at the time. Abigail Adams said the first time she saw him, he looked like a "Greek god." The life mask was done when Washington was in his 50's at the height of his renown. This book fills one in on all the images used at the time and since to depict the "Father of the Country."

Secondly, it's a great book placing Washington at the very center of what constituted an "Enlightened" Man. Ever wonder why giants like Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Hamilton, Marshall and Franklin deferred to and revered this man? After reading this book one has a better idea. I have read 4 biographies of Washington and this is a must addendum to each of them.
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Justin Playfair
5.0 out of 5 stars Gary Wills best work on American Symbolism
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2016
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One of the most highly readable and lucid books on symbolism in art applied to our founding fathers in the era of American Independence.
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Stuart D. Walker
5.0 out of 5 stars Purchase of Cincinnatus by Garry Wills
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2013
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Sent as promised. This book is one of the classic books on George Washington. It will be around for centuries, or as long as people are interested in republican government.
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Lynn Hoffman, author:Radiation Days: A Comedy
5.0 out of 5 stars An Immensely Important Book
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2008
Very little in our high school or college histories prepares us for the Washington we encounter in these pages. The roles of revolutionary warrior and first president have been reprised often in other countries so we are now over-familiar with someone being called 'the George Washington of someplace or other'.
Wills points out that Washington, by force of his personality and integrity came to stand for the American people and republic before the existence of either was widely acknowledged. Washington was a hero, but he was a hero in times that had a very different idea of what heroism was. Wills' job in this book is to recreate the perspective of the enlightenment and then let us see Washington through that perspective in three great moments of his career. Interestingly, two of these moments-his resignation as Commander of the Army and surrender of the presidency in his farewell address involve the relinquishment of power. The third, his lending his name and prestige to the Constitutional Convention involved the risk of ruining his reputation.
How the Age of the Enlightenment set the stage and how Washington and his contemporaries used that stage is a story that's both fascinating and humbling.

On a less elevated note, both my copy and one at the Philadelphia Free Library are missing pages 183-198. I hope that when this book is reprinted, they will be restored.

Lynn Hoffman, author of bang BANG: A Novel and New Short Course in Wine,The
15 people found this helpful
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jmartin
4.0 out of 5 stars almost light and popular, but worth your time
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2011
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The title of this book, Cincinattus, refers of course to the similarities between that noble Roman who came out of retirement to be the temporary dictator of the Roman republic, but then who, upon completion of that task, resigned and went back to farming, as it seemed to all true of George Washington also.

The theme of the book is found on p. xxvi: "...the resignation of his commission as Commander in Chief [of the Revolutionary Army], his sponsorshop of the new Constitution in 1787, and his surrender of the presidency by a farewell address. It was in the performance of these acts that Wahington became 'larger than life . . ." Wills largely succeeds in this goal.

The main weakness of this book is that the author allows his ideological bias towards liberalism to be objective enough about his topic. For instance, on p. 21, Wills equates the Alien and Sediction Acts under the more conservative, Federalist party, to the [Senator Joseph] McCarthy period of the 1950's. There almost can be a worse, ideologically driven description from the Left. On p. 109, Wills lauds Presidents John Kennedy and F.D. Roosevelt, both of whom are acknowledge to be from left of center. In a similar way, on p. 165 Wills favor of the slightly more liberal Pope Paul VI to the much more conservative Pope John Paul II.

One interesting anecdote, found on p. 60, was that in certain Colonial-era paintings, Adam is painted as stepping forward on his left foot, and taking the apple with his left hand, supposedly signifying that Adam was doing something evil. On pp. 104-105, Wills states that George Washington "had a theatricatal feel for the gesture . . ." and i would add this was one of strengths of President Ronald Reagan, the former Hollywood actor.

On p. 109, Wills opines that "hero worship is elitist, . . ., "but it should be noted that the oppostion to hero worshop is itself elitist." Thus some historians condescendingly look down on Washington and Reagan, neither an academic scholar, but both with certain and sure basic principles.

One of the best physical features of Cincinattus is the ample selection of prints from the Colonial era.

Another contradiction: Wills on p. 196, he states that" "Washington, too, was man fo the Enlightenment, a promoter of science and religion, . . .:, whereas in other parts of the book that Wills notes that Washington was never against the whole Christian belief, and that he specifically adhered to the Christian doctrine on Origial Sin, the doctrine against which all Enlightenment thinkers were repelled.

All in all, Will's book helps the reader to understand the intellectual currents in face of the then upcoming showdown with Parliament and King George III.
10 people found this helpful
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R. B. Bernstein
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the finest books ever written analyzing Washington
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2005
In this magnificent book, Garry Wills presents a shrewd, learned analysis of the reasons for George Washington's central role in the American Revolution and the creation of the American Republic. Far better than Joseph Ellis's HIS EXCELLENCY: GEORGE WASHINGTON, this fine book examines the three critical episodes in Washington's public life -- his resignation in 1783, at the Revolution's close, as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army; his role in the framing and adoption and effectuation of the Constitution; and his decision to retire from the Presidency after two terms of office. Washington was, as Wills calls him, a virtuoso of resignation, and Wills's fine book explains why. It should be restored to print.
21 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

tyrant lo blanc
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 1, 2017
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This is a fantastic book! Garry Wills is a superb writer and I flew through this brilliant look at George Washington. He may not have been the best general or the most intellectual of the founding fathers but he was the most important. Here we see how his personality and his character and the images we have of him mattered so much. How his willingness to surrender power, to return to his plough allowed him to hold the Union together and found the greatest republic on Earth. Fantastic comparison with Napoleon who was more talented and achieved more but who's empire lasted until 1815. The United States is still with us today and is the most powerful, most prosperous nation on Earth.
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