A lighthearted but informative travelogue that also retraces history
4 stars
As with all recent non-propaganda (sanitized school textbooks) history books, this was a bit of an eye opener, with details about Washington's mixed record on slavery. He was against slavery, or at least claimed to be uncomfortable with it, while owning slaves, freed his slaves but only in his will after his death (and even then only after his wife's death but she figured out that was a great way to incentivize her murder and freed them earlier), and even tried to chase down an escaped slave (not the only one who escaped, so it's not like they all wanted to hang out at Mt. Vernon). His record with Native Americans was mixed too, he can take credit for some tribes still existing on their home lands and why some are gone.
Those asides, and they are big asides, Washington comes off as a reluctant president, and the only possible …
As with all recent non-propaganda (sanitized school textbooks) history books, this was a bit of an eye opener, with details about Washington's mixed record on slavery. He was against slavery, or at least claimed to be uncomfortable with it, while owning slaves, freed his slaves but only in his will after his death (and even then only after his wife's death but she figured out that was a great way to incentivize her murder and freed them earlier), and even tried to chase down an escaped slave (not the only one who escaped, so it's not like they all wanted to hang out at Mt. Vernon). His record with Native Americans was mixed too, he can take credit for some tribes still existing on their home lands and why some are gone.
Those asides, and they are big asides, Washington comes off as a reluctant president, and the only possible unifying figure of the time who could overcome the bickering partisanship and political sabotage that already started on day one from the likes of other revered founding father slave owners with more rapes and less emancipation on their record like Thomas Jefferson. The account of him roaming around on his get-to-know-your-president tour, the establishment of a tradition, trying to avoid the fanfare and escorts along the way, just wanting to return home but doing this to keep the country a country, is endearing, and you can't help but wish for another in his mold, especially with his prescient worry about a future president who would divide rather than unify, exposing the nation to riots and foreign corruption.
The retrace of Washington's journey is in the form of Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, which is a delightful idea, but after reading the account of the author traveling with his wife and dog along Washington's path, I think they need to invest in dog training.