Patriot Sage: George Washington and the American Political Tradition - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1882926382 ISBN 13: 9781882926381

Publisher: Isi Books, 1999

Synopsis

The only book published in commemoration of the bicentenary of George Washington's death, Patriot Sage offers a fresh portrait of the remarkable life of the father of our nation. Forrest McDonald, William Allen, Victor Davis Hanson and other accomplished scholars and writers explain why the myth of the hero Washington rings true.

About this title

About the Author

Gary L. Gregg II is Mitch McConnell Chair in Political Leadership at the University of Louisville and is the director of the McConell Center for the Study of Leadership. He is author of The Presidential Republic: Executive Representation and Deliberative Democracy and editor of Vital Remnants: America's Founding and the Western Tradition. Matthew Spalding is Director of Lectures and Educational Programs at the Heritage Foundation and is Visiting Assistant Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College. He is co-author of A Sacred Union of Citizens: George Washington's Farewell Address and the American Character and serves as a contributing editor to Policy Review.

From Library Journal

These three volumes are part of the nation's commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Washington's death. Hannaford's and Murray's books are slight both in size and substance. In The Essential George Washington, Hannaford has collected verbal "snapshots," brief comments on Washington made by sundry poets, politicians, journalists, and others, including Abigail Adams, James Fenimore Cooper, Newt Gingrich, and George Will. Murray's Washington's Farewell takes as its starting point a December 4, 1783, meeting of Washington and his officers, at which he bade farewell to his men and prepared to return to private life. Murray sketches the lives and characters of the officers who were at this convocation and discusses Washington's military career. Both books tend toward hagiography, and Patriot Sage is not far off. It opens with a preface by William J. Bennett, former Secretary of Education, U.S. drug czar, and chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which states the conservative agenda of the essays collection: because the United States is in moral and political decline, it behooves us to emulate Washington in our public and private lives. The book's 12 essays touch on most facets of Washington's life--his management of Mount Vernon, his military strategies and tactics, his forging of the presidency, and his trustworthy character. One of the strongest essays is by Richard Brookhiser, author of one of the best recent biographies of Washington (Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington, LJ 2/1/96). His prose is so buoyant it nearly leaps from the page. Unfortunately, none of these three books represents a significant advance in our knowledge or appreciation of our first president. Readers interested in Washington are advised to consult books like Brookhiser's. Patriot Sage is recommended for larger public libraries; the Murray and Hannaford books are not essential purchases.
-Thomas J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Isi Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1882926382
• ISBN 13: 9781882926381
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 355
• Editor: Gary L. Gregg II, Matthew Spalding