John Ferlings gives us much more than the typical biography in “The Ascent of George Washington”. This history is an in-depth examination of the man that became the myth. Ferling does not pull any punches. From the very beginning Washington is portrayed as a young man who is very lucky and extremely ambitious.
George Washington was born in the right place at the right time. Any younger and he would not have been chosen to lead a military outfit against the French out west in 1754 nor would he have been a candidate to lead the fledgling Continental Army against the British in the Revolutionary war. But one of the amazing things about Washington is that most of his military operations were failures. Washington was always mindful that he needed to have someone else to blame for failure and his many scapegoats, though they were more successful than Washington had their careers ruined when Washington unfairly lied about their culpability or accused them of going into battle while drunk. This pattern of scapegoating and lying followed Washington throughout his entire military career. Even his most famous success at Yorktown was the plan of his French General and on that Washington had bitterly opposed. Once successful in defeating Cornwallis Washington took all the credit and only acknowledged the assistance of the French.
At the end of the Revolutionary War George was already a God-like hero worshipped by one and all. He was voted into the office of first President of the United States almost by acclamation and served two four year terms. Washington was an adept politician and was a much better president than he was a General. Even though he put on airs of a monarch he did operate as a “hands-on” president and with the help and foresight ideas of Alexander Hamilton the two crafted a modern social and Economic foundation for the industrial revolution in America. Without Washington we might not have the country and structure we enjoy today.
Ferling does a masterful job of revealing the entire George Washington. In lots of ways Washington was not a man to be admired. No where in Furling’s account is there a story about young George cutting down a cherry tree and telling his father about it because “he could not tell a lie.” George was full if lies and deceit. But, at the same time, he was a man for his times and was good for the country. He did possess honor and credibility. We are fortunate to have had him and we are fortunate to have a man like John Ferling who can tell us all about the real Washington, pimples and all. Furling’s history of Washington deserves a 9 of 10 on the Weaver meter.
