Washington's End

 

by Jonathan Horn (read by Arthur Morey)

 

 

There are not a lot of books out there that focus just on George Washington former president. But I like reading about the presidents and when I saw this one as the Audible daily deal, I added it to my library. I actually learned something new about Washington and about the the state of our democracy.

I never gave much thought to military matters and I don't think I was cognizant of the fact that at this point in time, the United States had no standing army. We were just going to depend on the same system we had used to fight the War for Independence: state militias. President John Adams realized that we needed a standing army and asked GW to be its commander-in-chief. GW died before they were able to get it organized but I found it interesting that in this point in the time the titles 'president' and 'commander-in-chief' were to be held by two different people.

Sadly, George Washington's post presidency was all too short; he died some 21 months after he stepped down. Nonetheless, our nation was in its infancy and we had just experienced our first orderly transfer of power from one president to the next, from a beloved hero elected by unanimous acclamation to a not so beloved curmudgeon from Boston in a somewhat contested election. To a certain extent this book is not just about Washington but about rivalries among the founders of our nation and particular among Washington, Adams and Jefferson.

All in all, three and a half stars.