Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Lyons Press, and author William M. Fowler Jr. for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

There have been numerous books written about the first President of the United States and Founding Father George Washington. I can honestly say, though, that I never read a book before that covered the time in between his leading the Army through the American Revolution until he was elected President. This was a time he seemed to go back to being just a citizen farmer, but he was actually on top of what was happening in a number of ways.

Going back 250 years, there were no cell phones; no instant communication anywhere. Communication was done via letter, and Washington corresponded with many of the people who were in the process of organizing the government. The Articles of Confederation had been written as a guide to the new government, but it wasn’t working very well. There were disputes between the States as they viewed things differently. Nowhere was this illustrated more than regarding the Chesapeake Bay, which is bordered by the states of Virginia and Maryland. Each had differing ideas for the management of the body of water and often clashed. With no strong central government, these disputes were hard to solve.

Besides the fact that Washington lived in Virginia on the Bay, he also had a business interest in it, as he was enticed to invest in a possible canal that would connect the Chesapeake Bay to the west. It seems that many of the states were interested in this avenue of trade, but only New York finally accomplished it with the Erie Canal.

While he was away leading the troops in the War, he had left his beloved Mount Vernon plantation in the hands of one of his brothers. Washington was a micro-manager, though, and returned home to find that all of the directives he had sent over the course of the war hadn’t always been adhered to. His western properties were in disarray, with rents not having been collected for years and squatters present on much of the land he owned there.

Meanwhile, Martha Washington was the anchor to their social life, which seemed to be overwhelming. Visitors were a constant at Mount Vernon, along with several young family members who resided with them.

As much as it felt like the author was trying to paint a picture of Washington, the private citizen, it was pretty obvious that he was keeping himself involved in politics while also denying that was what he was doing. I don’t know exactly how true it was that Washington was the only person who could get the state representatives to sit down together and hash out what was eventually the Constitution, but that is the picture Fowler paints. He’s done an incredible amount of research through Washington’s papers, which Washington himself was careful to preserve. It seemed inevitable while reading this that Washington would be the first President, but I am a bit skeptical that all of the infighting ended simply due to his presence.

George Washington and the Creation of the American Republic was not a long or difficult read, and covers a period of his life I had not read much about before. Ron Chernow’s biography of Washington, which Fowler cites several times, is on my TBR list, so I look forward to his take on this time in the life of our first President. I usually like to read several sources when trying to get a better picture of historical figures, and I do think this book was well done. The extensive sources are also cited, which is always a plus.