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Naval War College Review Volume 58 Article 20 Number 3 Summer 2005 His Excellency: George Washington, William M. Calhoun Follow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review Recommended Citation Calhoun, William M. (2005) "His Excellency: George Washington,," Naval War College Review: Vol. 58 : No. 3 , Article 20. Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol58/iss3/20 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen 154 NAVAL WAR COLLEGE REVIEW Calhoun: His Excellency: George Washington, time when Japan had conquered vast and Australian failings in that battle. swaths of South East Asia and the South Having been a badly wounded partici- West Pacific. pant in the battle, he observes, “My There are chapters devoted to a number arguments against some of those hy- of distinguished wartime Australian potheses were therefore largely based senior naval officers, and others that on an innate belief that we Austra- (re)address some of the perennial mys- lians and our Royal Navy Admiral teries, such as the complete loss (and could not have done as badly as we vanishing) of the cruiser HMAS Sydney were led to believe. At the time I thought on the eve of the Japanese entry into that I had not made much of an im- the war. The book also devotes a sig- pression, but the following year Savo nificant amount of attention to the was not studied.” Australian-U.S. alliance. Indeed, such David Stevens has produced a book that concentration is not surprising. World is both highly readable and engaging. War II represented a sea change for He provides a much needed public face Australian security thinking, with for the Royal Australian Navy wartime attention diverted away from the experience, and he effectively preserves United Kingdom and toward the United the legacy of the period. Since the Sec- States as strategic partner within the ond World War, the RAN has contin- region. Indeed, American readers will ued to fight alongside its U.S. Navy surely find interesting the accounts in allies in conflicts ranging from Korea chapter 7 (“The Pacific War: A Strategic and Vietnam through Operation IRAQI Overview”) and chapter 8 (“Forging an FREEDOM. Alliance? The American Naval Commit- For the American reader, this book pro- ment to the South Pacific, 1940–42”) of vides rare insight into the historical the Australian-U.S. military partnership events that formed the genesis of the within the Pacific campaign. Particu- modern Royal Australian Navy identity larly enlightening are the conclusions and thus has allowed an inside under- drawn of the essential correctness of standing of the impulses that continue prewar U.S. strategic naval thinking and to drive it. The RAN is a steadfast and the thorough testing of naval war plans reliable partner to the USN; gaining this at the Naval War College. On the other appreciation of it is reason enough to side, I am sure that American interest read this valuable book. will also be piqued by the chapter by Commodore Loxton (retired), giving DALE STEPHENS Commander, CSM, RAN his account of postwar American revi- Australian Liaison Officer sionism concerning the battle of Savo Naval War College Island. In this chapter he notes his at- tendance as a student at the Naval War College’s newly founded Naval Com- mand Course (as the Naval Command College, today the senior of the school’s Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. two international programs, was then New York: Knopf, 2004. 320pp. $26.95 known), and in 1959, his participation Fischer, David Hackett. Washington’s Crossing. in a study that emphasized U.S. virtue New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2004. 564pp. $35 Published by U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons, 2005 1 T:\Academic\NWC Review\NWC Review Summer 2005\NWCRSU05\NWC Review Summer 2005.vp Wednesday, June 01, 2005 3:58:44 PM Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen BOOK REVIEWS 155 Naval War College Review, Vol. 58 [2005], No. 3, Art. 20 Wiencek, Henry. An Imperfect God: George Wash- Richard Brookhiser, he is in our text- ington, His Slaves and the Creation of America. books and in our wallets but not in our New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. hearts. Perhaps these books will at least 404pp. $26 help put him back in our minds, if not Our nation’s first commander in chief, in our hearts. George Washington, is back in the The leadoff selection, His Excellency: news. At Mount Vernon they are striv- George Washington, is a concise and ex- ing to recast Washington’s image as ceedingly readable biography by Joseph America’s first action hero, while also Ellis, author of the Pulitzer Prize– sponsoring a high-tech, computer- winning Founding Brothers: The Revolu- driven rejuvenation of him to figure out tionary Generation (Knopf, 2000). Ellis’s exactly what he looked like at ages nine- earlier biographies examined the char- teen, forty-five, and fifty-seven. These acters of Thomas Jefferson and John current labors, part of an eighty-five- Adams. He once again has chosen to million-dollar “To Keep Him First” center his work on the character of his campaign, have been bolstered by the subject. Ellis has set out to write not efforts of others. The University of Vir- another epic portrait of Washington ginia is in the process of publishing The but rather a fresh picture focused Papers of George Washington (fifty- tightly on his character and based in two of the ninety volumes have been part upon new scholarship on the revo- completed), and the New York Metro- lutionary era. Ellis’s goal is to relate politan Museum of Art recently exhib- how Washington became who he was. ited thirteen stunning portraits of He gives us this new portrait of Wash- Washington by the Rhode Island–born ington’s growth most admirably. artist Gilbert Stuart. In looking for patterns of emerging be- A recent outburst of serious and ex- havior, Ellis cites the combination of tremely enjoyable books about the man Washington’s bottomless ambition and has reinforced this worthwhile cause. near obsession with self-control. He also The three books chosen for this review, traces the development of Washington’s all published within the last two years, personality, beginning with his experi- emphasize a particularly important ences as a young man in the wilderness theme concerning Washington’s in- of the Ohio Valley. The author states credibly eventful life—the development that what in later years would be re- of his character and his growth as a garded as aloofness and cold reserve be- man. One is a full biography, one fo- gan with Washington’s need as an cuses on the American Revolution, and inexperienced colonial officer in the the third explores Washington’s atti- French and Indian War to insulate him- tudes on slavery; they make for a rich self and his reputation from criticism. collection of informative reading. To do this, he had to rely on the hard It is generally accepted that Washington core of his own merit and self-control, has become ever more remote from the his strongest assets as a young man on hearts and minds of his countrymen the way up. and women. To use a prevalent expres- Ellis notes that nothing had a greater sion, he is perhaps the “deadest, whitest influence on Washington’s rise to dis- male in American history.” To paraphrase tinction than his marriage to the widow https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol58/iss3/20 2 T:\Academic\NWC Review\NWC Review Summer 2005\NWCRSU05\NWC Review Summer 2005.vp Wednesday, June 01, 2005 3:58:44 PM Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen 156 NAVAL WAR COLLEGE REVIEW Calhoun: His Excellency: George Washington, Martha Dandridge Custis. Her im- Washington’s unique character was pri- mense dowry launched Washington to marily molded by his experiences dur- the level of great planters in Virginia’s ing the Revolution. Just as he had Northern Neck region and provided the employed a Fabian strategy of avoiding foundation for his rise in wealth and battles that would have risked the Con- influence. tinental Army’s destruction, he also Ellis is particularly effective in remind- “fashioned a kind of Fabian presidency ing readers that nothing was inevitable that sustained the credibility of the fed- about the success of either the Ameri- eral government by avoiding political can Revolution or Washington’s role in battles that threatened to push federal it. If Washington had not been able to sovereignty further and faster than pub- learn from his mistakes early in the lic opinion allowed.” war, caused in large part by his natu- In the final chapter of this well written rally aggressive strategy, the conflict book, Ellis states that there were two dis- could well have ended in defeat and sub- tinct creative moments in the founding jugation for the colonies. Washington of America: the winning of indepen- himself wrote, upon initially arriving at dence and the creation of nationhood. Yorktown, “What may be in the Womb Washington was the central figure in of Fate is very uncertain.” Nonetheless, both events, and his judgment, in Ellis’s Washington was the centerpiece around view, on all major political questions which the Continental Army and the proved prescient—this “remarkably re- cause had formed in 1775, and it was liable judgment derived from his ele- Washington who sustained the army mental understanding of how power for nearly eight years of desperate fight- worked in the world.” ing, which enabled the ultimate victory.