This is the first book to treat Washington during the period between December of 1783 when he resigned his military commission to 1789 when he took office as our first President. This was an important period in our history for it set the stage for the adoption of the Constitution and the beginning of the United States.
The author's thesis is that GW saved the country by coming out of retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and become our first President. The country foundered under the Articles of Confederation. There was sectional bickering. Debts went unpaid. The economy stagnated. The threat of European intervention was ever present. It appeared doubtful that the confederation could survive. Were these threats overstated? I do not know.
We all know what happened. After a failure in Maryland, a constitutional convention was called for Philadelphia for May of 1787 to amend the Articles. What came out of that summer was our Constitution. Without GW's attendance and participation it probably wouldn't have happened, or conventional history would teach us, and I have no reason to doubt conventional history in this case.
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