George Washington: a Review of “Washington: the Indispensable Man”

Introduction

The Indispensable Man is a biography written by James Thomas Flexner. James Flexner was a notable biographer who wrote many biographies on figures in early America; he graduated from Harvard with high honors in English. This book is a culmination of four volumes that Flexner wrote on George Washington and is a winner of a special Pulitzer prize. Organized chronologically, it covers Washington’s birth in 1732 to his death in 1799. Because I have grown up in America, I have heard many stories and accounts of George Washington.

Washington's Upbringing and Background

Unfortunately, many of the history classes I have sat through and short stories I have read paint Washington as a one-dimensional figure. His character is portrayed to have no faults and to be a great military leader. Washington had little to no successful military experience before leading the Continental Army into war with the world’s most formidable power. He was a man with endearing personal qualities, many failures, great passion, strong loyalties, and one who seemed (to the British) to be indestructible. Flexner shows that Washington was a complex character, an unpopular hero at times, a man of great contradictions, but always a towering figure to Americans. Flexner proves that to America, Washington is an indispensable man, and we could have never achieved independence without him leading the way.

Flexner supports this argument in his writing by showing the upbringing of Washington. “He is generally believed to have been, by birth and training, a rich, conservative, British-oriented Virginia aristocrat. As a matter of fact, he was, for the environment in which he moved, poor during his young manhood. He never set foot in England or, indeed, any part of Europe” (Flexner 1). The most important figures of the revolution were primarily former British subjects and influential diplomats. Any man of importance at that time had strong ties to Britain, and Washington barely had any. Flexner shows the unusual circumstances in which Washington somehow came to power. He was born into modest wealth, had 6 siblings, and spent his childhood in rural Virginia on the Rappahannock River. “Had George’s childhood proceeded smoothly, he would have been raised in the conventional manner of the minor Virginian gentry. But his childhood did not proceed smoothly” (Flexner 4). “When he was eleven, his father died, carrying away with him any hope of George’s receiving education abroad. The disappointment haunted George for years” (Flexner 5). George is believed to have only had an elementary level of education, as shown by the books his mother preserved in their home. Unlike our other founding fathers, the leader of our country stopped his schooling at age 11. To me, this was very surprising because I always imagined Washington as being formally educated because of the important precedents that he set as president. In fact, Washington, during some of his first military experiences during the French and Indian War, did not understand the war at all. “Washington remained incensed, protesting loudly concerning matters he did not understand” (Flexner 33).

Health and Personal Challenges

Washington, surprisingly, is also shown to have a fondness for romance (he even wrote poetry). In his younger years, he had an unhealthy obsession with Sally Fairfax, the wife of his very good friend. However, none of his romantic endeavors ever seemed to work out until he met his wife, Martha. “Washington’s surviving communications to her are those of a complaining lover... She forbids him to write her letters, but if he withdraws, she comes forward, writing him a saucy letter of her own, keeping him forever off balance” (Flexner 20). “His lack of surface vivacity allowed other young men to cut him out with many a pretty girl” (Flexner 8). The fact that Washington is shown to have always been in love with Martha couldn’t have been less true. Flexner humanizes Washington by showing how similar he was to ordinary people today and in that time period when it came to romantic affairs. While away at war or serving as the president, Washington always longed for his wife, “Washington was to find her such a companion as he had dreamed of when a boy under the whiplash of his termagant mother” (Flexner 39).

Another interesting thing about Washington is that he was probably sterile. ”It could well be concluded that the difficulty was not in her but in her husband. However, the magnificent athlete, who possessed in abundance every other physical prowess, could not altogether admit to himself that he was sterile” (Flexner 42). It’s interesting to me because the father of our country was unable to actually father children. This explains his affection and relationship with Lafayette and Hamilton, whom he regarded as his spiritual sons. This again shows the complexity of Washington and a weakness in the Virginian man he was said to have been.

The Indispensable Man

Washington was extremely inexperienced during the majority of his political and revolutionary career. During the French and Indian War, he rose to fame in Virginia with the colonists but was regarded with indifference by British officers. He had lost important battles like Fort Necessity and generally failed at pushing back the Indians and the French from the Ohio River valley and Fort Duquesne. During the Revolutionary War, he only defeated the British by outlasting their soldiers and winning scrappy victories (the victory at Yorktown was mainly orchestrated by French military leaders). He was not given adequate funding or a good army, but he took on personal responsibility. Any success he achieved, he felt he had not deserved or had achieved under questionable circumstances. “Not only did his inexperience make him sometimes militarily inept, but he never understood the wider implications in which he was involved” (Flexner 37).

Washington was not a great strategist/soldier comparable to the likes of Caesar, Hannibal, or Napoleon; he was just a common man serving what was to become his beloved country. “Debates have raged concerning Washington’s ability as a soldier. Writers have contended that he was so incompetent that he would have been defeated by other human beings except for the dullards the British sent against him. The debate has overlooked the fact that Washington was never really a soldier. He was a civilian in arms” (Flexner 178 179). His greatest ability was not being a great military leader because he rarely experienced victories. His greatest ability was his personality and the strategic planning in which he used to choose where he would fight and where he would flee. He inspired those who followed him to fight and kept them with the army during harsh winters at Valley Forge and tough losses throughout the war. “Washington had saved the United States from tyranny and civil discord. As Jefferson was later to comment, the moderation and virtue of a single character have probably prevented this revolution from being closed as most others have been by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish” (Flexner 175).

I agree with the author’s thesis; in his writing, he proves that Washington should not have been able to achieve a successful revolution. He was inexperienced, young, uneducated, and sometimes rash, but for some reason, congress chose him to lead. Even through all that was stacked against him, he managed to prevail; he was the force that drove us to liberty. In fact, he was so influential that his presence is with us in the present day.

Conclusion

I think the author could have improved this book by including more of Washington’s early life and adventures, but except that, there is nothing I would change. I valued this book for its humanization of a towering figure in our history; it puts his dire situation into perspective. Out of a ten, I would give this book a ten. It was informative, fun to read, and gave me insight into the legend that was George Washington.

References

1. "George Washington: A Life" by Ron Chernow

2. "His Excellency: George Washington" by Joseph J. Ellis

3. "Washington: The Making of the American Capital" by Fergus M. Bordewich

4. "Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence" by Joseph J. Ellis

5. "Valley Forge" by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin

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