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Title details for Travels with George by Nathaniel Philbrick - Available

Travels with George

In Search of Washington and His Legacy

by Nathaniel Philbrick
Nathaniel Philbrick
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Travels with George . . . is quintessential Philbrick—a lively, courageous, and masterful achievement.” —The Boston Globe
 
Does George Washington still matter? Bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick argues for Washington’s unique contribution to the forging of America by retracing his journey as a new president through all thirteen former colonies, which were now an unsure nation. Travels with George marks a new first-person voice for Philbrick, weaving history and personal reflection into a single narrative.
When George Washington became president in 1789, the United States of America was still a loose and quarrelsome confederation and a tentative political experiment. Washington undertook a tour of the ex-colonies to talk to ordinary citizens about his new government, and to imbue in them the idea of being one thing—Americans.
In the fall of 2018, Nathaniel Philbrick embarked on his own journey into what Washington called “the infant woody country” to see for himself what America had become in the 229 years since. Writing in a thoughtful first person about his own adventures with his wife, Melissa, and their dog, Dora, Philbrick follows Washington’s presidential excursions: from Mount Vernon to the new capital in New York; a monthlong tour of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island; a venture onto Long Island and eventually across Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The narrative moves smoothly between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries as we see the country through both Washington’s and Philbrick’s eyes.
Written at a moment when America’s founding figures are under increasing scrutiny, Travels with George grapples bluntly and honestly with Washington’s legacy as a man of the people, a reluctant president, and a plantation owner who held people in slavery. At historic houses and landmarks, Philbrick reports on the reinterpretations at work as he meets reenactors, tour guides, and other keepers of history’s flame. He paints a picture of eighteenth-century America as divided and fraught as it is today, and he comes to understand how Washington compelled, enticed, stood up to, and listened to the many different people he met along the way—and how his all-consuming belief in the union helped to forge a nation.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 14, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593417904
      • File size: 275925 KB
      • Duration: 09:34:50

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In 1789, one of the first things President George Washington did was travel from the first capital in New York City to Massachusetts and to the Carolinas to take the pulse of a people who'd endured a long, contentious revolution. With a cheerful, engaging delivery and a healthy supply of historical facts and personal anecdotes, author and narrator Nathaniel Philbrick follows Washington's path, visiting roadside taverns and historic homes where Washington did actually sleep. With a critical ear and an empathetic tone, Philbrick examines the day's thorniest questions--states' rights, a national treasury, and, toughest of all, slavery. Washington accomplished a tremendous amount but was never able to convince the country or even himself to abolish the "institution." That burden remains with our nation to this day. B.P. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 31, 2021
      Philbrick (In the Hurricane’s Eye) retraces George Washington’s presidential travels from 1789 to 1791 in this entertaining mix of history, travelogue, and memoir that takes a page from John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley. Accompanied by his wife, Melissa, and their dog, Dora, Philbrick follows Washington’s footsteps in New England, Long Island, and the South. Along the way, he weaves in brisk profiles of Washington’s companions, including his Black manservant, Billy Lee, and offers history lessons on the Boston Post Road, the Culper spy ring, and the creation of Washington, D.C. In Fairfield, Conn., Philbrick stops at the Sun Tavern, where Washington probably stayed in 1789; in Ridgeland, S.C., he talks history with a grocery store owner; at Mount Vernon, he discusses the process of “performing George Washington” with interpreter Dan Malissa (“he looks as much like an aging rock star as the first president”). According to Philbrick, Washington’s travels helped create his vision for a unified America, which involved grappling, though not always successfully, with slavery and racism. By freeing those he’d held in slavery after his death, Philbrick contends, Washington signalled the way forward. Echoing both Steinbeck and Washington, Philbrick finds that even in today’s politically divided times, the “American identity” can unite people across regional and philosophical differences. This poignant account strikes a hopeful chord.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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