| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington. By Peter R. Henriques. (Charlottes ville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. xvi, pp. $26.95, ISBN 0-8139-2547-9.)

This is an interesting, thoughtful, and elegantly written book. While not a biography and not intended as one, it offers insights and ruminations for those who know the essentials of George Washington's life. Peter R. Henriques argues that "Washington's personality is the most striking and most commonly overlooked aspect of the historical man" (p. x). Henriques examines this elusive man and offers "informed speculation" (p. xi). He draws heavily on secondary works (including his own) and weaves them together in chapters on Washington's military career and presidency, his relationships with his wife, Martha, and his friend Sally Cary Fairfax, his political relationships with Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, his thoughts about religion and slavery, and his death. The result is less a new synthesis of Washington than a series of interconnected sketches, each of which draws on and illuminates the others.

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