Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment

by Garry Wills

"Gary Wills has made George Washington interesting again. By investigating the interest Washington's contemporaries had in him, and by playing that interest off against some of the perennial problems of political morality and the uses of power, Wills gives us a fresh perspective on our first President. [He] shows how Washington solved the problem of charismatic leadership by embodying the eighteenth-century Enlightenment the creation of a revived classical republic. People responded to such leadership in verse, sermons, songs, paintings, and sculpture. This book differs from other historical studies of political power by its use of evidence from a wide range of sources. In Wills's hands art history becomes a new kind of political science. [He] finds forgotten messages in Parson Weems's account of Washington; he traces the use of classical images to such unsuspected places as the carving of American eagles and the disposition of Washington's hands in Greenough's notorious statue of the first President. The great actions of Washington are seen afresh, as in a restored the surrender of his military commission, his Farewell Address, and his indispensable role in the ratification of the Constitution of the United States." From front and back flaps.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, American History, Politics

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1984

About the author

Garry Wills is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1993.
Wills has written over fifty books and, since 1973, has been a frequent reviewer for The New York Review of Books. He became a faculty member of the history department at Northwestern University in 1980, where he is an Emeritus Professor of History.

Reviews

[Mackay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating, necessary book about the President we all think we know, Washington, whom we know nothing about. This should be required reading for Americans.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

read about half and got bored; focused mainly on portrayals of Washington in art around the time of his death

[Stanley Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this work after coming across it in Alan Jacobs’ new book “Breaking Bread with the Dead, so I decided to give it a go. Not a bad book, although I was expecting more in the way of history and comparison between Washington and Cincinnatus, we got more sculpture and painting history of the Founding Fathers...SLT

[Steve Kierstead]

A bit of a slog. Sorry.

[Suprada Urval]

Recommended by: Ryan Holiday, March 23 2019 newsletter