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Richard Norton Smith
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Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation Paperback – February 1, 1997

by Smith Norton (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 31 ratings
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A dramatic portrait of George Washington's presidential years, Patriarch is a gripping story of politics and statecraft. Smith describes Washington's struggle to preside over the bitter feud between Jefferson and Hamilton--two brilliant members of his cabinet--while attempting to distinguish the first presidency.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    446 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Mariner Books
  4. Publication date
    February 1, 1997
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0395855128
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0395855126
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Norton Smith is the author ofThomas E. Dewey and His Times and biographies of George Washington and Herbert Hoover. A distinguished political speechwriter, he has worked especially closely with Bob and Elizabeth Dole, with whom he collaborated on their best-selling memoir Unlimited Partners. The director of the Gerald R. Ford Museum and Library, he lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; 0 edition (February 1, 1997)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 446 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0395855128
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0395855126
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 31 ratings

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  1. Richard Norton Smith

    Richard Norton Smith

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
31 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Rebecca Richardson
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2023
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This is exactly what I ordered, in better condition than I expected! Thanks so much!!
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djwatkins487
5.0 out of 5 stars Patriarch
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2012
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Smith provides a superb chronology of Washington's presidency. We're guided through national issues including the formation of the federal government, building the "character" of the President, Indian diplomacy, the Whiskey Rebellion, and the planning and development of Washington D.C. Foreign diplomacy with France, Britain, and Spain is a constant theme. The Jay Treaty and neutrality during France's civil war are expounded upon. And, peppered in are Washington's personal qualms with farming, property, family, and finances. The author recreates Washington's tumultuous eight years as Executive in a concise and fluid biography. By focusing strictly on his presidency, Smith is able to delve into the events that shaped early America with a level of detail that a traditional biography cannot. In reading this book, one can understand the importance of the outcome of each issue/event and the significance of Washington's decisions concerning the precedence set by his actions.
4 people found this helpful
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Don Gosselin
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2018
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Awesome book
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David Forel
4.0 out of 5 stars Guardian of the young republic and its Constitution
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2009
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This book is a bit dry (hence 4 stars), but I did not have any trouble staying with the story. After an introduction, the book is solely about Washington during his eight-year Presidency and his almost three years afterward (to his death).

In addition to politics, we get pieces that tell us how Washington felt about First People, slavery, and the building of what would become Washington D.C. The narrative is sometimes interrupted by small stories; for example, who dined with Washington one evening and who argued with whom. I learned to regard these breaks as information about who was in his larger circle and what was considered fair dinner conversation in his company.

I feel that the author drives to two conclusions. One is in the first half of chapter 13, "An Honorable Discharge." Here the author explains the significance of Washington's Farewell Address in terms of the man, the country he fought to create, and the Constitution he helped create and to which he yielded as President. This is worth all the reading that came before. The second conclusion is the Epilogue in which the author tries to redress the common myth of Washington as the cold icon on the dollar bill.

By the end, the author convinced me of Washington's greatness as the man who led the new republic into fairly using its new Constitution. (I think we should be thankful he considered farming Mount Vernon more rewarding than political leadership.) Washington was the rarest of military heroes -- he chose to be a visionary guardian of the new country instead of riding his reputation into a dictatorship. Young America was very fortunate.
9 people found this helpful
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schneism
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2016
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Great book - Thanks!
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Jeremy A. Perron
5.0 out of 5 stars The First Presidency
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2010
Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation is a book about George Washington that follows a unique formula. For this book is about President George Washington as opposed to General George Washington. The purpose is to give readers and understanding in early constitutional government and George Washington's role in it.

Americans today take for our constitutional government for granted. We hold elections every two years for Congress and every four years for the presidency, and to us this is normal procedure and part of the natural order of things. However, this democratic republican nature was not always guaranteed to be our fate. The fact that since the current form of our Republic was established in 1789, we have enjoyed over two centuries of peaceful transition from administration to the other*. As grown older it has also grown much stronger, with each year it existed it established more legitimacy and historical memory of the American people, and as it continued it became more inclusive going from a republic with only white men who owned land voting to suffrage being extended to all citizens upon entering adulthood.

In the beginning of this new form of government, the Constitution, everything was new and those who were in it were learning how to make this bi-cameral Congress, presidency and Supreme Court work. There were many ups and downs, experiments that would ultimately become precedent, and experiments that would fall apart almost immediately.

"On August 22, 1789, taking literally his constitutional charge to advise and consent with lawmakers over a proposed treaty involving southern Indian tribes, Washington had appeared in Federal Hall. Senator Maclay moved to refer the whole business to an appropriate committee of Congress. For a moment, Washington lost his legendary poise. `This defeats every purpose of my coming here,' he exploded. Soon after he withdrew vowing he would be damned rather than face such public humiliation again. In a single exchange Maclay and his colleagues had asserted their independence, undone the executive's plan to treat them as a kind of privy council, and laid the groundwork for a very different set of presidential advisers, the Cabinet." p.37

The book covers not only the major events of the Washington presidency, such as Hamilton's economic plans, the Bill of Rights, Citizen Genet, and the Jay treaty, but it also discuss a great deal of what life was like in our first two capitals of New York and Philadelphia. How Washington dealt with people's expectations of him is one of the books reoccurring themes. One of Smith's great accomplishments in this book is the way he shows President Washington as a smooth political operator.

"Politics is theater, and George Washington was America's first actor-president. The Constitution made Washington head of state as well as head of government, and no man had a better grasp of ceremonial leadership then George III's American usurper. The Washington presidency was nothing if not theatrical. Why else the elaborate rituals of levee and drawing room, of triumphal progress to occasions of state and deferential responses from lawmakers for whom the president was both symbol of continuity and the instrument of change? As the embodiment of revolutionary virtue, Washington knew that wherever he appeared, partisan murmurs would be lost in a chorus of hero worship. This alone was enough to make him the young republic's greatest asset and only glue." p. 87

Smith's work covers Washington's presidency and his post presidency in such detail that those who choose to read this book are opening a window into one of the most interesting decades in our history: the 1790s. I trust those who give this book time will not be disappointed.

* There is the 1860 exception of course, but I view the U.S. Civil War as something that the Republic was able to get though in one piece (we did have elections in 1862 and 1864 after all) by holding the nation together in `one piece'.
3 people found this helpful
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