Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union Library,US – förlag

The General in the Garden provides an engaging, informative, and richly illustrated introduction to George Washington’s landscape at Mount Vernon - arguably the best-documented, best-preserved complex of gardens and grounds to survive from eighteenth-century America.The book’s three essays, by Adam T. Erby, J. Dean Norton, and Esther C. White, chronicle Washington’s transformation of the estate in the years between the American Revolution and the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the stewardship of its gardens by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association since 1860, and the archaeology that led to the recent restoration of Washington’s showplace upper garden.Mount Vernon assistant curator Adam Erby examines Washington’s critical role in developing Mount Vernon’s landscape, arguing that the general drew on British design sources and gardening manuals but adapted them to his own circumstances, creating a truly American garden. J. Dean Norton, Mount Vernon’s director of horticulture, traces the evolution of the estate’s landscape and recreated gardens across the two centuries since Washington’s death. And Esther White, Mount Vernon’s director of historic preservation and research, shows how groundbreaking archaeological methods facilitated the discovery of Washington-era garden beds and borders of flowers, shrubs, and vegetables in his upper garden - a remarkable find that yielded one of the most significant eighteenth-century garden recreations of our time.Also included is a lavishly illustrated guide to Mount Vernon’s landscape features, introducing Washington’s beloved estate to a modern audience.This book will appeal to many readers - from students of American history and culture to gardening enthusiasts to Mount Vernon visitors curious to know more about the estate to which George Washington devoted intense and sophisticated care.Distributed for George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

This volume provides a fresh historical focus on George Washington as a pioneer farmer actively engaged in a new approach to agriculture: one based on a more scientific attitude toward crops, farm animals, and the land. As Alan and Donna Jean Fusonie examined his correspondence and diaries, the emerging profile of Washington was of a tireless experimenter eager to share his results with visitors and with farmers in other parts of the country and abroad. In his correspondence Washington used the power of his pen to convey important agricultural thoughts. He increasingly expressed his concern about the ruinous agricultural practices of many of his fellow farmers. Washington's complex shift to a more self-reliant and integrated system of agriculture proved him to be an informed, forward-thinking decision maker who focused on the long-term productivity and conservation of his land at Mount Vernon. The authors, also practicing farmers, are intrigued by the similarity between Washington's outlook and that of an increasing number of today's farmers who use more sustainable approaches.

George Washington's long career as a soldier began with defeat as a young line officer in the bloody frontier skirmishes of the French and Indian War; it culminated in the role of commanding general of the Continental army in victory over the British army. This soldier's life included long years of Spartan campaigning, the creation of a professional army, the honing of innovative tactics and strategies, and the development of crucial international military alliances. In this history of George Washington's career as an army officer, Dave Palmer reveals the many qualities of character that made Washington an extraordinary military commander, qualities that allowed him not only to lead a fledgling army to secure the independence of his newly formed country but to define the role of the military in a free and democratic society.

Historian Jack D. Warren Jr outlines the first president's practical accomplishments: the establishment of the executive as an energetic and effective branch of government; the resolution of the new nation's financial crisis; the opening of the trans-Appalachian West; the creation of Washington DC; and the preservation of peace with the warring powers of Europe. In a time of intense partisanship, Warren explains, Washington worked constantly to strengthen the Union, gave his office a character that transcends politics, and set a standard of conduct for national leaders that has endured for more than two centuries. Washington shaped the powers of the presidency, former president George H.W. Bush says in his foreword, ""yet never wavered from his promise to remain a servant of the people."" This book is a much-expanded version of a paper presented in November 1996 to the first annual Mount Vernon Symposium on George Washington.

Throughout his life George Washington demonstrated a capacity to face danger with determination and to suffer hardship with dignity. At no time were these qualities more evident than in his final struggle on December 14, 1799. On that morning, at home on his Mount Vernon estate, George Washington was mortally stricken with a frightening illness. Although he would perish before the day was out, Washington demonstrated great physical courage throughout what quickly became a brutal struggle. In this final battle Washington secured his most personal victory and enduring legacy. George Washington died as he lived, the model of a virtuous life courageously lived. In this engaging narrative Peter Henriques distills years of scholarly and medical research, bringing the final hours of George Washington into dramatic focus. His work lends new insight into the great man's attitudes toward life and death, and in so doing, reveals the true nature and quality of Washington as a national hero.

George Washington inherited his first slave at the age of eleven, and he was the only founding father to free his slaves in his will. This highly readable selection of articles focuses on Washington's changing attitudes toward the institution of slavery and his everyday relationships with the slaves who shared his Mount Vernon estate. Along with his insightful introduction, editor Philip J. Schwarz has included James C. Rees's essay ""Looking Back, Moving Forward: The Changing Interpretation of Slave Life on the Mount Vernon Estate,"" Dennis J. Pogue's essay ""Slave Lifeways at Mount Vernon: An Archaeological Perspective,"" and Lorena S. Walsh's essay ""Slavery and Agriculture at Mount Vernon,"" as well as essays by Jean B. Lee, Mary V. Thompson, and Edna Greene Medford.