Books, Arts & Manners

Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington, by Richard Brookhiser (Free Press, 215 pp., $25)

FACE it: George Washington has become virtually a nonentity. Although official iconography keeps the face familiar, the man and his deeds have long since faded into obscurity. Washington’s contributions to the founding of the United States have lost their capacity to impress or to instruct. Indeed, his once-hallowed title, “Father of his Country,” today sounds not only overblown but slightly comic, like King of Late Night or Queen of Pop. George Washington may be the most-honored forgotten man in American history. He is at the moment, writes Richard Brookhiser, “in our textbooks and our wallets, but not our hearts.”

AJ

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Andrew J. Bacevich

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Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington, by Richard Brookhiser (Free Press, 215 pp., $25)

FACE it: George Washington has become virtually a nonentity. Although official iconography keeps the face familiar, the man and his deeds have long since faded into obscurity. Washington’s contributions to the founding of the United States have lost their capacity to impress or to instruct. Indeed, his once-hallowed title, “Father of his Country,” today sounds not only overblown but slightly comic, like King of Late Night or Queen of Pop. George Washington may be the most-honored forgotten man in American history. He is at the moment, writes Richard Brookhiser, “in our textbooks and our wallets, but not our hearts.”