The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Foreword
• Table of Maps
• Principal Events of Washington’s Life
• Note On This Edition
• Part One: Commander In Chief of the Revolution
• Chapter 1: “the Favorite Soldier of Virginia”: Early Years; the French and Indian War (1732 to 1759)
• Chapter 2: “the Soldier of America”; Victory At Boston (september 1774 to April 1776)
• Chapter 3: War In Canada and the North (june 1775 to November 1776)
• Chapter 4: War In the South; the Declaration of Independence (november 1775 to July 1776)
• Chapter 5: Defeat and the Restoration of “native Courage”: Command In New York (june to September 1776)
• Chapter 6: “unyielding Firmness”: Retreat and Attack In New York and New Jersey (october 1776 to January 1777)
• Chapter 7: The Army and Independence Maintained (january to July 1777)
• Chapter 8: Battle and a Wise Determination to Avoid Battle: the Struggle For Philadelphia (july to September 1777)
• Chapter 9: A Stubborn Contest In the Middle Colonies (september to December 1777)
• Chapter 10: Defeat, Then Victory, In the North: Ticonderoga, Bennington, Saratoga (november 1775 to November 1777)
• Chapter 11: “the Character of Washington”: Preserving Army and Command At Valley Forge (december 1777 to May 1778)
• Chapter 12: “on His Own Responsibility”: a New Army At Monmouth (march to June 1778)
• Chapter 13: “temperate Measures”: Disappointment With the French, Stalemate With the British (july to December 1778)
• Chapter 14: Diplomacy; Frontier Attacks; Congress’s Grand Plan (june 1778 to February 1779)
• Chapter 15: The British Shift the Front: War In Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia (november 1778 to June 1779)
• Chapter 16: Near-mutinies and Calming Influence; Skirmishes; the Allies Fail At Savannah (may to December 1779)
• Chapter 17: Disasters and Misjudgments In South Carolina (january to August 1780)
• Chapter 18: Governing Without Teeth: Mutiny; Failures of Supply; a French Force Stalls (january to September 1780)
• Chapter 19: Arnold’s Treason; Faction and Army Policy In Congress (august to December 1780)
• Chapter 20: “abilities, Fortitude, and Integrity”: Greene and His Lieutenants In the South (august 1780 to April 1781)
• Chapter 21: Mutiny Parried and Quelled; the “miserably Defective” Structure of Congress; Lafayette Checks Cornwallis (november 1780 to July 1781)
• Chapter 22: “the Total Incompetency of the Political System”; Victory At Yorktown (may to December 1781)
• Chapter 23: The Deep South Regained; the Prudence of Greene (april 1781 to January 1782)
• Chapter 24: Peace; Pacifying the Army; the “virtuous Moderation” to Bid Farewell (december 1781 to December 1783)
• Part Two: Father and President of the New Republic
• Chapter 25: Private Statesmanship: Agriculture, Improvements, Union (1783 to 1785)
• Chapter 26: Political Imbecility; Constituting a Government (1784 to 1789)
• Chapter 27: Conciliating the Public: Election, Inauguration, and First Appointments (1789)
• Chapter 28: Defense, Finance, Foreign Affairs— and the First “systematic Opposition” (1790 to 1791)
• Chapter 29: Democratic Rebellion; Indian War; the French Model (march 1791 to March 1793)
• Chapter 30: Reelection; Furor Over Neutrality; the Extraordinary Citizen Genêt (november 1792 to December 1793)
• Chapter 31: “the Path of Duty”: Averting War, Maintaining Independence (december 1793 to June 1794)
• Chapter 32: Executive Vigor Confronts War, Rebellion, and Treaty-making (january 1794 to June 1796)
• Part Three: the First of Americans
• Chapter 33: Last Farewell; Final Duty; Legacy and Character (1796 to 1799)
• Appendix A: Note On Further Reading and Editorial Sources
• I.: Further Reading
• II.: Sources
• Appendix B: Important Writings of Washington
• I.: Speech to the Officers of the Army
• II.: Address to Congress On Resigning Commission
• III.: To the Continental Congress
• IV.: First Inaugural Address
• V.: Farewell Address

I.

Further Reading

The Editors recommend the following:

(a) selections of washington’s writings

George Washington: A Collection, ed. William B. Allen (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1988); George Washington, Writings, selected by John H. Rhodehamel, (New York: Library of America, 1997).

(b) works on washington

In addition to the biography by James T. Flexner listed in II.C. below, see: Richard Brookhiser, Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington (New York: The Free Press, 1996); Don Higginbotham, George Washington and the American Military Tradition (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985); John P. Kaminski and Jill Adair McCaughan, eds., A Great and Good Man: George Washington in the Eyes of His Contemporaries (Madison: Madison House, 1989); Forrest McDonald, The Presidency of George Washington (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1974); Sidney M. Milkis and Michael Nelson, The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776–1993, 2d ed. (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books, 1994), chapters 1–4; Glenn Phelps, George Washington and American Constitutionalism (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993); Matthew Spalding and Patrick J. Garrity, A Sacred Union of Citizens: George Washington’s Farewell Address and the American Character (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1996).

(c) works on marshall

In addition to the works by Beveridge, Cunliffe, Faulkner, and Smith listed in II.D. below, see: Charles F. Hobson, The Great Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Rule of Law (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996); Herbert A. Johnson, The Chief Justiceship of John Marshall, 1801–1835 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997).