George Washington and the Founding of a Nation

Marrin's book is history at its most entertaining and enlightening! Although targeted at young adults, I would also recommend it to many adult readers. As someone who has read numerous "serious" history books that are frequently so dry and obtuse as to be inaccessable to the average reader, I would suggest Albert Marrin's George Washington & the Founding of a Nation. At 257 pages, the book is an enjoyable week's read covering all of the basic points of Washington's life and times. At its core it is fundamentally entertaining and would compare favorably with a Clancy or Grisham novel.Marrin's work takes Washington down off his pedestal and displays the full humanity of the man. His tremendous courage and bravery, his sharp opportunism and the moral dilemmas he faced by owing slaves. Marrin served as a junior high history teacher before becoming a university professor and eventually heading the history department at Yeshiva University in New York City. Clearly this is a man who spent his life making history come alive for young minds and he succeeds in this work both for young adults and for other adults who are looking for a greater appreciation of one of the key founders of the United States.A special note for parents considering the work for young adults. Marrin's work is clearly inappropriate for younger children, but would be a great book for the child beginning to enter the world of adult reading. In Marrin's book the world is a far more complicated place than the world as explained in elementary school history texts. All of the historical figures are displayed with empathy and with their humanity open for inspection. The book should probably be rated R for violence, battle scenes are discussed realistically, and without being gratuitous, the author vividly describes the horrors of battle. A section dealing with Washington's ownership of slaves, while depicting Washington as a relatively kind slave owner explains the dilemmas Washington faced and his ultimate hypocrisy in keeping slaves. A brief segment on how some planation owners mistreated slaves is particularly harrowing and gruesome at times. As for sexuality, the book should be rated PG-13 as many of the British officers fall victim to the lovely ladies of Philadelphia.Overall I highly recommend this book to individuals interested in learning more about George Washington and to young adults who are starting to enter the world of books aimed at mature readers.

I had to write this review because this is a fantastic book and it deserves a better rating than it has. I have read just about all of Marrin's books. He is my favorite author of history books for young adults. The reading style is always appropriate for younger readers (age 12 and up), but usually Marrin's books are too long for this target audience, who often struggle at reading anything that takes more than hour. I've seen kids I tried to get to read this book get turned-off after raising and lowering it a few times to assess its weight. In my view every page of Marrin's "George Washington" is worth reading. Marrin often finds choice excerpts from the primary literature that give you the feeling that you're really getting to know Washington and his times. Disregard the last customer review about inaccuracy. Marrin is a true historian and even if one quote wasn't verbatim, he didn't change its meaning.I also disagree with the School Library Journal review saying that Milton Meltzer's "George Washington and the Birth of Our Nation" and Mary Pope Osborne's "George Washington: Leader of a New Nation" are equally fine biographies. Marrin has them both beat by miles. The writing is faster paced, the illustrations are better, and the book takes the subject to a greater depth.

I'm using this book, among many others, in a homeschooling course on the American Revolution. There are many good illustrations, the language is simple and unpretentious, and the story is engaging my 13 year old -- in fact, it is often quite gory and graphic in its descriptions of wartime events! Beware if you're squeamish about war. But young lads will love it.