In the Name of the Father: Washington's Legacy, Slavery, and the Making of a Nation

Furnestberg has written an interesting book describing how the worship of George Washington has led to stagnation in American political thinking. According to Furstenberg popular historians in the early nineteenth century depicted Washington as a man of moral self control and artists pictured him as an rock against the revolutionary change that was occurring in Europe. Also Washington was depicted by artists and historians alike as a heavenly being whose words had to be worshipped as a sacred canon. Finally the legacy of Washington and the revolutionary generation helped to legitimize slavery since white Americans were considered to have fought for their freedom as opposed to slaves who were nothing more than passive agents. I would reccomend this book for anyone who wants to see a darker side of this country's fetish with the founding fathers.