From the #1 New York Times bestselling author and Fox News
Channel's Chief Political Correspondent, a blockbuster new biography of
George Washington, centering on his return from retirement to lead the
Constitutional Convention and secure the future of the United States.
George Washington rescued the nation and the Constitution three times:
first by winning the Revolutionary War, second by presiding over the
Constitutional Convention and ushering the Constitution through a
fractious ratification process, and third by leading the nation as
president in its first years. There is no doubt that the struggling new
nation needed to be rescued.
After the victorious war, when a spirit of unity and patriotism might
have been expected, instead the nation was broken. The states were no
more than a loosely knit and contentious confederation, with no strong
central union. They were in constant conflict. A frustrated Washington
wrote to James Madison, "We are either a united people, or we are not...
If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it..." It
was an urgent matter, and led to the calling of a Constitutional
Convention.
Setting aside his plan to retire to Mount Vernon, where he had a happy
family life and was fully engaged in his farming enterprises, Washington
agreed to be a delegate at the Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia. There he was unanimously elected president of the
convention. After successfully bringing the Constitution into being,
Washington then sacrificed any hope of returning to private life by
accepting the unanimous election to be the nation's first president.
Washington was not known for brilliant oratory or prose, but his quiet,
steady leadership gave life to the Constitution by showing how it should
be enacted. He not only helped write the nation's blueprint; he lived
it.
In this colorful and moving portrait of America's early struggles, when
the fight for survival was constant, Baier captures the dramatic moments
when Washington's leadership brought the nation from the brink of
collapse. Baier exposes an early America that is grittier and far more
divided than it is often portrayed--one we can see reflected in today's
conflicts.
