Essay --

Joseph J. Ellis is a known historian of archaeozoic American history, and an award-winning author. In 2001, he won the Pulitzer Prize in History for his book Founding Brothers. Ellis has authored some(prenominal) other history books slightly the basal generation, including The Character and Legacy of John Adams American Creation Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic His Excellency George working capital and many more. Ellis earned his B.A. from the College of William and bloody shame in 1965. He then received a Master of Arts, a Master of Philosophy, and a PhD from Yale University. Ellis is also a regular contributor to several notable publications including The in the buff York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker. His Excellency George Washington was published in 2004, Ellis intended to seek the major periods of Washingtons life in order to offer a profile of the man first in war, first in Peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen. Ellis states that his goal in writing His Excellency was to not produce a work that examined not George Washingtons life, but his personality and how his life shaped it. Ellis focuses on very particularised questions here, namely how George Washingtons character influenced his public decisions, and how he came to be the symbol of not secure American leadership but, earlier, of the entire Revolutionary cause. He traces Washingtons life from his youthful, energetic, impulsive military decisions and a string of near-catastrophic mistakes, to his later, ravisher leadership of the fledgling American republic. Ellis demonstrates the parts of Washingtons character such as his ability to turn down offered powers, which then he turns into not just his own personal success bu... ...uccessful in his initial strategy for the War of Independence, losing almost every engagement fought against the British and their Prussian allies. He serves passim the entire war unharmed b y bullet, blade, or bomb, seemingly flourishing or perhaps protected by divine providence. The colonists are coupled by France and win a critical battle at Saratoga, New York. Overall 8 long years would pass and the Continental the States would suffer from disease (smallpox), lack of supplies, low morale, and no pay in the first place finally striking the winning blow at Yorktown, Virginia against General Cornwallis. Washington, indispose and much aged from the years of battles and deprivation, he then retired to his landholdings and slave sedulousness estates. Despite his previous withdrawal from public life Washington accepts the presidency when elected and cements his legacy as the father of our country.