Presidential Biographies

Washington, Adams, Jefferson

My new post for Wednesdays, fulfilling a long-standing promise to

Ryan Hall

and hopefully extending some horizons here and there. Many of these biographies I haven’t read for several years, so these posts will be sign-posts or lamp-posts more than… err… the sort of posts you drive into the ground when you want them to stay there for ever.

A serious hat-tip to My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies.

His Excellency George Washington, Joseph Ellis

The greatness of George Washington doesn’t need to be proven by biographers, but his greatness is such that new biographies are always possible. Ellis, a historian of the Founding, writes an impeccable and shortish account of Washington, from British soldier on the frontier to successful commander to Father of his Nation. Whilst the thinkers created America on paper, Washington was the presiding genius who (to the reported amazement of George III) voluntarily surrendered power, thus setting a happy precedent.

John Adams, David McCullough

The finest of all biographies, an extensive and engrossing book that paints the querulous, demanding, brilliant and uxorious Adams in all his many dimensions. More of a broader history than Ellis’ work, it tells you almost everything you need to know about the infant Republic, albeit through the lens of Adams. (McCullough’s 1776 is also worth reading). A man who perhaps influenced more people than he made friends – the Sedition Act comes to mind – Adams was nonetheless a towering historical figure. And he had a great woman behind him.

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Ellis

Ellis again, with a book that I remember enjoying and have otherwise entirely forgotten. This also is probably rather too short to do much more than scratch the surface of Jefferson, known as the most multitudinous (in the Whitman sense) of presidents. His fondness for hymning the French Revolution and the agrarian life would almost be sufficient to justify the appellation of sphinx, but there was a great deal more to Jefferson, whose thought helped to shape the Republic, and this is a good place to start.