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The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789 Audiobook
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
""An elegantly written account of leadership at the most pivotal moment in American history"" (Philadelphia Inquirer): Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson reveals how George Washington saved the United States by coming out of retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and serve as our first president.
After leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, George Washington shocked the world: he retired. In December 1783, General Washington, the most powerful man in the country, stepped down as Commander in Chief and returned to private life at Mount Vernon. Yet as Washington contentedly grew his estate, the fledgling American experiment floundered. Under the Articles of Confederation, the weak central government was unable to raise revenue to pay its debts or reach a consensus on national policy. The states bickered and grew apart. When a Constitutional Convention was established to address these problems, its chances of success were slim. Jefferson, Madison, and the other Founding Fathers realized that only one man could unite the fractious states: George Washington. Reluctant, but duty-bound, Washington rode to Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to preside over the Convention.
Although Washington is often overlooked in most accounts of the period, this masterful new history from Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward J. Larson brilliantly uncovers Washington’s vital role in shaping the Convention—and shows how it was only with Washington’s support and his willingness to serve as President that the states were brought together and ratified the Constitution, thereby saving the country.
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“Larson is an exceptionally fine historian,storyteller, and prose master, and Mark Bramhall amplifies those qualities inhis restrained and expertly paced narration. Wisely—thankfully—Bramhall doesn’tattempt to reproduce the voices of Washington or others but through subtlechanges in tone and inflection suggests character, temperament, and state ofmind. On the page, eighteenth-century rhetoric can be difficult to parse fromwriter to writer, and for that reason alone an audio performance is aconvenience and an enhancement. Here, too, Washington—remote and passive as ahistorical figure—comes to life as a farmer, botanist, landowner, politician,and a man you’d like to spend an evening with.”
— AudioFile
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“Illuminating history of an overlooked period in the life of our first president…Profound, even affectionate, scholarship infuses every graceful sentence.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
“After eight years of leading the fledgling colonies in their war for independence, George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief in order to return to private life. Yet the difficulties of establishing a new nation drew Washington back, and historian Larson, Pulitzer Prize–winner for Summer for the Gods, vividly recounts those events that led to Washington’s election as the first president of the United States…Larson’s compulsively readable history shines new light on a little-discussed period of Washington’s life, illustrating his role as the indispensable American.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Larson is a skilled storyteller combining scholarly research with a flair for relating historical events and personages to general readers.”
— Library Journal -
“Fne and engrossing…Mr. Larson, a history professor at Pepperdine University, engagingly argues that the stretch between 1783 and 1789 was as important to Washington—and to America—as all that preceded and followed it..”
— Wall Street Journal
Awards
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Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award
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An AudioFile Best Audiobook of the Year for 2014
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About Edward J. Larson
Edward J. Larson is the author of many acclaimed works in American history, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning history of the Scopes trial, Summer for the Gods. He is university professor of history and the Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University.
About Mark Bramhall
Arthur Morey has won three AudioFile Magazine “Best Of” Awards, and his work has garnered numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and placed him as a finalist for two Audie Awards. He has acted in a number of productions, both off Broadway in New York and off Loop in Chicago. He graduated from Harvard and did graduate work at the University of Chicago. He has won awards for his fiction and drama, worked as an editor with several book publishers, and taught literature and writing at Northwestern University. His plays and songs have been produced in New York, Chicago, and Milan, where he has also performed.