George Washington 
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SOURCE: The Bulwark
2/22/2021
How George Washington Didn’t Lead
Historians Lindsay Chervinsky, Noemie Emery, David Head and Craig Bruce Smith offer reflections in a virtual forum on the first president's leadership.
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2/21/2021
Advice to POTUS 46 from POTUS 1
by David O. Stewart
The author of a recent political biography of George Washington wonders how the first president would guide the most recent one.
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SOURCE: Newsweek
2/16/2021
Historians Correct Nikki Haley After George Washington Tweet
Nikki Haley's recent tweet suggested that, as president, George Washington helped establish the Constitution (which of course created the office).
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SOURCE: CNN
2/16/2021
Historian Corrects Nikki Haley's George Washington Tweet
Historian and Washington biographer Alexis Coe takes apart Nikki Haley's faulty references to George Washington's role in the founding.
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SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
2/15/2021
‘George Washington’ Review: Our Founding Politician
David Stewart's new book on George Washington highlights his political skills and careful work at cultivating allies. Far from being an apolitical leader, Washington was a skilled operator whose greatest achievement was avoiding the stigma of politics.
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2/14/2021
A Lesson Unity and Renewal: George Washington and the Building of the Capital City
by Robert P. Watson
The decision to create a national capital city and the execution of the plan was an underappreciated legacy of George Washington's leadership and a key force uniting a fragile new nation.
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SOURCE: History.com
2/3/2021
America’s First Black Regiment Earned Their Freedom by Fighting Against the British
Philip Morgan says the decision to enlist both free and enslaved Black troops resulted both from Rhode Island's difficulty mustering a sufficient all-white force and George Washington's fear that Lord Dunmore's offer of freedom to enslaved men who joined the British army would undermine the slavery-based economy of Virginia and the southern colonies.
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1/24/2021
George Washington Resisted the Siren Call of Absolute Power
by Jan-Benedict Steenkamp
George Washington is celebrated for his refusal to continue past two terms as President. But his earlier actions in refusing the leadership of a military coup against the Continental Congress in 1783 put the new nation on track to have civilian leadership under law.
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SOURCE: The Bulwark
1/15/2021
The Last Action Hero and the First President
by Craig Bruce Smith
If an Austrian-born bodybuilder, a Hollywood actor, can learn the value of the Founders’ ideals, maybe we can too.
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SOURCE: Virginian-Pilot
12/19/2020
The Real Story of George Washington’s Boozy Eggnog Recipe — and Martha’s Christmas Cake
Mount Vernon historian Mary Thompson says the legend of George Washington's super-potent recipe for eggnog is bunk, but the estate does preserve a hand-written holiday cake recipe from Martha Washington.
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SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
11/11/2020
A Diverse Cabinet will Make Joe Biden a Better President and Unify the Country
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky
"Over the past 230 years, presidents have followed Washington’s lead, making increased diversity and representation of religions, backgrounds, genders and races a central part of the cabinet story."
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SOURCE: Governing
10/1/2020
President Washington and the Character of the First Supreme Court
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky
The first Supreme Court was not the magisterial institution we know today. Both Congress and the executive branch saw its role in political terms, and its composition as subject to change to reflect the shifting needs of the nation.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
10/3/2020
We Nearly Lost Our First President to the Flu. The Country Could Have Died, Too
by Gillian Brockell
Had he died in the 1790 flu pandemic, the United States might have died with him. The new Constitution lacked detailed instructions on how to treat presidential incapacitation and death. (This was remedied in the 20th century by the 25th Amendment).
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8/30/2020
John Oliver Dunked on Joy Behar over George Washington's Slaveowning, but Didn't Do the Reading Himself
by Erik Curren
In a rush to dunk on Joy Behar for being clueless about George Washington's practices as a slaveowner, John Oliver flattened the story himself; reading Mary V. Thompson's book would help everyone speak with more authority.
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8/2/2020
Yes, Even George Washington Can Be Redeemed
by Richard Lim
While we cannot ignore Washingon's participation in slavery, we shouldn’t discount his remarkable transformation into someone who wished for its abolition and took steps personally to make things right, becoming the only major founder to free his slaves.
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6/21/2020
Peace is Temporary Without Trustworthy Leaders: Lessons from the Philadelphia Mutiny
by David Head
In an environment of intense mutual suspicion—soldiers accused civilians of stingy ingratitude while civilians saw the army as a threat to their liberty—Washington’s trustworthiness bound the two sides together.
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SOURCE: The Conversation
6/1/2020
George Washington Would Have So Worn a Mask
by Maurizio Valsana
The genre “What would X do?” – where X stands for a noted figure in history, say Jesus or Dolly Parton – is silly. And yet, as a scholar writing a new biography of George Washington, I can’t help making a bold declaration: The Father of His Country would wear his mask in public.
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SOURCE: Lapham's Quarterly
4/7/2020
Presidential Approval Rating
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky
George Washington tries to give the public what it wants.
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SOURCE: Society for U.S. Intellectual History
3/30/2020
Writing an Intellectual History of the President’s Cabinet
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky
Historian Lindsay M. Chervinsky discusses the methodology behind her latest book on George Washington's cabinet.
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SOURCE: Uncommon Sense
3/26/2020
Women Also Know Washington
by Lindsay Chervinsky
The last decade has witnessed a noticeable uptick of works on Washington authored by women, with more to come in the pipeline.
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