George Washington (The American Presidents Collection)

A premier management scholar and an eighteenth-century knowledgeable outline the particular contributions and {qualifications} of our first president

Revolutionary hero, founding president, and first citizen of the younger republic, George Washington was probably the most illustrious public man of his time, a person whose picture at this time is the results of the cautious grooming of his public persona to incorporate the themes of character, self-sacrifice, and future.

As Washington sought to interpret the Structure’s task of powers to the chief department and to determine precedent for future leaders, he relied on his key advisers and appeared to kind consensus because the guideline of presidency. His is a legacy of a profitable experiment in collective management, nice initiatives in establishing a powerful government department, and the formulation of modern and lasting financial and international insurance policies. James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn additionally hint the arc of Washington’s growing dissatisfaction with public life and the seeds of dissent and political events that, mockingly, grew from his insistence on consensus. On this compelling and balanced biography, Burns and Dunn give us a wealthy portrait of the person behind the fastidiously crafted mythology.