Book Review: Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy

A Wonderful Trip Through a Time Past with a Charming Historian

Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy, author Nathaniel Philbrook, retraces George Washington’s trips to New England, Rhode Island and the South where he visited with citizens of the newly minted United States of America. Philbrook wholeheartedly succeeds in describing the new President’s travels. But what makes this book truly enjoyable is the opportunity to ride along with the delightful author, his wife, Mellisa and their dog, Dora, as they follow in Washington’s steps.

After the Constitution was enacted and George Washington was elected President there was no real consensus about how this country was actually going to operate. Washington felt that one of his first orders of business was to reassure his constituents that their country was in good hands. He, therefore, took three trips, one throughout the New England states, one to Rhode Island (which was one of the last states to approve the Constitution) and one to the Southern states. In Travels with George, Nathaniel Philbrook, along with his wife, Melissa and their dog Dora, retrace these three trips.

Philbrook is an award winning author who has written extensively about colonial and post-colonial times in America. In Travels with George he provides extensive incites into the things that would have concerned Washington at the time of his trips - his health, the question of slavery, establishment of the Capital in Washington, DC, the quarrels between the Federalists (led by Alexander Hamilton) and the Anti-Federalists (led by Thomas Jefferson), and what would become of Mount Vernon after he is gone. Most importantly, Philbrook shows that Washington’s greatest concern was what he could do to establish practices and procedures that would reflect a true single government for the thirteen new states.

With respect to the actual trips, Philbrook describes an exhausting series of celebrations welcoming Washington to each town he visited. He explains that Washington was able to maintain his dignity throughout and was always a man of quiet grace and charisma who was viewed by all as the heroic embodiment of the new central government. As such, Washington succeeded in rallying support for that government.

Unlike his other books, Philbrook made this one personal. With his wife and his dog, as traveling companions, he describes his own experiences retracing Washington’s travels. And he effectively invites the reader along as a “remote” traveling companion. Through Philbrook the reader meets local historians and descendants of those who were there in Washington’s time. During the trip he manages to debunk some myths about Washington and to confirm others. It turns out that Washington did not sleep everywhere that claims to have had him as a guest.

Nathaniel Philbrook is a highly engaging person who has made history his life’s work. I cannot imagine a better traveling companion and I was sorry to have to say goodbye when the book ended. I give this book 5 stars and recommend it for all.