American Crisis: George Washington and the Dangerous Two Years After Yorktown, 1781\u20131783<\/a>.\u201d As such, the new book covers the time between the end of the Revolution in 1781 and the beginning of Washington\u2019s presidency in 1789.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cHe took the presidency at probably the most tumultuous period in American history,\u201d Fowler says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Washington was a \u201cunifying figure,\u201d Fowler says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Bill](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/091025_AS_Bill_Fowler_009.jpg\")
Fowler focuses his book on Washington\u2019s life from the end of the Revolutionary War to the beginning of his presidency. Photo by Alyssa Stone\/Northeastern University<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a man of virtue. He was a man of consistency. He was physically brave. Sometimes wrong, but he could admit to his failures,\u201d Fowler says. \u201cHe was greatly admired by nearly everyone who knew him or saw him or served him from the lowliest private in the American Revolution to the members of his own Cabinet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Washington was also incredibly well attuned to the forming nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had traveled widely as a land surveyor and soldier and, even after the Revolution, traveled as a land speculator in the West and a respected figure throughout the future nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI suspect you can go through any number of towns \u2014 especially New England towns \u2014 and find a sign that says \u2018Washington slept here,\u2019\u201d Fowler quipped.<\/p>\n
Moreover, hundreds of people a year came to visit Washington at Mount Vernon \u2014 so many people, in fact, that Washington likened his home to an \u201cinn\u201d or \u201ctavern,\u201d Fowler says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe saw, probably, more of America in his lifetime than any other American, and more Americans visited him than any other American,\u201d Fowler says. \u201cHe was the center of this forming, yet-to-be-created nation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But this future nation also \u201ctroubled him,\u201d Fowler says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat troubled him was that the \u2018nation\u2019 \u2014 and I use that in quotation marks \u2014 that he had helped to create, was not fulfilling its destiny. It was, in fact, in danger in some places of falling apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, Washington put himself forward to be the new leader of the nation at the Constitutional Convention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the unifying theme,\u201d Fowler says. \u201cHe settled us down at a time when we could have gone in fractious, different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not that the carefully cultivated image of a statesman and austere general on an (always) white horse was Washington\u2019s whole persona.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe, in a sense, lived two separate lives,\u201d Fowler says. \u201cWe see him, in a political sense, as this austere, staid, distant person, and he was. But then there\u2019s this other side \u2014 the social George. And the social George was convivial, loved a good joke \u2014 he was a loving grandfather, a good friend, a damn good farmer, and loved a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fowler also notes that the fact that Washington was a slaveowner cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlavery is his greatest flaw \u2014 there\u2019s no question about that,\u201d Fowler says. \u201cSome historians have said that he was uncomfortable with slavery. I never really found any evidence of that. He was a southern plantation owner. That kind of says it all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Washington was also modest \u2014 as he would demonstrate in stepping aside after his second term.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs president, the world changes \u2014 it\u2019s now a republic, it\u2019s now that political parties are emerging, national issues are emerging, we\u2019re into the problems with the French, continuing problems with the British \u2014 the world really becomes much more complicated,\u201d Fowler says. \u201cI do believe that in great measure Washington knew, he knew what he had done and he knew what he couldn\u2019t do, and he knew the world in which he had lived and done amazing things wasn\u2019t the same world now, and it was time for him to retire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s so different,\u201d Fowler adds. \u201cWe\u2019ve had many presidents, many leaders, I suppose,\u00a0<\/p>\n
whose careers and whose stories are always a little bit muddled.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWashington has an amazing consistency,\u201d Fowler continues. \u201cIt\u2019s a consistency of dignity and honor and service.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\tUniversity News<\/p>\n
\t\t\tRecent Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Washington is lionized as a general and president.\u00a0 But to Northeastern University historian William Fowler, perhaps the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[359,18,117,26486,46365,5489,19,17,46366],"class_list":{"0":"post-66040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-faculty","12":"tag-george-washington","13":"tag-history","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-william-fowler"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}