Overview
From his teens until his death, the maps George Washington drew and purchased were always central to his work. After his death, many of the most important maps he had acquired were bound into an atlas. The atlas remained in his family for almost a century before it was sold and eventually ended up at Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library.
Inspired by these remarkable maps, historian Barnet Schecter has crafted a unique portrait of our first Founding Father, placing the reader at the scenes of his early career as a surveyor, his dramatic exploits in the French and Indian War (his altercation with the French is credited as the war's spark), his struggles throughout the American Revolution as he outmaneuvered the far more powerful British army, his diplomacy as president, and his shaping of the new republic. Beautifully illustrated in color, with twenty-four of the full atlas maps, dozens more detail views from those maps, and numerous additional maps (some drawn by Washington himself), portraits, and other images—and produced in an elegant large format—George Washington's America allows readers to visualize history through Washington's eyes, and sheds fresh light on the man and his times.
Synopsis
From his teens until his death, the maps George Washington drew and purchased were always central to his work. After his death, many of the most important maps he had acquired were bound into an atlas. The atlas remained in his family for almost a century before it was sold and eventually ended up at Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library.
Inspired by these remarkable maps, historian Barnet Schecter has crafted a unique portrait of our first Founding Father, placing the reader at the scenes of his early career as a surveyor, his dramatic exploits in the French and Indian War (his altercation with the French is credited as the war's spark), his struggles throughout the American Revolution as he outmaneuvered the far more powerful British army, his diplomacy as president, and his shaping of the new republic. Beautifully illustrated in color, with twenty-four of the full atlas maps, dozens more detail views from those maps, and numerous additional maps (some drawn by Washington himself), portraits, and other images—and produced in an elegant large format—George Washington's America allows readers to visualize history through Washington's eyes, and sheds fresh light on the man and his times.
The New York Times - Virginia DeJohn Anderson
Schecter…knows how to tell a good story in clear, vigorous prose.
Editorials
Library Journal
To be clear, this coffee-table book is not a biography of George Washington; it's a study of the country as Washington came to know it, especially as indicated by the maps he collected and used over the course of his career. His personal collection of maps, including many he rendered himself, ended up in a one-of-a-kind atlas in Yale University's collections. The so-called Yale George Washington Atlas provides the bulk of the maps reproduced in this impressive volume. Schecter presents detailed map views of locations particularly germane to Washington's career and the growth of the country, masterfully aligning his historical account with applicable maps, giving readers the opportunity to study Washington's skill as a surveyor and cartographer in the process. The result is an impressive mix of history and geography, placing Washington's military and political career in geographical context. An appendix provides thumbnail images of every map included in the Yale atlas. VERDICT This lavish book, with its original approach and generous production values, is highly recommended as both a recreational and a reference work for specialists and informed lay readers of American geography, cartography, and Colonial through Federal-era history.—Douglas King, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., ColumbiaVirginia DeJohn Anderson
Schecter…knows how to tell a good story in clear, vigorous prose.—The New York Times