Spalding and Garrity show how George Washington was able to help shape the hearts of his countrymen—and how Washington's speeches and deeds can help shape them still. An intelligent and important work.
Spalding's and Garrity's work is a convincing argument for the importance of Washington's ideas for our time.
American Historical Review
This splendid volume, reminds us of how much we owe to George Washington.
Two hundred years after The Farewell Address was published, Matthew Spalding and Patrick J. Garrity help Washington speak once more to his 'Friends and Fellow Citizens'.
National Review - Richard Brookhiser
On its two-hundredth anniversary, it is appropriate for Americans to remember and reconsider this great document. A Sacred Union of Citizens is a contribution not only to the current renaissance in Washington scholarship but also to contemporary debates about citizenship and the American character.
It is worth sampling and the Farewell Address itself is definantly worth reading. . .
In this impressive volume, Mr. Spalding and Mr. Garrity see a great lesson in Washington's Farewell Address. .. . This book is a major contribution to Washington scholarship.
.. . a definitive analysis of George Washington's farewell address. . .
Booklist - Margaret Flanagan
It is worth sampling and the Farewell Address itself is definantly worth reading . . .
. . . a definitive analysis of George Washington's farewell address . . .
Two hundred years after The Farewell Address was published, Matthew Spalding and Patrick J. Garrity help Washington speak once more to his 'Friends and Fellow Citizens'.
. . . a definitive analysis of George Washington's farewell address . . .A Sacred Union of Citizens is a contribution not only to the current renaissance in Washington scholarship but also to contemporary debates about citizenship and the American character.
In this election year, it's fitting to remember our only unopposed president and the farewell address that set the standard. Congress regularly reprints it, but there has been little analytical popular literature on this seminal address. (There would not be another significant one until Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex 164 years later.) Despite rumblings about Francophobic touches, the farewell address is a document that attempts to set out a rationale for the Union and its conservative foreign policy. Yet Spalding (Heritage Foundation) and Garrity (Claremont Inst.) focus as much on the effect of Washington's character on the new republic as on his speech. The first few chapters constitute a brief biography that gets us past the mythological facade that Parson Weems created. The bulk of the book outlines Washington's efforts to impress his character traits on the new government and to establish its course. With the full text of the farewell address appended, this is a good choice for both academic and public libraries.James Doyle, Macomb Community Coll., Warren, Mich.
