His Excellency

George Washington

By: Joseph J. Ellis

Narrated by: Nelson Runger

Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Acclaimed author Joseph J. Ellis penned the National Book Award-winning American Sphinx and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Founding Brothers, a fixture on The New York Times best seller list for an entire year, and one of the most popular history books of all time. Now this master historian turns his attention to the most exalted American hero, Founding Father and first President George Washington.

Washington has always been a larger-than-life enigmatic figure. On the day he was given command of the continental army, he recorded only the temperature and where he ate dinner in his journal. But recently, his papers were catalogued at the University of Virginia. Ellis had primary access to the 90-volume papers, allowing him to paint a thorough and fascinating portrait.

From the French and Indian War to Mount Vernon, from the American Revolution to the presidency, Ellis delivers what will stand the test of time as the definitive biography of the greatest American icon.

©2004 Joseph J. Ellis (P)2004 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Finalist, Non-Fiction (unabridged), 2005
• 2005 Quill Award Nominee

"Ellis offers a magisterial account of the life and times of George Washington [that] leaves readers with a deeper sense of the man's humanity." (Publishers Weekly)
"Mr. Ellis gives us a succinct character study while drawing on his extensive knowledge of Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary history to strip away the accretions of myth and contemporary extemporizing that have grown up around his subject....An incisive portrait of the man." (The New York Times)

really interesting

It discusses washington's weaknesses. He had alot of things he was not good at. But it's amazing to hear such insightfull information about the creation of the nation. A must read for history geeks like me.

Generally good, hard to get through

I generally liked the book, but it was hard to get through. I even had to take a break from it and go back to it. It was worth listening to overall from a historical standpoint, and the narrator made it as entertaining as it could be. He actually sounded very passionate about the content. If this was a print book it would have taken me a year to finish this. I have no fault with the writing, content or narrator. It just isn't what you would call riveting.

Level Headed Biography

The author did a great job at staying in the middle of the road on their opinions of Washington. They were never overly critical nor did they turn a blind eye to his many shortcomings.

A good read / listen

This is one of the better Washington books I have read. It gives you more of a since the type of man Washington was and what he was thinking rather than just a straight up history book.

Good book, not a great book

This is a good book, not a great book, about the "founding generation." Ellis does an excellent job reviewing Washington's life & career but does not bring to light much of an original nature. Ellis seeks to bring Washington "to life" in a way that more political history treatments supposedly do not. However, he does not succeed in this goal, in part perhaps because the combination of documentary evidence & Washington's own self-imposed flatness prohibits that from happening. The book flows well, is well organized, and is very well narrated. My interest never flagged even though I did not find much of new material. Ellis is a very good writer ... that alone should recommend this book-on-tape to other listeners, since many history volumes of this nature are very hard to follow on tape.

mediocre

If you are fan of David McCullough, you will probably be underwhelmed by this book. It is not as well written, entertaining, or fact filled. The narrator is a bit boring and there were several times I had to 'go back' and relisten to a section because I realized I had 'drifted away' and wasn't paying attention.

The book attempted to give a picture of 'George Washington the man' but I don't feel that I knew much more about him after listening to the book. The one exception is the discussion of Washington's view of slavery and how he tried to personally deal with it.

If you are a history buff, you probably should read it and will get some enjoyment out of it - just don't expect too much.

Great Book!

I loved His Excellency and would gladly recommend it to others. I don't know what the other reviewers were complaining about, I thought the narration was fine and kept me engaged. Washington truly was a man for the ages. He won two major battles out of the whole revolutionary war and went on to lead the country as a "national hero" that even Jefferson dared not defame until later in his career. I found the book evenhanded and quite thurough. I am a conservative and had no issues with Ellis' take on the President and recommend it to history buffs like me.

Stomach Noises

The book is very informative about the history and backgroud of our one of our founding fathers. I little dry and long winded but still interesting. I do not care the the hunger pains that occur at 2 hours and up to 2 hours 20 minutes into the recording.

An excellent introduction

I enjoyed His Excellency very much. It was a fine introduction to the life of GW. It was more analytical than narrative, which was to my liking. I came away with much more of an understanding of Washington than I had previously. Although the pacing of the reader was a little on the slow side, that did not bother me, and for material of this type, worked just fine.

Great book, average read

In listening to this book, I had to overcome annoyance with the reader, whose audible intakes of breath and different phrasing detracted from the "listen". Despite that, the book is very good and a useful listen.