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The Political Philosophy of George Washington. By Jeffry H. Morrison. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009. 226 pp.
A flippant reaction to the title of Jeffry Morrison's book: George Washington had apolitical philosophy? Many people regard Washington as merely the vessel for the ideas of the nation's more intellectual founders. In this version, Washington made his mark not as a thinker but as a man of action and as a symbol of the nation's founding. Confronting this myth (and many others) stands as one of the great contributions Morrison's highly readable and, at times, elegant, book makes in exploring the thoughts of our best known and most enigmatic founder. Published as part of the Political Philosophy of the American Founders series and earning its place alongside books about Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin, Morrison successfully demonstrates the substance behind the Washingtonian symbol. Morrison falls short, perhaps, only in his failure to tell us how these ideas influenced Washington's policies or the republic's emerging political culture.
Morrison organizes his book around the three intellectual strands that he sees comprising Washington's political philosophy: classical republicanism; British liberal tradition; and Protestant Christianity...