![]() ![]() Flexner, who is also a distinguished historian of American art, may have thought this chapter a self-indulgence, but the discussion of Washington’s taste for wild American landscapes shows better than anything else in the book the extent to which our first President was shaped by the American frontier. Some illuminating chapters of the earlier work, like the study of Washington’s art collection, are missing altogether. in the sight of others” “Cleanse not your teeth with the tablecloth” and so on. For instance, we miss the Rules of Civility, copied out by the young George: “In the presence of others, sing not to yourself with a humming noise nor drum with your fingers or feet” “Kill no vermin, as fleas, lice, ticks, etc. These limits of space force Flexner to omit some of the delightful detail of his earlier books. ![]() The narrative proceeds at a breathtaking clip, passing over Washington’s first forty-three years in seventy pages and devoting only a hundred more to the entire Revolution. ![]() Actually, the present work is more a summation than a condensation, since it has been largely rewritten and occasionally reorganized. ![]() This admirable biography is condensed from James Thomas Flexner’s earlier four-volume work, which began to appear in 1965 and was finished two years ago. ![]()
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