Perhaps no other person could ever achieve the preeminent position in American history and culture occupied by George Washington. Born in 1732, Washington’s life–long commitment to self-improvement and discipline helped him become a legend in his own lifetime. Whether as a statesman, military man, or America’s first president, Washington created a legacy that has scarcely diminished in over two centuries. Yet the passage of time and the superlatives reserved for Washington have knit together and made it difficult to find the real man. Historian and editor John P. Kaminski has amassed an extraordinary body of quotations by and about George Washington that brings us closer to the essence of this great leader. This collection paints an intricate picture of the man who Henry 'Lighthorse' Lee of Virginia eulogized as: "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen."

John P. Kaminski is the founder and director of The Center for the Study of the American Constitution in the History Department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is director and co-editor of The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution series, of which twenty-eight volumes have been published by the Wisconsin Historical Press. A leading scholar on Constitutional history, Kaminski has published widely on a variety of topics in the American Founding Era.