Over the weekend, I watched Young Washington in a local theater. I really enjoyed it. The movie largely followed the definitive biography by James Thomas Flexner on George Washington’s early years and exploits.
Recommend for high school students: young Washington’s quest for character, self-education, leadership roles, and courage under fire is compellingly displayed.
Young Washington had many exploits, including surveying dangerous wilderness, undertaking a long, treacherous diplomatic and spy mission for England’s King, and leading soldiers in war at Fort Necessity and during the French and Indian War, where he saved many lives during a defensive retreat. All by the age of 22.
Flexner endeavored to set aside all presuppositions and contemporary views about Washington’s greatness and to let primary sources inform his writing, analysis, and conclusions.
Five books later — considered by one presidential biography reviewer to be the gold standard of presidential biographies — Flexner judged Washington to be truly great.
Washington’s countrymen, both common and elite, were in awe of his character and abilities. During America’s War for Independence, when told that Washington planned to return home and not seek political office, King George III said, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
Using Flexner’s account, here’s the story of a 21-year-old Washington’s hazardous diplomatic mission through the Ohio River Valley. (Young Washington, the movie, shows Washington’s standoff with the French, but does not quite capture the difficulty of the journey there and back to Virginia; it also skips a near-fatal encounter with an Indian guide.)
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