<p><span class="deck">Richard Brookhiser has spent four years trying to capture for the television screen the character of one of the greatest Americans.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">As America goes into its 55th presidential election, we should remember that there might have been only one if we hadn’t had the only original candidate on Earth who could do the job.</span></p>
<p>Major Patrick Ferguson's instinct of chivalry spared the life of an American officer with “a remarkable large cocked hat” who was reconnoitering at Chadds Ford and came within range of British rifles.</p>
<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">Stalwart as he was, the general was often ill. A doctor studies his record and notes shortcomings in Eighteenth-Century medical care.</span> </span></p>
<p>America’s first civil war took place during the Revolution, an ultra-violent, family-splitting, and often vindictive conflict between "patriots" and loyalists.</p>
<p>In his second term, George Washington faced a crisis that threatened to tear apart the young republic. His wife Martha later thought that the bitterness of the debate may have hastened the president’s death, but Washington gave America the gift of peace, and an important precedent in leadership.</p>
<p>After becoming president, George Washington undertook an extraordinary journey through all 13 colonies to unite – and learn from – a diverse population of citizens. His quest to unite the nation and discover the "temper and disposition" of its people are an inspiration to us today.</p>
<p>The battle of Monmouth was pivotal in the struggle for independence, enabling George Washington to change the narrative of the war and eventually solidify his own role in our nation's history.</p>
<p>It is important to tell the story of the Constitution’s origins in a way that demythifies it. Impressive as they were, the men who wrote the Constitution were not demigods; they had interests, prejudices, and moral blind spots.</p>
<p>Members of the Maryland Forces guard the memories of the dramatic history at Fort Frederick, the best-preserved fort from the former English colonies in America. </p>
<p>Built in Dublin in 1778 by a member of the British Parliament who admired George Washington, the vandalized monument stands on an old estate now in ruins.</p>
<p>Just before Christmas of 1783, General George Washington returned to Mount Vernon and looked forward to spending his remaining years at his favorite occupation, that of a Virginia country gentleman.</p>
<p>In looking at the restoration of the front parlor, we can learn a lot about the Washington family, life in colonial America, and the art of historic preservation.</p>
<p>Ambitious, temperamental, and passionate, George Washington learned the skills in the French and Indian War that laid the groundwork for the great leader that he would become.</p>
<p>The American War for Independence was part of an international trend -- a new focus on the individual that inspired people to new insights, new proclamations, and new assertions of rights.</p>
<p>Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as president.</p>
<p>The struggles and triumphs of our presidents have been central to shaping our nation, even though they operated under a Constitution that didn’t grant them unilateral power.</p>
<p>Following Washington's death in 1799, cultural and intellectual agents in early America began to transform the first president into a national symbol through books, poems, and artwork. </p>
<p>At the end of the War for Independence, Philadelphia nationalists, together with disgruntled officers in the Continental Army at Newburgh, began a plot to challenge congress' authority. But can we really call it a conspiracy? </p>
<p>Roast pig, boiled rockfish, and apple pie were among the dishes George and Martha enjoyed during the holiday in 1797. Here are some actual recipes.</p>
