George Washington, Entrepreneur: How Our Founding Father's Private Business Pursuits Changed America and the World
Written by John Berlau
Narrated by Corey Gagne
4/5
()
About this audiobook
A business biography of George Washington, focusing on his many innovations and inventions.
George Washington: general, statesman...businessman? Most people don't know that Washington was the country's first true entrepreneur, responsible for innovations in several industries. In George Washington, Entrepreneur, John Berlau presents a fresh, surprising take on our forefather's business pursuits.
History has depicted Washington as a gifted general and political pragmatist, not an intellectual heavyweight. But he was a serious inventor and inveterate tinkerer, and just as intelligent as Jefferson or Franklin. His library was filled with books on agriculture, chemistry, and engineering. He was the first to breed horses with donkeys to produce the American mule. On his estate, he grew countless varieties of trees and built a greenhouse full of exotic fruits and flowers. Unlike his Virginia neighbors who remained wedded to tobacco, Washington planted seven types of wheat. His state-of-the-art mill produced flour which he exported to Europe in sacks stamped GW Flour—one of the very first branded food products. Mount Vernon was also home to a distillery and became one of the largest American whiskey distributors of the era.
Berlau's portrait of Washington, drawn in large part from his journals and extensive correspondence, presents a side of him we haven't seen before. It is sure to delight readers of presidential biography and business history.
A Macmillan Audio production from All Points Books
John Berlau
John Berlau is an award-winning journalist, recipient of the National Press Club’s Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, and Senior Fellow for Finance and Access to Capital at CEI. He is a columnist for Forbes and Newsmax, and has contributed to Financial Times, Washington Post, Politico, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Times. He is a frequent guest on CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and Fox Business. Berlau lives in Alexandria, VA, 7 miles from the Mount Vernon estate.
Related to George Washington, Entrepreneur
Related audiobooks
George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Founding Fortunes: How the Wealthy Paid for and Profited from America's Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Patriots: Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the Making of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Icon George Washington: The Hidden History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPatrick Henry: Champion of Liberty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thomas Jefferson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHero Tales from American History: Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom: Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys and the American Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poor Richards Almanac: A Timeless Classic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5George Washington: The Wonder of the Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Icon Benjamin Franklin: The Hidden History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPatriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mentor: Benjamin Franklin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlexander Hamilton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under This Roof: The White House and the Presidency--21 Presidents, 21 Rooms, 21 Inside Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Patriots: Answering the Call to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Entrepreneur: How 400 Years of Risk-Takers, Innovators, and Business Visionaries Built the U.S.A. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Thomas Jefferson - From Boy to Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jefferson's America: The President, the Purchase, and the Explorers Who Transformed a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rough Riders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Revolutionary Leadership: Essential Lessons from the Men and Women of the American Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5They Made America Great: 31 Endearing Legacies Worth Heeding Today Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It's How You Play the Game and The Games Do Count Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jefferson An Autobiography In Letters & Private Writings Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poor Richard's Almanack Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Political Biographies For You
The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Infidel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Watergate Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mornings on Horseback Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Peril Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Adams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Happened Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A House in the Sky: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White House Plumbers: The Seven Weeks That Led to Watergate and Doomed Nixon's Presidency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5V Is For Victory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Team of Rivals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for George Washington, Entrepreneur
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Some good info re G Washington, but as one wag in my bookclub said, it read like an undergrad term paper, assembled at the library. To me, it was reminiscent of film strips we used to be forced to watch in junior high, with the monotonous narration of someone who seemed not to have read the material in advance. Every other line seemed to credit another writer. While I appreciate the correctness of that, it really pointed up the collage aspect of the book. As for the “entrepreneur” bit, s ever so of us found giving that title to a farmer who saw tobacco not working well as his cash crop, and switched to something with excellent prospects (wheat), was a bit of a stretch. GW was clearly an excellent farmer, well read and imaginative enough as a business person to experiment with plants and animals to make profits and expand his empire. There’s another book about GW as entrepreneur, from just a few years ago— I’d start with that if the 8th grade reading level of this one doesn’t appeal!