George Washington: History in an Hour

Written by David B. McCoy

Narrated by Jonathan Keeble

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.

George Washington – a figure synonymous with American history. His image is known worldwide, marked on American currency, postage stamps – even a state is named after him. George Washington in an Hour explores the man beneath the symbol. This is the essential chronicle of Washington’s life – his rise from middle class Virginian upbringing to America’s first President, elected unanimously twice.

Explore Washington’s legacy – from securing Independence, to his instrumental role in writing and adopting the American constitution. George Washington in an Hour covers Washington’s redefinition of greatness, relinquishing power not once but twice – at the end of Revolution and his second term in Presidency. Learn why Washington is still considered one of the most influential people in history, and how his impact shaped the world in this engaging overview of his life.

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour…

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Apr 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9780007524198

David B. McCoy

Rupert Colley was a librarian in Enfield for 22 years until September 2011. A history graduate, he launched the original History In An Hour in 2009 with a website, blog and ‘World War Two In An Hour’ as an iPhone app. He then expanded it to Kindle, iBooks and into the USA with a series of titles, and enlisted new writers by encouraging guest bloggers on the website. History In An Hour was acquired by HarperCollins in 2011.

Reviews for George Washington

[Fred Junior Angasisye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great summary,enough in here to get you clued up on Washington and have something to say at donner parties

[Aaron · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a brief but solid and easy to follow overview of the first President's life. It covers a bit of Washington's youth, but soon moves on to his military career, his overseeing of the Constitutional Convention, his Presidency, and his retirement. The overall picture is one of a man who used his power not for himself like so many past leaders had, but who used his power to enable and empower others. Throughout we see Washington soliciting ideas and facilitating conversations rather than use the pulpit to push his own ideas, making him exactly the man the new nation needed to help cement the Union.

I have one qualm with the audio version, and that is that the narrator (who as a whole is quite good) isn't consistent with the characters' voices. For the sake of brevity, the book omits dialogue tags, which makes it hard to tell whose words we're hearing, but it doesn't help when one Washington quote is spoken in a high, rough voice and another in a deeper but softer voice.