In a bold reappraisal of Washington as a young soldier destined to be a legendary general, an acclaimed military historian brings to life the man who took on the British and through his leadership came to define the American character.

How did George Washington become an American icon? Robert O'Connell, bestselling author of Fierce Patriot- The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman, introduces us to Washington before he was Washington- a young soldier, champing at the bit for a commission in the British army, frustrated by his position as a minor Virginia aristocrat. Fueled by ego, he led a disastrous expedition in the Seven Years War, but then the commander grew up. We witness George Washington take up politics and join Virginia's colonial governing body, the House of Burgesses, where he became ever more attuned to the injustices of life under the British Empire and the paranoid, revolutionary atmosphere of the colonies. When war seemed inevitable, he was the right man-the only man-to lead the nascent American army.

We would not be here without George Washington, and O'Connell proves that General Washington was at least as significant to the founding of the United States as Washington the president. He emerges here as cunning and manipulative, a subtle puppeteer among intimates and a master cajoler-but all in the cause of rectitude and moderation. Washington became the embodiment of the Revolution itself. He draped himself over the Revolutionary process and tamped down its fires. As O'Connell writes, the war was decisive because Washington managed to stop a cycle of violence with the force of personality and personal restraint.

In his trademark conversational, witty style, Robert O'Connell has written a compelling reexamination of General Washington and his revolutionary world. He cuts through enigma surrounding Washington to show how the general made all the difference and became a new archetype of revolutionary leader in the process.