Step-by-step, Marcus Cunliffe traces the ancestral background, the childhood, the growth, the failures and achievements of George Washington. He shows readers a real person--fallible, ambitious, of impatient of criticism, but of iron integrity – maturing from an eager youth to a wiser man. Cunliffe portrays the destiny of America, as it was mirrored for all time in the man who fought ambitions, uncertainties, and loneliness…who lived through Valley Forge and longed for home… who accepted the Presidency and desired peaceful retirement …who had a tender love for children, but childless, became to a young and needy nation the Father of his country… a man, with all his humanity, triumphant over the monument.