Most Americans know George Washington (1732–1799) as the commander of American forces at Valley Forge, the general who defeated the British at Yorktown, and the first president of the United States. Far fewer know that Washington was largely self-educated, especially in warfare and politics.
Books for Battle
Yet more than experience qualified Washington for this position. He read his way into his post, consuming practical manuals on soldiering and warfare. In the online article, “George Washington’s Practical Self-Education,” the writer noted that Washington “used reading as a means to an end—he wanted to know how to farm better, how to lead an army, how to lead a country, how to conduct himself civilly. There wasn’t any other way but to read and combine it with his direct experience.”By way of example, the writer cited this passage from Adrienne M. Harrison’s book “A Powerful Mind: The Self-Education of George Washington”: “Washington pushed his officers to study, particularly the latest in British military texts such as Humphrey Bland’s “A Treatise of Military Discipline.” Washington wrote that ‘having no opportunity to improve from example, let us read.’”
A portrait of George Washington, 1772, by Charles Willson Peale. Oil on canvas. Washington and Lee University. This painting, depicting the young colonel wearing his Virginia Regiment uniform, is the earliest authenticated portrait of Washington. Public Domain
Bland’s “Treatise,” a duty manual written for officers, was practically a Bible at that time for the British military.
In an “American Heritage” article, “George Washington: A Life in Books,” Kevin Hayes shared with readers a phenomenon recorded by Hessian officer Johann Greenwald: “I was sometimes astonished when American baggage fell into our hands during that war to see how every wretched knapsack, in which were only a few shirts and a pair of torn breeches, would be filled up with military books.” Writing about the British officers, Greenwald noted with contempt that their “portmanteaus were rather filled with bags of hair-powder, boxes of sweet-smelling pomatum, cards (instead of maps), and then, often, on top of all, some novels or stage plays.”
What Washington himself practiced—reading to learn the practicalities of strategy, tactics, and military organization—he preached to his subordinates.
Farming & Politics 101
Washington followed this same method of blending experience and reading in other fields. In his agricultural experiments at Mount Vernon, he avoided what he called “book farmers,” by which he meant authors who wrote on agriculture but lacked hands-on experience. Instead, he purchased and studied such books as Edward Weston’s “A New System of Agriculture” and Duhamel’s “Practical Treatise of Husbandry” to launch and guide his attempts at innovation.
George Washington probably thumbed past this first page of "The Federalist" essays, which contributed greatly to his support of American independence. Public Domain
Though he lacked the classical education and legal training of other Founders, Washington studied and absorbed “The Federalist” and minor and major documents emerging from the Continental Congress. In Gilbert Stuart’s life-size painting of Washington as president, a copy of “The Federalist” is propped against “The Journal of Congress” on a table beside Washington, with other important American books shown beneath. The new president extends his right hand toward these works in a gesture indicating their foundational importance to the republic.
Sparks for the Imagination
Despite this proclivity for the practical, Washington did read some fiction. Like so many of his time, he found amusement in Laurence Sterne’s “Tristram Shandy.” An evening with Ben Franklin introduced him to Cervantes’s “Don Quixote,” which he purchased on Sept. 17, 1787. It was the day that the Federal Convention, which he'd presided over, adopted the Constitution.
But the piece of literature that most influenced Washington was Joseph Addison’s 1713 “Cato, A Tragedy,” a historical play set in ancient Rome. Its themes are liberty, virtue, and honor. In a 2004 “Foreword” to a compilation of the play and some of Addison’s essays, historian Forrest MacDonald noted that many of the Founders admired this version of “Cato.” Franklin memorized parts of it, and Patrick Henry and executed spy Nathan Hale took lines from the play and made them their own.
From his youth, Washington also fell under the spell of “Cato.” He too learned many of the lines and passages by heart, had it performed at Valley Forge, and kept a copy of it by his bedside. In this instance, we see Washington’s idealism rather than practicality come to the fore.
Becoming a Gentleman
In adolescence, Washington copied out “110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.” Written by French Jesuits in 1595, this set of rules were first translated into English in 1640 by a 12-year-old English boy, Francis Hawkins. They served as the basis for his book, “Youth’s Behavior.” This is the book from which Washington copied the rules.These guidelines had a profound effect on the way Washington treated others, particularly in terms of respect. He studied these rules, memorized many of them, and applied them with great success to his social life and his command of men both in the military and politics. They helped provide him with the demeanor and gravitas for which he was famous.
The books Washington sought so assiduously to make his own served him well in life, but even more, his remarkable efforts at self-education served the American people.
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