An examination of the religious views of George Washington argues that historians have mislabeled the first president as a deist, and offers evidence to suggest he was a deeply spiritual man.

Mount Vernon researcher Mary Thompson endeavors to get beyond the current preoccupation with whether Washington and other founders were or were not evangelical Christians to ask what place religion had in their lives. Thompson follows Washington and his family over several generations, situating her inquiry in the context of new work on the place of religion in colonial and postrevolutionary Virginia and the Chesapeake. --from publisher description.

An indispensable reference to the life and times of America's indispensable man.--James C Rees, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. ... we are in the hands of a master of his craft and subject.--John Buchanan, Journal of Military History.

Former history professor John Curry has been recruited by a time-travel company to scout the best vantage point for clients to witness the inauguration of the first President of the United States. There's just one problem: When he arrives in 1789, there is no inauguration--and no United States. Until this point, the time-travel job has had its perks. Getting relationship advice from the legendary lover, Casanova, was valuable. Accompanying Casanova to the opening night of Mozart's opera, Don Giovanni, was even better.But being stranded in the British Colony of New York isn't what he signed up for. Few people have even heard of George Washington, and the short-lived American Revolution failed--presumably because Washington wasn't alive to lead it. John always knew history could change on a dime, but not after it already happened. Right?After learning Washington was killed thirty years earlier during the French and Indian War, John realizes the only way he can return home is to ensure there's a United States to return to. Everything hinges on keeping Washington alive--not the easiest task protecting someone famous for leading battles on the front lines while perched on a horse. While traveling further back through time to protect Washington, he uncovers a secret the Freemasons have kept for more than two and a half centuries and learns that the history he thought he knew was completely wrong.

Against all odds, George Washington fostered the world's first modern democracy and became renowned as the father of our country. At a time when the median age was sixteen, he lived to the remarkable age of sixty-seven. Washington's life was riddled with multiple life threatening diseases and emperiled by countless charges into enemy fire. With a shocking resiliency and remarkable hardiness, Washington fought fatal injections and opposing armies with the steadfast belief that a protective and guiding Providence would lead him to fulfill his destiny of greatness. Emboldened by Providence and a conviction that he was to accomplish great endeavors, Washington set forth to lead America out of a world of monarchy and colonialism and into the new reality of constitutional freedom. This entertaining and enlightening book follows the amazing survivability of one of our country's most historical figures. Filled with factual and proven information, this illuminating book shows us why Washington truly thought he was protected by a higher power. As the first published confirmation of George Washington's belief in Providence, this amazing resource serves as an intriguing look into the complex character of one of our nation's greatest leaders. After retiring, author Raymond G. Lorber dedicated ten years to the research and discovery that yielded the premise for this book. With an accomplished career in the technology industry, he founded and was CEO of a systems consulting firm. He has a B.S. from the University of Maryland and an M.B.A. from Golden Gate University. Lorber resides in Marin County, California."

Attempts by evangelical Christians to claim Washington and other founders as their own, and scholars' ongoing attempts to contradict these claims, are nothing new. Particularly after Washington was no longer around to refute them, legends of his Baptist baptism or secret conversion to Catholicism began to proliferate. Mount Vernon researcher Mary Thompson endeavors to get beyond the current preoccupation with whether Washington and other founders were or were not evangelical Christians to ask what place religion had in their lives. Thompson follows Washington and his family over several generations, situating her inquiry in the context of new work on the place of religion in colonial and postrevolutionary Virginia and the Chesapeake. Thompson considers Washington's active participation as a vestryman and church warden as well as a generous donor to his parish prior to the Revolution, and how his attendance declined after the war. He would attend special ceremonies, and stood as godparent to the children of family and friends, but he stopped taking communion and resigned his church office. Something had changed, but was it Washington, the church, or both? Thompson concludes that he was a devout Anglican, of a Latitudinarian bent, rather than either an evangelical Christian or a Deist. The meaning of this description, Thompson allows, when applied to eighteenth-century Virginia gentlemen, is far from self-evident, leaving ample room for speculation.

God and the Founders explains the church-state political philosophies of James Madison, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Travels with George . . . is quintessential Philbrick—a lively, courageous, and masterful achievement.” —The Boston Globe Does George Washington still matter? Bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick argues for Washington’s unique contribution to the forging of America by retracing his journey as a new president through all thirteen former colonies, which were now an unsure nation. Travels with George marks a new first-person voice for Philbrick, weaving history and personal reflection into a single narrative. When George Washington became president in 1789, the United States of America was still a loose and quarrelsome confederation and a tentative political experiment. Washington undertook a tour of the ex-colonies to talk to ordinary citizens about his new government, and to imbue in them the idea of being one thing—Americans. In the fall of 2018, Nathaniel Philbrick embarked on his own journey into what Washington called “the infant woody country” to see for himself what America had become in the 229 years since. Writing in a thoughtful first person about his own adventures with his wife, Melissa, and their dog, Dora, Philbrick follows Washington’s presidential excursions: from Mount Vernon to the new capital in New York; a monthlong tour of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island; a venture onto Long Island and eventually across Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The narrative moves smoothly between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries as we see the country through both Washington’s and Philbrick’s eyes. Written at a moment when America’s founding figures are under increasing scrutiny, Travels with George grapples bluntly and honestly with Washington’s legacy as a man of the people, a reluctant president, and a plantation owner who held people in slavery. At historic houses and landmarks, Philbrick reports on the reinterpretations at work as he meets reenactors, tour guides, and other keepers of history’s flame. He paints a picture of eighteenth-century America as divided and fraught as it is today, and he comes to understand how Washington compelled, enticed, stood up to, and listened to the many different people he met along the way—and how his all-consuming belief in the union helped to forge a nation.