Was it true that Washington was...cold, cautious, and obsequious-unapproachable even to his friends?...a man of vital passion and towering dignity-admired and loved by his soldiers?...a bumbling general forced into victory by the incompetence of his enemies?...a brilliant military leader, adept at the new ways of guerrilla warfare?...egocentric, with the dangerous pretensions of a Caesar?...a humble, modest man, sacrificing his own pleasure in his devotion to public duty? What was the myth?...What was the man? Step by step, author Marcus Cunliffe traces the ancestral background, the childhood, the growth, the failures and achievements of George Washington. He shows us a real person-fallible, ambitious, 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.