How did George Washington become an American icon? Here the author of Fierce Patriot and The Ghosts of Cannae introduces us to Washington when he was an ambitious young soldier in the British army, a minor Virginia aristocrat who received a political education when he became a member of the House of Burgesses. When war seemed inevitable, he was the right man—the only man—to lead the nascent American army. Suggesting that Washington is underrated as a general, Robert O'Connell portrays a Washington who was cunning and manipulative—all in the cause of rectitude and moderation—a cautious man who became the embodiment of the Revolution itself.