Since reading Joseph Ellis' excellent little book, Founding Brothers, I have become interested in the Presidents of this Republic. American history bored me to death when I was in school. To be honest, for a lot of my life, anything after the year 1400 bored me to death. Another story.
But the compellingly human three-dimensional characters who emerged in that book changed my perspective. I have since then spent my summer reading days with biographies of the Founding Fathers. (I refuse to say "Founders", in the PC way, as if they were a mixed sex group). And Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Truman. And Jackson.
Just a word about the First, George Washington. It's clear that without him, this country would never have taken shape. Not only did he hold the revolutionary military together, but when he became the first President, he did something truly extraordinary. After two terms, he left. He could have been, in effect, President for Life...and initiated a history of disasters. But by his laying aside that office, he set a precedent which we take for granted, but which has served us very well and sealed his place as the Father of his country.
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