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WORK TITLE: A Powerful Mind
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrienne-harrison-ph-d-748aa264/ * http://www.mountvernon.org/library/library-events-programs/ford-evening-book-talks/ford-evening-book-talk-adrienne-harrison/ * http://www.amc.com/shows/turn/talk/2014/04/turn-qa-major-adrienne-harrison-professor-of-american-history-at-west-point
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:West Point graduate; Rutgers University, M.A. and Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, assistant professor of American history; Battlefield Leadership, fellow and consulting historian.
MIILITARY:Commissioned officer in the U.S. Army for twelve years.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Historian and teacher Adrienne M. Harrison is a former assistant professor of history at the United States Military Academy at West Point. She served for twelve years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, including three combat tours in Iraq. Harrison is a fellow and consulting historian with Battlefield Leadership, a consulting and training company specializing in experiential leadership training. She holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in early American history from Rutgers University. As a writer, she has published work for Oxford Bibliographies.
In 2015, Harrison published A Powerful Mind: The Self-education of George Washington, which examines Washington’s boyhood schooling and life of continuous reading and education. At age eleven, his formal schooling ended and his dream of joining the British army dashed. Nevertheless, he turned to highly focused reading and educating himself on what he needed to do to rise above his colonial Virginian agricultural society of his youth. Struggling to learn as much as his highly educated contemporaries, Washington saw self-education as a tool for shaping himself into a strong leader. His strategy was phenomenally successful, as he rose to become commander in chief of the Continental Army and then the first president of the fledgling United States.
Washington was not known as an intellectual, the way Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were. He never went to university, did not attend intellectual discussions, and spoke and read only English (Franklin spoke six languages). However, Washington was a life-long learner in order to better himself, acquire knowledge in subjects he felt he should know, and how to conduct himself civilly. Online at Farm Street Blog, Harrison wrote: “Washington was a practical reader … While the purpose of this book is not to remake Washington’s image into a sort of closeted scholar, it does argue that reading was a key component behind Washington’s success. The real contribution that this volume makes is that it takes one step closer to understanding how Washington’s mind worked.”
Washington read books on military training and strategy, agriculture to increase the yield of his plantations, and legislation. With what he learned, during the Revolutionary War, Washington employed some creative and unconventional tactics against the British as he tried to bring together soldiers from local militia unites who were not used to being part of a larger-sized army. He also used tactics to recruit and identify potential spies. Harrison discusses Washington’s strategies in an interview online at AMC: “Washington surrounded himself with a military family of aides-de-camp and subordinate officers, and those officers had contacts within the local areas where they were from. The aides were instrumental in acting on Washington’s behalf and reaching out to people that they knew and could trust.”
Saying that the book reads like a dissertation, Kevin J. Hayes said in Journal of the Early Republic Harrison’s book has some flaws in that she claims Washington did not read for pleasure, yet he read some poems and plays, and that he did not show off his book collection, yet had engraved plates made for them. “Regardless, A Powerful Mind is a welcome addition to the growing study of Washington’s intellect. Harrison’s military background shapes the contents of A Powerful Mind,” said Hayes.
Jeffrey J. Malanson commented in Journal of Southern History: “This kind of intellectual biography is difficult to write…Despite these challenges, Harrison provides revealing insights into the results of Washington’s reading.” Malanson added: “Harrison has convinced me of Washington’s intellectual curiosity and motivation to self-educate, at least through the American Revolution, but I was disappointed with the superficiality of her argument in places thereafter.” According to A.A. Nofi on the Strategy website, “There are some surprises, such as Washington’s wide reading in the abolitionist literature of his day and his familiarity with current architectural literature.” Harrison also “throws some light on the education background of professional army officers of the day,” added Nofi.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Journal of Southern History, November 2016, Jeffrey J. Malanson, review of A Powerful Mind: The Self-education of George Washington, p. 910.
Journal of the Early Republic, March 1, 2017, Kevin J. Hayes, review of A Powerful Mind, p. 164.
ONLINE
AMC, http://www.amc.com/ (August 1, 2017), Adam Bryant, author interview.
Farm Street Blog, https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/ (June 13, 2016), Adrienne Harrison, “George Washington’s Practical Self-Education.”
Strategy, https://www.strategypage.com/ (August 1, 2017), A. A. Nofi, review of A Powerful Mind.*
TURN Q&A — Major Adrienne Harrison (Professor of American History at West Point)
Posted by Adam Bryant 3 years ago
TURN Q&A — Major Adrienne Harrison (Professor of American History at West Point)
Major Adrienne Harrison, Professor of American History at West Point, discusses Revolutionary War topics including George Washington’s unorthodox tactics and why Long Island was an ideal place to start a spy ring.
Q: The Americans didn’t have a unified military. Did this push them to become more creative and unconventional with their tactics against the British?
A: I think that’s definitely true in the case of George Washington. His challenge was, as a commander, to bring together people from local militia units who had no sense of belonging to a larger-sized army. It forced him to be a non-conventional leader in terms of tactics. For example, he tried to fight a conventional, European-style war in New York, but New York City was a horrible place to defend. When he lost badly on Long Island, he was lucky that the British general, Howe, opted not to finish him off on the day of the battle. Eighteenth-century military convention stated that if you were the clear loser on the battlefield, you waited until the next day for daylight to come so you could surrender with honor. Washington knew that if he waited until the next day, that was it, the revolution was over. So he defied convention and had his entire army move in the middle of the night from Brooklyn to Manhattan. He made running away in the middle of the night and living to fight another day an art form, so to speak.
Q: What are some other unorthodox strategies did Washington use during the Revolutionary War?
A: In European warfare, not only did you fight large-scale battles on an open battlefield and pitch back and forth until somebody gave in, but you fought to either completely capture the enemy army or capture their capital. If you captured the capital city, that’s it, the war’s over. So Washington kept his army alive by keeping it just a little bit out of reach, and the Congress took a cue from that: When the British closed in on Philadelphia, the Continental Congress ran away. So when the British captured Philadelphia, it was a windfall for them in some ways, but it didn’t end the war. The British could not find a center of gravity to capture that would be the definitive, “Okay, the Americans know that they’re defeated and this is the end.”
Q: What were some tactics used to recruit and identify potential rebel spies?
A: Washington surrounded himself with a military family of aides-de-camp and subordinate officers, and those officers had contacts within the local areas where they were from. The aides were instrumental in acting on Washington’s behalf and reaching out to people that they knew and could trust. You had to be able to test people’s loyalty, and the best way to do that was if you knew them. Trust was a very important factor, especially because Washington couldn’t always consistently pay these guys. You needed loyalty to make sure you didn’t get a spy who would become disgruntled over the fact that he had taken a lot of risks and then wasn’t being justly rewarded.
Q: What was the role of privateers during the war?
A: The United States, being the fledgling nation that it was, didn’t have a navy to speak of. So just as there were people who were willing to be these irregular soldiers on the ground, you had sailors who were willing to be a kind of irregular navy. It wasn’t a way to defeat the British — they were never going to beat them that way — but it was a good way to annoy them and distract them and show the British that it’s not going to be as easy to defeat them as they think.
Q: The Americans led attacks during winter. Why was this considered unconventional?
A: You did not fight in the winter in European battle terms. It just didn’t make sense. Movement was slow, if not impossible. It’s hard to find enough fodder for horses to eat. Food supplies were scarce. The most famous example of Washington defying that convention was in 1776 on Christmas when he decided to launch an attack on the Hessian garrison at Trenton. He followed it up with another attack on the college town of Princeton. Very small victories in military strategic terms, but for the Americans it was an ideological victory.
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Q: What made New York City such an important city to control?
A: New York offered several advantages for the British. It was a large natural seaport that was capable of housing their navy for the winter. There were not too many ports — once they lost Boston, you really only had New York and Charleston. And it was a largely loyalist population that would house the British army and supply them whenever possible. Also, the Hudson River running up through New York was seen as a key communications avenue and also as something that was important for the British to control. They saw New England as the problem: If you could cut them off, then the rest of the colonies would fall back in line.
Q: What was the strategic significance of the Connecticut coastline?
A: When it became harder to get black market goods in and out of New York City, Connecticut became a good place for smuggling. The non-importation agreements had deprived the Americans of the finished products that they liked and also needed, so Connecticut’s coastal towns and seaports were a hotbed for smugglers to meet. If you were British and wanted to disrupt the Americans’ efforts a little bit, concentrating on Connecticut made sense.
Q: What made Long Island an ideal place for Washington to start a spy ring?
A: Long Island, with its farms, was very instrumental in supplying the British with the food they needed. It wouldn’t have looked odd for somebody to be going back and forth between Long Island and Manhattan if he was delivering or selling produce. Then he could bring information back to the patriot spy strongholds on Long Island.
About the Author
Adrienne M. Harrison is a former Assistant Professor of American History at the United States Military Academy at West Point who served for 12 years as a commissioned officer in the US Army, including three combat tours in Iraq. As a multi-functional logistician she played an active role in the Army’s efforts to transform the organizational structure of its combat service support units based on early lessons learned in the Global War of Terror and helped reshape logistics operations in the process. A graduate of West Point, she subsequently earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Early American History from Rutgers University. Her work has been published in Oxford Bibliographies. Adrienne is currently a Fellow and Consulting Historian with Battlefield Leadership, a consulting and training company specializing in providing customized experiential leadership training based in history.
Adrienne Harrison, Ph.D.
Senior Director, East Coast C.E.S.; Senior Historian at Battlefield Leadership
East Coast C.E.S. Rutgers University
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I am a West Point graduate with over 14 years of experience spanning a career in both the US Army and corporate America. Beginning in the military and continuing into the private sector I acquired extensive experience as a logistics professional in ascending management positions. I have expertise in transportation planning, intermodal shipping operations, supply chain management, building transportation networks on local, regional, and national levels, developing supply strategies, driving organizational and process improvement, and ensuring regulatory compliance.
In addition to my career in logistics, I am also a trained historian of early American and early modern European cultural history. I've previously served as an assistant professor of American History at the US Military Academy at West Point, am a published author. My first book, A Powerful Mind: the Self Education of George Washington, was released on October 1, 2015. I additionally have had work published in Oxford Bibliographies, and have a chapter on the differences in the strategic thinking of George Washington and Charles Lee during the American Revolution pending publication in an edited volume. See lessSee less of undefined summary
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East Coast C.E.S.
Senior Director
Company NameEast Coast C.E.S.
Dates EmployedJan 2017 – Present Employment Duration7 mos
LocationElizabeth, NJ
*Responsible for all customs operations in both Elizabeth, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
*Responsible for strategic planning and growth outside of current markets.
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Battlefield Leadership
Senior Historian
Company NameBattlefield Leadership
Dates EmployedAug 2015 – Present Employment Duration2 yrs
LocationNew Windsor, New York
Battlefield Leadership is a leadership consulting and training company specializing in providing clients with customized experiential leadership training by subject matter experts. Through visits to historic sites as well as classroom experiences, Battlefield Leadership's teams of historians and business facilitators work with corporate leaders to use the lessons of history as a backdrop for discussing the challenges of a constantly evolving business environment.
*As a former US Army officer with a proven track record of combat leadership and published subject matter expert in early American history, I, in partnership with our business facilitators, work with clients from Fortune 500 and 100 companies on location at some of our nation's most storied battlefields to extrapolate key leadership lessons from pivotal moments in our history that when placed in context with a real life dimensions, burst out of time to resonate with contemporary corporate challenges.
*For example, the leadership challenges that Washington faced prior to crossing the Delaware that Christmas night in 1776 are still felt by corporate leaders today. Washington was faced with a series of losses, diminishing resources, flagging morale, and toxic subordinate leaders yet he was still expected to do more with less. An examination of how he turned this precarious situation around to not just win a battle but also personify the American Revolution offers real lessons that are just as relevant today as they were on the snowy battlefields of Trenton and Princeton.
*Battlefield Leadership is committed to helping clients convert battlefield insight into new behavior in the workplace.
FreshDirect
Director of Transportation Operations
Company NameFreshDirect
Dates EmployedAug 2014 – Oct 2016 Employment Duration2 yrs 3 mos
LocationGreater New York City Area
At FreshDirect, our customers place their online grocery orders with specified delivery times that fall within two hour windows. Renowned for superior quality, our product is sourced as directly and as locally as possible every day so that our customers receive their food at the peak of freshness. We currently provide service to both residential and corporate customers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Long Island, the lower Hudson Valley, southern Connecticut, much of northern and central New Jersey, Philadelphia and parts of Delaware.
As a Director of Transportation Operations, I:
*Direct the distribution routes throughout the five boroughs of New York City, the lower Hudson Valley, and southern Connecticut that comprise 48% of the company's revenue.
*Manage the operations center that monitors the status of delivery service operations and serves as the link between operations and customer service to resolve issues and handle special requests.
*Have three direct reports from mid-level managers who in turn oversee 10 field managers, supervisors and shift leads at various levels who in turn manage nearly 450 hourly employees.
*Ensure maximum productivity and maintain operational costs within established budget limits.
*Serve on the Harlem River Yards Transition Team, helping to design the plan to relocate the company to the Bronx in 2017.
*Oversee the Learning and Development Team, providing guidance for all training programs, ensuring all learning goals are met.
*Designed a long term plan to streamline the organizational structure and processes of the transportation operations team.
*Revised the safety programs, policies, and procedures governing both the production plant and truck fleet to align FreshDirect with the highest legal and industry standards.
*Designed and implemented a new close quarters maneuvering training course that specifically addresses the most common causes of accidents. Reduced the accident rate by 50%.
United States Military Academy
Assistant Professor, Department of History, US Military Academy
Company NameUnited States Military Academy
Dates EmployedJul 2011 – Aug 2014 Employment Duration3 yrs 2 mos
LocationWest Point, New York
As an assistant professor in the Department of History, I:
*Designed and served as the course director for HI155: Advanced History of the United States, and HI 340: Colonial America, ensuring the course plans were up to date with current scholarly trends.
*Designed and taught HI 498: Senior Seminar on the Cultural History of Colonial America
*Was the academic advisor for the American History Division, advising 31 cadets on selecting history as a major, designing their course of study, and ensuring that they met graduation requirements.
*Served as a thesis advisor for three US history majors and served on six thesis committees. In addition.
*Led the department's new instructor training program that was designed to onboard new faculty members, preparing and certifying them to teach.
*Filled various administrative roles in the department.
*Served as the mentor for one officer and five cadets who comprised the supply staff charged with planning and supporting the logistics needs 1,500 cadets enrolled in Cadet Field Training.
US Army
Company Commander
Company NameUS Army
Dates EmployedJul 2007 – Jun 2009 Employment Duration2 yrs
I commanded a multifunctional forward support company tasked with providing direct logistical support to 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry).
*Selected over four other more senior officers to lead the company of 127 soldiers.
*Provided all the transportation, supply, maintenance, and field feeding support required to move and sustain our supported battalion consisting of over 800 soldiers through15 months of combat operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom 07-09 in Kirkuk, Iraq.
*Reduced the response time for disabled vehicle recovery in the field by over 90% by creating independent teams of operators with specially designed maintenance procedures.
*Designed and implemented brand new vehicle recovery techniques and procedures to extract a disabled and/or rolled over Mine Resistant Ambush Protectant Vehicle (MRAP) from any type of terrain, executing the first MRAP rollover recovery in the entire Iraq theater of operations.
*Designed a truck mounted potable water distribution system to provide four remote outposts with fresh water.
*Maintained a fleet of vehicles and equipment valued more than $12M spread over six locations between Fort Drum and Iraq.
*Developed an enhanced drivers training program to license soldiers on newly acquired vehicles.
*Oversaw the post-deployment vehicle and equipment maintenance program, ensuring all equipment was fully serviced and operational within 90 days of returning home.
*Received the brigade commander's award for the highest personnel retention rate.
US Army
Brigade Logistics Officer
Company NameUS Army
Dates EmployedOct 2006 – Jul 2007 Employment Duration10 mos
LocationFort Drum, New York
I served as the brigade logistics officer and logistics planner for the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry).
*Planned and managed the brigade's deployment from Fort Drum, NY to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, LA, transporting 4,000 soldiers and $100M by air, rail and line haul.
*Planned the sustainment operations and conducted all contracting with party vendors to provide all logistics support including ammunition, fueling, field feeding, laundry, water, and maintenance.
*Coordinated the reception and integration of external support personnel from the National Guard and Reserves to support the training exercise.
*Planned the brigade's movement of 4,000 soldiers and $100M from Fort Drum into the Iraq theater of operations by air, rail, and sea modes of transport.
*Planned and oversaw the supply distribution of uniforms and additional personal protective equipment for the brigade's deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom 07-09.
US Army
Battalion Support Operations Transportation Officer
Company NameUS Army
Dates EmployedAug 2005 – Dec 2005 Employment Duration5 mos
LocationBaghdad, Iraq
I served as the support operations transportation officer for a combat service support battalion during Operation Iraqi Freedom III based at Log Base Seitz, Baghdad, Iraq.
*Planned all of the battalion's transportation operations including:
convoy security operations for contracted tractor trailers carrying life support materials to all US and coalition bases throughout the Iraq theater of operations;
disabled vehicle recovery operations to support units operating in and around Baghdad;
mortuary affairs support operations to transport the remains of fallen soldiers to Baghdad International Airport for preparation for returning home for interment.
*Served as the military liaison to Kellogg, Brown, and Root contractors ensuring continuous logistics support.
*Managed the cargo transfer yard, coordinating the onward movement of containers and vehicles ensuring that they were received at their final destinations at US and coalition bases throughout the Iraq theater of operations.
US Army
Company Executive Officer
Company NameUS Army
Dates EmployedJun 2004 – Aug 2005 Employment Duration1 yr 3 mos
LocationFort Bragg, North Carolina and Baghdad Iraq
I served as the executive officer (second in command) of a light-medium truck company consisting of 154 soldiers in the 1st Corps Support Command in the XVIII Airborne Corps.
*Managed the company's daily administrative and maintenance operations.
*Worked with the commander to develop training to transition the company away from it's traditional mission of transporting soldiers in the back of trucks and into a convoy security company that instead executed an infantry-type mission of providing a security escort to large logistics convoys that would otherwise be vulnerable when transiting through combat environments.
*Planned the company's deployment to support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III, coordinating the movement of 154 soldiers and all associated equipment into the Iraq theater of operations.
US Army
Platoon Leader
Company NameUS Army
Dates EmployedNov 2003 – Jun 2004 Employment Duration8 mos
LocationBaghdad, Iraq and Fort Bragg, North Carolina
I served as a platoon leader in a light medium truck company consisting of 26 soldiers.
*Deployed with the 407th Forward Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom I, transporting soldiers and supplies during combat operations through southern Iraq and more specifically, in and around the city of Baghdad.
US Army
Battalion Adjutant
Company NameUS Army
Dates EmployedNov 2002 – Nov 2003 Employment Duration1 yr 1 mo
LocationFort Bragg, North Carolina
I served as the adjutant, or human resources officer for the Troop Support Battalion in the First Corps Support Command, XVIII Airborne Corps.
*Managed a staff of six and was responsible for the processing and tracking of all administrative actions for the battalion including:awards, evaluations, retirement packets, pay inquiries, and all other personnel actions.
*Responsible for monitoring and reporting the battalion's overall personnel deployment readiness
*Supervised the deployment of individual augmentees to various assignments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Task Force Sinai.
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Education
Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Field Of Study Early American History
Dates attended or expected graduation 2011 – 2012
Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Degree Name Master of Arts (M.A.) Field Of Study Early American and Early Modern European History
Dates attended or expected graduation 2009 – 2011
Activities and Societies: I studied early American and early modern European history. Earned a Master of Arts in 2011 and a PhD in 2013 with a dissertation entitled "'His Mind Was Great and Powerful:' George Washington's Reading and the Fashioning of His American Self." My dissertation was unanimously accepted for publication without revisions by the University of Nebraska Press and is under contract for publication with a scheduled launch in the fall of 2015.
I studied early American and early modern European history in the graduate program, earning an M.A in 2011. and Ph.D. in 2012.
United States Military Academy at West Point
United States Military Academy at West Point
Degree Name Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Field Of Study United States History
Dates attended or expected graduation 1998 – 2002
Activities and Societies: Crew Team, Intramural Cross Country
I studied United States History and Systems Engineering. Received the General Omar Bradley Award for Excellence in Historical Research and Writing for the best senior thesis and the Daughters of Colonial Wars Award for graduating with the highest standing in American History.
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Publication
A Powerful Mind: the Self-Education of George Washington
A Powerful Mind: The Self-Education of George Washington
Jeffrey J. Malanson
Journal of Southern History. 82.4 (Nov. 2016): p910.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Southern Historical Association
http://www.uga.edu/~sha
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A Powerful Mind: The Self-Education of George Washington. By Adrienne M. Harrison. (Lincoln, Neb.: Potomac Books, 2015. Pp. xiv, 307. $29.95, ISBN 978-1-61234-725-7.)
National mythology emphasizes the impressive intelligence of America's Founding Fathers, except for George Washington. Washington is typically depicted as surrounding himself with superior minds to compensate for his lack of formal education. In A Powerful Mind: The Self-Education of George Washington, Adrienne M. Harrison argues that this perception of Washington is not entirely correct, as he pursued a focused course of self-education throughout his life by reading on practical subjects. He acquired books on military training and strategy when he was in the Virginia militia and Continental army; he read books on religion, law, and history when he served in the Virginia House of Burgesses; and he scrutinized books on agriculture when he undertook efforts to increase the productivity of his plantations. Never one to read for reading's sake, Washington read what he needed to read in order to be a successful officer, legislator, and plantation owner. A Powerful Mind assesses what Washington read, when he read it, and what impact that reading had on his development from youth to retirement.
This kind of intellectual biography is difficult to write, and in Washington's case it is made more challenging by the fact that he generally did not annotate his books or discuss his reading habits. Despite these challenges, Harrison provides revealing insights into the results of Washington's reading. His copy of A Practical Treatise of Husbandry features "more than fifty pages of marginalia"; the reading of this and other agricultural texts directly shaped Washington's efforts to diversify and reform agricultural and business practices at Mount Vernon (p. 60). Before the Revolution, he read Manoeuvres, or Practical Observations on the Art of War and took extensive notes that "reveal Washington's self-education in the art of command" (p. 105). In the 1780s and 1790s Washington read newspapers and sermons to better understand public opinion, which taught him "how to use the power of the press to act on his political agenda" (p. 167).
Harrison has convinced me of Washington's intellectual curiosity and motivation to self-educate, at least through the American Revolution, but I was disappointed with the superficiality of her argument in places thereafter. We are told that Washington knew how to use the press to advance his agenda, but the only evidence produced is a handful of letters he wrote during his 1791 tour of the southern states; neither the most famous instance of Washington using the press to influence public opinion--his Farewell Address--nor his handling of any other policy debates are discussed. We learn that Washington owned many abolitionist tracts and that he freed his slaves in his will, but not how these facts are related, beyond the assertion that the tracts "must have" influenced his decision (p. 191). Furthermore, Harrison does not discuss or cite
Francois Furstenberg's examination of this question, "Atlantic Slavery, Atlantic Freedom: George Washington, Slavery, and Transatlantic Abolitionist Networks" (William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 68 [April 2011], 247-86). Long passages of biographical information are never satisfyingly tied in.
This superficiality is not entirely Harrison's fault; there is little concrete evidence on which to base an argument about Washington's reading (hence why few historians have considered it). Beyond the handful of books in which Washington left marginal notes, we cannot definitively know what he read or how it influenced him. Variations on the phrase "it makes sense that" appear repeatedly throughout the text as constant reminders that most of the book's arguments are built on assumptions and educated guesswork. To her credit, Harrison carefully walks the reader through the assumptions on which she bases her analysis. Harrison has an ambitious story that she wants to tell, but A Powerful Mind only partially succeeds at telling it.
JEFFREY J. MALANSON
Indiana University-Purdue University
Fort Wayne
Malanson, Jeffrey J.
Hayes, Kevin J.1
Source:
Journal of the Early Republic. Spring2017, Vol. 37 Issue 1, p164-167. 4p.
Document Type:
Book Review
Subject Terms:
*SELF-culture
*NONFICTION
Reviews & Products:
POWERFUL Mind: The Self-Education of George Washington, A (Book)
A Powerful Mind: The Self-Education of George Washington. By Adrienne M. Harrison. (Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2015. Pp. xvi 307. Cloth, $29.95.) Reviewed by Kevin J. Hayes
LOTS
Calling down a volume from the Washington collection at the Boston Athenaeum one day, I learned from the librarian that another patron had just requested the identical book. That patron was Franc¸ois Furstenberg, who was seated at the next table. Once the librarian introduced us, we two began discussing our common interest in the library of George Washington. Apparently, our discussion became quite animated because the librarian suddenly shushed us. Having not been shushed by a librarian since the sixth grade, I was taken aback, and our conversation ended. Pursuing my research, I subsequently met Michele Lee, the Special Collections Librarian at Mount Vernon, who eagerly discussed with me the discoveries she had made among George Washington’s books. I never met Adrienne Harrison during my research, but Lee told me about an army officer and West Point graduate at Rutgers University who was writing a doctoral dissertation about George Washington’s reading. A Powerful Mind: The Self-Education of George Washington is the revised version of Harrison’s 2013 Rutgers dissertation. The speed with which she took the work from dissertation to publication is impressive, but A Powerful Mind still reads like a dissertation. Her introduction, for example, presents a review of literature like those all graduate students learn to write. It reminds me of something I learned forty years ago. Trying to publish some poems, I consulted The Writers’ Market to see where to send them. I still remember one journal’s submission advice: “No love poems, please. These are poems that must be written but .................18985$ $CH6 02-03-17 15:14:35 PS PAGE 164 REVIEWS • 165 should not be published.” Let’s adapt this advice to suit all new PhDs seeking to publish their dissertations: “No review of literature, please. This is a task that must be undertaken but should not be published.” Harrison’s review of literature is especially unnecessary because it no longer applies. Her argument, that few scholars have studied the books Washington read, may have been true when she first proposed her dissertation, but much work has been done since. Furstenberg published his research in the William and Mary Quarterly. The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon celebrated its opening in 2013 with a special exhibition dedicated to the subject of Washington’s reading, which was accompanied by Amanda C. Isaac’s 160-page exhibition catalogue, Take Note!: George Washington the Reader, which included an essay by Michele Lee. Harrison never updated her review of literature to accommodate the recent work being done on the subject.1 Regardless, A Powerful Mind is a welcome addition to the growing study of Washington’s intellect. Harrison’s military background shapes the contents of A Powerful Mind. Eager to tell the story of Washington’s battlefield experiences, she covers the first twenty years of his life in the first five pages of Chapter 1, largely ignoring the books he read in boyhood. The next eighteen pages are devoted to Washington’s military service during the Seven Years’ War. Beyond a brief discussion of Julius Caesar’s Commentaries and Humphrey Bland’s Treatise of Military Discipline, these pages say little about his reading. After the war, Washington stopped reading military manuals and turned his attention to domestic pursuits: This is the crucial point of the chapter. Washington, the great military leader, only read military books when he needed to do so. Back on the farm, he read husbandry manuals. The shift from military to agricultural books illustrates Harrison’s thesis: Washington was a practical reader who always read for a purpose. Harrison overstates her case. At one point, she asserts that Washington had no time for belles lettres and “almost never read for pleasure” (17). For support, she says his writings contain few literary allusions. I 1. Franc¸ois Furstenburg, “Atlantic Slavery, Atlantic Freedom: George Washington, Slavery, and Transatlantic Abolitionist Networks,” William and Mary Quarterly 68 (Apr. 2011), 247–86; Amanda C. Isaac, Take Note!: George Washington the Reader (Mount Vernon, VA, 2013). .................18985$ $CH6 02-03-17 15:14:35 PS PAGE 165 166 • JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC (Spring 2017) can think of Washington’s references to The Tempest, Gil Blas, and Hudibras. 2 These three examples—a play, a novel, and a poem—suggest that he did have time for belles lettres, that he did read for pleasure, and that he appreciated different types of belletristic literature. To understand Washington’s reading, Harrison should take Cole Porter’s advice to heart: “Brush up your Shakespeare!” Before Chapter 1 ends, Harrison runs the risk of losing her readers altogether with an eight-page digression called “Washington Contrasted with Benjamin Franklin, Another Self-Educated Founder.” Drawn from popular Franklin biographies, this section ignores the most important research into Franklin’s intellectual life over the past two decades. The whole section should have been omitted. Readers willing to stick with Harrison through Chapter 1 will find themselves on more solid ground for the remaining chapters. Chapter 2, “Provincial Reading,” surveys books Washington read about religion, travel, surveying, and history. Chapter 3, “Revolutionary Reading,” examines military treatises, political sermons, and political pamphlets. Chapter 4, “Presidential Reading,” is broader than its title implies. It stretches from the books Washington bought toward the end of the Revolutionary War through his presidency. The last two chapters examine Washington’s retirement. Throughout A Powerful Mind, Harrison ignores the subtleties of early American book culture. She asserts that Washington did not acquire books “to show off in the same way he did with his bold paint colors, fine carriages, and fancy clothing” (16). He didn’t? Then why did he have engraved a handsome armorial bookplate? And why did he have his pamphlet volumes bound in tree calf, an elegant and expensive binding that served no other purpose beyond the decorative? Regardless how much he read his books, Washington appreciated them as material objects that contributed to his home decor. Harrison also asserts that “if Washington purchased a book for himself, it was because he intended to read it” (16). Reading was not the only reason Washington bought 2. George Washington to Henry Laurens, Oct. 3, 1778, in The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series (Charlottesville, VA, 1985–), 17: 238; James C. Nicholls, “Lady Henrietta Liston’s Journal of Washington’s ‘Resignation,’ Retirement, and Death,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 95 (Oct. 1971), 515–16. George Washington to Warner Lewis, Dec. 19, 1788, in The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series (Charlottesville, VA, 1987–), 1: 191. .................18985$ $CH6 02-03-17 15:14:35 PS PAGE 166 REVIEWS • 167 books. As president, he sometimes purchased books as a form of patronage. Regardless of whether he intended to read a book, he understood the importance of supporting the nation’s writers to foster the development of American literature. Despite its drawbacks, A Powerful Mind belongs on the bookshelves of every college library. Like the other recent work on Washington’s reading, it advances our understanding of the intellectual life of our first president. Kevin J. Hayes, Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Central Oklahoma, now lives and writes in Ohio. He is the author of several books, including The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson (New York, 2008) and The Mind of a Patriot: Patrick Henry and the World of Ideas (Charlottesville, VA, 2008).
A Powerful Mind: The Self-Education of George Washington, by Adrienne M. Harrison
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Potomac Books, 2015. Pp. xvi, 310. Notes, biblio., index. $29.95. ISBN: 1612347258.
Washington’s Lifetime Pursuit of Useful Knowledge
In this work Dr. Harrison, former professor of history at West Point, looks at how Washington overcame his lack of a formal education through a lifetime’s dedication to reading.
Harrison bases her analysis on several catalogues of Washington’s library, records of his purchasing agents in Britain, and his own references to his reading in his letters. She concludes that Washington apparently never read for pleasure or for the sake of learning, but rather he structured his reading to his needs, and aptly characterizes this approach using the apt phrase “pursuing useful knowledge”.
So, as appropriate to a gentleman farmer, for most of his life Washington delved deeply into the most current literature on agriculture, often requesting specific works even before they were available in English. As a regimental commander in the Virginia militia during the Seven Years’ War, he read widely in drill manuals and military handbooks, as appropriate to his rank. Elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, he read widely in British constitutional history and politics. Upon being named commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, Washington procured a number of important works on army organization and military history, to acquire an understanding of strategy and, apparently, logistics. And finally, as President, he read much in political theory and law.
There are some surprises, such as Washington’s wide reading in the abolitionist literature of his day and his familiarity with current architectural literature. Harrison also gives us a look at Washington’s private office, a surprisingly austere place clearly designed for serious private study. As Harrison tells us how Washington educated himself, she also throws some light on the education background of professional army officers of the day, contemporary politics, the transition of Washington and others from Englishmen to Americans, and more. Surprisingly, Harrison fails to note that while commanding the Continental Army, Washington issued what can only be termed a reading list to his officers, noting specific works likely to be of value in improving their knowledge of the military profession, many of which he had himself in his library.
Of great of value to anyone interested in Washington, this work also throws a good deal of light on life and society in the eighteenth century British world.
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Reviewer: A. A. Nofi
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Adrienne M. Harrison - A Powerful Mind: The Self-Education of George Washington
George Washington is not known as an intellectual, but the historian author of this book claims that he was a great reader and to understand the man you need to know what he read over the course of his life. Despite what John Adams thought, GW was a man of intellectual substance.
"Washington was not a scholar," he told Rush. "That he was too illiterate, too unlearned, unread for his station and reputation is equally beyond dispute." Meaning: To John Adams GW did not have a Harvard education like himself. P. 1
GW pursued "useful knowledge," not knowledge just for the sake of it. P. 9
To develop an understanding of GW's reading and its significance in his life it is necessary to delve into what, where, and why he read certain things and not others. P. 10
Washington was self-conscious about his lack of formal education. P. 10
His library was personal and was not for impressing others. P. 16
GW did not read for pleasure; he read for utilitarian purposes. P. 17
Copying the The Rules of Civility. P. 19
Influenced by mother and not father, who died when he was 11.
Hurt by not being able to speak French. P. 30
Washington's ambition to become a British officer were dashed forever. P. 43
Both Washington and Franklin evolved toward being Americans after being humiliated by British officials. P. 47
Franklin became internationally acclaimed despite not having a formal education. P. 49
The author compares Franklin and Washington. Really no comparison: two different intellects. BF received honorary doctoral degrees from Oxford and Edinburgh. Henceforth, he would be known as Dr. Franklin. P. 51
Washington became an "American" before Franklin, which is to say GW felt English rejection before BF. P. 56
Washington did not have the broad-based library of a Jefferson and the broad interests of a Franklin; nevertheless, the author says GW's book collection deserves respect for its directed purposes. P. 57
At heart GW was a farmer; he loved the land. P. 59
Though not in the same intellectual league as Jefferson et. al. GW was a strong reader in particular with regard to the subject of agriculture. P. 62
His reading habits:
Hard to determine which books in his library he actually read since there is little marginalia and references to what he read. P. 64
Martha was the richest widow in Virginia. P. 72
My problem is reading the author's summary of what GW read is that I do not recognize any of the books.
The great passion of his life was agriculture. Washington was a man of the land, not only engaging in land speculation but connected viscerally to the land itself.
Though not a bibliophile, Washington realized that he owed much of his success in life to the knowledge he gained from directed reading. P. 97
According the John Adams, the real revolution was in the minds of the people. P. 126
GW became a revolutionary and an American before most of his fellow Americans. P. 127
Religion and politics went together. Hence, GW had an enormous sermon collection. P. 128
He was interested in John Wesley. P. 132
Had many political tracts. P. 133
Military field manuals, political pamphlets, political religious works, and periodicals. P. 136
Preventing democratic excesses fueled federalists at the constitutional convention including Washington. P 152
He lambasted the anti-federalists. P. 157
The case for Washington as our greatest President is that he invented the office on his own without any role models. P. 159
Practical reading into practical application. P. 167
Shaping his legacy in retirement involved also shaping his library in retirement. P. 182
He was the ONLY founder to free his slaves. His reading on slavery helped him toward this decision, but it was complicated due to laws at the time. P. 183
Part of Washington's evolving view on slavery came from his reading on the subject. By the time of his death he had at least 20 works in his library and emancipation. P. 190
What is more impressive is that Washington gave thought to what would happen to slaves after emancipation. P. 191
Believed in not only emancipating but in education. This speaks well of GW. P. 193
His decision to free and attempt to educate his slaves sets him apart from those who only spoke out against slavery but did nothing to make it happen. P. 194
Did he thereby make peace with his conscience? P. 195
The capacity for growth like Lincoln? P. 197
His reading style. P. 200-201
The value that George Washington placed on reading. P. 223
George Washington’s Practical Self-Education
JUNE 13, 2016 | READING TIME: 7 MINUTES
Washington was a practical reader. He clearly valued useful knowledge that made many of his tasks easier. He was and still is the quintessential American success story because he applied his mind to achieving success. He was relentless in pursuing his goals, and his reading is an applied demonstration of it.
-Adrienne Harrison
Our first President and Commander-in-Chief, George Washington, is not known as an intellectual, the way Ben Franklin, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and some of his other Revolutionary counterparts were. Washington had little formal education — he was not a university man and he did not occupy the intellectual circles when was young. He didn't hope to make any contribution to political philosophy or the scientific understanding.
Washington grew up in Virginia into a landowning family, and his education didn't continue beyond the equivalent of elementary school. He developed a trade — surveying — and would eventually inherit his family's land and become a farmer and plantation owner. Washington couldn't speak or read any language but English, living in a time when it was considered necessary and desirable to know French and Latin, at a minimum. (Ben Franklin learned English, Italian, Spanish, Latin, French, and German.) Unlike others we've written about before, Washington wasn't very bookish.
And yet, this poorly educated man with seemingly little interest in literature, classics, or reading at all, became one of the seminal leaders in American history, and as Adrienne Harrison details in her book A Powerful Mind, he did it in large part by reading. Even a man with little interest in high-brow intellect, a man with very little time to spare, felt that sitting on his ass with a book was a useful thing indeed. He was a lifelong learner.
Practical Self-Education
As judged by the library he left behind, his diaries, and the investigations into his life, Washington did not carry much interest in theoretical or classical reading or learning. It seems unlikely that he read for pleasure. But 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.
Says Harrison in her book:
Washington was a practical reader … While the purpose of this book is not to remake Washington's image into a sort of closeted scholar, it does argue that reading was a key component behind Washington's success. The real contribution that this volume makes is that it takes one step closer to understanding how Washington's mind worked. While his self-directed reading was not anywhere near that of Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams, Washington outshone them all by combining the knowledge he gained from his reading with his natural talent for leadership into a masterful performance.
Washington's lack of education and culture certainly bothered him as a youngster. He was ambitious — he wanted to serve as a high-level British military officer and operate in government. He wanted to be a somebody. But he knew his formal education was going to be lacking, and he knew it wouldn't all happen by accident. So he set out to do some of the hard work.
In a story that eventually became well-known, Washington first spent time as a teenager copying over a French manual for conducting yourself in high circles:
As his younger brothers Samuel and John Augustine still lay sleeping nearby and the first of the sun's rays stretched through the neatly curtained windows and across the small table, the future father of his country busily copied word for word a translation of an old guidebook for princely behavior that a French Jesuit priest wrote called The Rules of Civility.
Such a project was no small undertaking for the boy, but little by little he was determined to press on to the end; so he kept scratching at the paper with his quill, careful to keep his ink-stained fingers off the paper. By the time he was finished, young Washington's manuscript consisted of 110 rules for how to properly conduct himself as a respectable member of society. He took pride in his work, for he would rely on these maxims to guide him throughout a long career in the public light.
This tells you a lot of Washington: He was a climber, he had discipline, and he could apply himself when needed. Even in the 18th century, not too many wealthy southern teenagers would have taken on that kind of task.
Learning the rules of civilized social behavior in this way, Washington started a pattern he'd carry on his entire life: Gaining knowledge from books that he couldn't get through experience, or that he needed before he had the right experience. He did it again when he was put in charge of the Virginia Regiment, the first dedicated military unit in the colonies.
Washington hoped that leading this ragtag group of frontier soldiers against the French and the Natives would eventually lead to his becoming a full British military officer (which never happened). And although he was not actually part of the British military, as with his study of the Rules of Civility Washington took it upon himself to read the most influential book in British military circles, and instructed his officers to study it with him:
With specific regard to training, Washington was responsible for training not only raw recruits but also officers. Washington pushed his officers to study, particularly the latest in British military texts such as Humphrey Bland's A Treatise on Military Discipline. Washington wrote that “having no opportunity to improve from example, let us read”; for he recognized that it was not possible for an ambitious officer to obtain the requisite expertise “without application, nor any merit or applause to be achieved without certain knowledge thereof.”
Bland's Treatise was the fundamental textbook for all British officers. Known throughout the army as “the bible,” the 360-page manual spelled out everything a new officer needed to know about how to form and operate a regiment both in garrison and in the field. Bland outlined what an officer's duties were and what officers could reasonably expect from their subordinates.
Studying for Success
Washington didn't stop his self education upon completion of his duties as a frontier officer — he just changed course:
He therefore turned his attention to doing his duty to his country, Virginia, and shifted his focus to becoming a leader in that provincial society, which did actually appreciate his achievements…Washington abandoned his study of the military arts that he had begun some four years earlier, for that reading no longer served a practical purpose for him. He instead devoted his energies in the coming years to increasing his wealth and status in Virginia society.
[…]
To successfully mix in the best social circles, Washington had to learn more about the science of agriculture, history, politics, and religion, for he had to balance being a planter, a member of the House of Burgesses, and a parish vestryman. After he returned to Mount Vernon and began assembling a library, those subjects that had the practical purpose of advancing his social stature dominated his burgeoning collection.
Washington took it upon himself to delve deeply into agriculture, acquiring scores of books on how to improve the productivity of his farms and manage the soil more effectively. He read religious tracts to understand the mood of the people around him, and history books to understand the history of English people.
It's important to note what Washington didn't do. He didn't try to achieve a classical education on his own. Some of his contemporaries were educated in England and became legal scholars, classicists, and composers of belles lettres. They wanted the mind of a European intellectual.
Washington didn't do this — he wanted to learn things he could use, and given a limited amount of time, focused his attention where it was most profitable to him. (An opportunity cost problem which we hit on in our How to Read a Book course earlier this year.)
Having made his mental break with his Englishness after Lord Loudon harshly dealt him a very personal affront, Washington in that key moment was forced to confront his academic shortcomings. This realization, when coupled with his extreme sensitivity to criticism, drove Washington intellectually inward and toward the subjects that he felt most comfortable with and that, more important, could meet his immediate needs at the time. He was fortunate to have already made his public reputation in Virginia based on his natural propensities for physical bravery and on his leadership experience. Learning to read Latin or becoming an amateur scientist would not sustain that hard-won reputation in the planter-dominated high society; earning money and being a dedicated public servant would. Consequently, Washington focused his reading and intellectual pursuits accordingly, and reading remained an intensely private activity. For example, when in residence at Mount Vernon, he spent on average two hours in the morning and all afternoon alone in his library.
Washington would keep these habits the rest of his life, although during the Revolution and his presidency, he had a lot less time to devote to reading than at Mount Vernon. But he still did it, even in the midst of the great upheaval he led against the British:
With these military treatises and drill manuals that he acquired during the first two years of the Revolution, we see Washington applying the same diligent study method he had used previously with Duhamel's Practical Treatise of Husbandry when he sought to make his plantations profitable. In other words, he read these military books for the sake of immediate practical problem solving. There is nothing philosophical or reflective about them. They are tactical field manuals, not massive theoretical tomes on the art of command as it evolved over the centuries.
This is not to recommend avoiding such reflective, theoretical tomes, if such reading interests you. But Washington does provide a good example to those who don't take an inherent pleasure in deep reflection. The process of reading can be intensely practical as well as enjoyable for its own sake. Never think that reading is a mere luxury. Even the busiest man of the 18th century, who did not enjoy reading as an end itself, felt a duty to allocate his time to the written word. It was simply that important.
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Still Interested? Check out the rest of Adrienne Harrison's A Powerful Mind, or for a better and more thorough treatment, try the wonderful biography written by Ron Chernow, now the standard and most modern bio of the fascinating GW.