Join Ink Fish Books for a book signing of Travels with George by Nathaniel Philbrick Part of the Warren Walkabout

Does George Washington still matter? In TRAVELS WITH GEORGE: In Search of Washington and His Legacy award-winning and bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick contends he does. In the fall of 1789, Washington, only six months into his presidency, set out on the first of four road trips as he attempted to unite what were in essence thirteen independent states into a single nation. In the fall of 2018, Philbrick, his wife Melissa, and their dog Dora set out on their own series of road trips as they retraced Washington’s route across the country. By following our first president as he attempted to bring the country together, traveling as far north as Kittery Point, Maine, and as far south as Savannah, Georgia, Philbrick hoped to gain some historical perspective on our own politically divided times.

TRAVELS WITH GEORGE marks a new first-person voice for Philbrick, weaving history and personal reflection into a single narrative. The book 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 hemet along the way—and how his all-consuming belief in the Union helped to forge a nation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of In the Heart of the Sea, winner of the National Book Award; Mayflower, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Valiant Ambition, winner of the George Washington Prize; Bunker Hill, winner of the New England Book Award; In the Hurricane’s Eye; Sea of Glory; The Last Stand; Why Read Moby Dick?; Away Off Shore; and Second Wind.