This one-volume collection covers five decades of Washington's astonishingly active life and brings together over letters, orders, addresses, and other writings.

Taking his inspiration from a 16th century French manual on etiquette, young George Washington compiled his own set of instructions under the title, The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior. These concise rules to live by have been studied and copied by millions of readers eager to absorb Washington's secrets of success in life and work. Neither unduly severe nor sentimental, the rules have stood the test of time and still reverberate today. -- Provided by publisher.

"Whatever sense of hope the Founder Fathers may have felt at the new government's birth, almost none of them carried that optimism to their graves. Franklin survived to see the Constitution in action for only a single year, but most of the founders who lived into the nineteenth century came to feel deep anxiety, disappointment, and even despair about the government and the nation that they had helped to create. Indeed, by the end of their lives many of the founders judged the Constitution that w

A modernized adaptation of more than one hundred maxims according to which the first president conducted his life shares insight into Washington's beliefs and the historical events of his time.

A wide-ranging treasury of presidential writings is comprised of history-shaping and lesser-known speeches, excerpts, and personal notes, from Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and FDR's "Infamy" speech to JFK's "Profiles in Courage" and Barack Obama's "Dreams of My Father."