Washington’s Circle: The Creation of the President

History buffs will rejoice at this splendid Team of Rivals-style group biography of the nation’s first president and the men who served with him, who together created the office of the presidency that we know today.

George Washington was a singular, often aloof man who sought out the counsel of a few, trusted men to help him share his task of governing the new nation. In Washington’s Circle, David and Jeanne Heidler introduce not just the president but the group of extraordinary men who advised him. The familiar names are here like the often irked and occasionally irksome John Adams, the scheming Alexander Hamilton, and the prodigiously talented James Jemmy Madison, but so are the lesser known Edmund Randolph, John Jay, and Gouverneur Morris. Washington’s choices of whom to listen to, for better and sometimes worse, were as consequential as the advice his cabinet gave. It is a story of give and take-between Washington and Congress, these men confronted questions, including the limits of executive power, that continue to raise debates today. Washington’s Circle is a stunning group portrait of the pioneers who laid the foundations of our government and first put them to the test.