Book Summary and Reviews of You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe

You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe

You Never Forget Your First

A Biography of George Washington

by Alexis Coe

  • Published:
  • Feb 2020, 304 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Alexis Coe takes a closer look at our first--and finds he is not quite the man we remember.

Young George Washington was raised by a struggling single mother, demanded military promotions, caused an international incident, and never backed down--even when his dysentery got so bad he had to ride with a cushion on his saddle. But after he married Martha, everything changed. Washington became the kind of man who named his dog Sweetlips and hated to leave home. He took up arms against the British only when there was no other way, though he lost more battles than he won.

After an unlikely victory in the Revolutionary War cast him as the nation's hero, he was desperate to retire, but the founders pressured him into the presidency--twice. When he retired years later, no one talked him out of it. He left the highest office heartbroken over the partisan nightmare his backstabbing cabinet had created.

Back on his plantation, the man who fought for liberty must confront his greatest hypocrisy--what to do with the men, women, and children he owns--before he succumbs to death.

With irresistible style and warm humor, You Never Forget Your First combines rigorous research and lively storytelling that will have readers--including those who thought presidential biographies were just for dads--inhaling every page.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"In this breezy yet fact-filled revisionist biography, historian and podcast host Coe (Alice + Freda Forever) takes George Washington's previous—predominantly male—biographers to task...Readers who like their history with a dose of wry humor will savor this accessible account." —Publishers Weekly

"Evenhanded and engaging, this biography brings fresh insight to one of America's most written-about leaders." —Kirkus Reviews

"Every now and then a fresh, new biography told by a gifted storyteller on a familiar figure captures our imagination. So it is with this spirited and engaging biography of George Washington." —Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Leadership and Team of Rivals

"A bewitching combination of erudition and cheek, You Never Forget Your First is a playful, disruptive work of history." —Jennifer Egan, New York Times bestselling author of Manhattan Beach

This information about You Never Forget Your First was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Alexis Coe

Alexis Coe is the award-winning author of Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis (soon to be a major motion picture). Coe has frequently appeared on CNN and the History Channel, and has contributed to The New York Times, The New Yorker, and many other publications. She is a host of Audible's Presidents Are People Too! and No Man's Land. Coe holds a graduate degree in American history and was a research curator at the New York Public Library. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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