The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington invites you to join us for our monthly Ford Evening Book Talk, which features authors and historians discussing their latest books about George Washington and our nation’s Founding era. Lectures are free and open to the public, and books will be available for purchase.

Mount Vernon has enjoyed a very special relationship with the Ford Motor Company dating back more than 90 years. We are grateful for their generous support and we applaud their abiding respect for American heritage.



Upcoming Events

Ford Evening Book Talk: The Tory's Wife

George Washington Presidential Library

Hear from George Mason University Professor Cynthia A. Kierner, author of The Tory's Wife: A Woman and her Family in Revolutionary America. 

Dr. Kierner's new book tells the story of Jane Welborn Spurgin, a patriot who welcomed General Nathanael Greene to her home and aided Continental forces while her loyalist husband was fighting for the king as an officer in the Tory militia. After the war, she was an abandoned wife on the verge of homelessness. But in a dramatic series of petitions to the North Carolina state legislature, she boldly fought to reclaim her family's property and to assert her own political rights.

Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions and have their books signed.

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Ford Evening Book Talk: Unfriendly to Liberty

George Washington Presidential Library

Hear from historian Christopher F. Minty, author of Unfriendly to Liberty: Loyalist Networks and the Coming of the American Revolution in New York City

Minty's new book explores the origins of loyalism in New York City between 1768 and 1776, and revises our understanding of the coming of the American Revolution.

Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions and have their books signed.

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Ford Evening Book Talk: How the Best Did It, Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents

George Washington Presidential Library

Hear from historian Talmage Boston, author of How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons from our Top Presidents. 

Talmage Boston's new book is an accessible and insightful explanation of how the most important leadership traits from America’s eight greatest presidents can be implemented by today’s leaders. It is a discerning examination of what can be learned from some of our most effective leaders who have held—and wielded—ultimate power at the highest level.

Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions and have their books signed.

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Ford Evening Book Talk: Revolutionary Things

George Washington Presidential Library

Hear from University of Miami professor Ashli White, author of Revolutionary Things: Material Culture and Politics in the Late Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World. 

Dr. White's new book examines how objects associated with the American, French, and Haitian revolutions drew diverse people throughout the Atlantic world into debates over revolutionary ideals. She explores the power of material things and visual images to express the fervor and fear of the revolutionary era.

Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions and have their books signed.

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