Hear from award-winning historian Cassandra A. Good, author of First Family: George Washington's Heirs and the Making of America. 

Dr. Good shows how the outspoken stepgrandchildren of George Washington played an overlooked but important role in the development of American society and politics from the Revolution to the Civil War.

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

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Add to Calendar 10/26/2023 19:00:00 10/26/2023 08:00:00 America/New_York Ford Evening Book Talk: First Family

Hear from award-winning historian Cassandra A. Good, author of First Family: George Washington's Heirs and the Making of America. 

Dr. Good shows how the outspoken stepgrandchildren of George Washington played an overlooked but important role in the development of American society and politics from the Revolution to the Civil War.

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

REGISTER

In Person VirtualBuy the Book

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Cost

Free

About the Book

While it’s widely known in America that George and Martha Washington never had children of their own, few are aware that they raised numerous children together. In First Family, we see Washington as a father figure, as well as meet the children he helped raise and trace their complicated roles in American history.

The children of Martha Washington’s son by her first marriage—Eliza, Patty, Nelly and Wash Custis—were born into life in the public eye. Raised in the country’s first “first family,” they remained well-known as Washington’s family and keepers of his legacy throughout their lives. By turns petty and powerful, glamorous and cruel, the Custises used Washington as a means to enhance their own power and status. As enslavers committed to the American empire, the Custis family embodied the failures of the American experiment that finally exploded into civil war—all the while being celebrities in a soap opera of their own making.

First Family brings new focus and attention to this surprisingly neglected aspect of George Washington’s life and legacy. As the country grapples with concerns about political dynasties and the public role of presidential families, the saga of Washington’s family offers a human story of historical precedent.

About the Author

Cassandra A. Good is a historian and writer who has taught at Marymount University, George Washington University, and University of Mary Washington. She received her Ph.D. in history from the University of Pennsylvania. Her first book, Founding Friendships: Friendships Between Men and Women in the Early American Republic, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. She also has experience in museums, new media, and public history through her work at the Smithsonian Institution.  Dr. Good was a member of the Washington Library’s 2014-15 and 2019-20 classes of research fellows.

 

Sponsored By The Ford Motor Company Fund

Sponsored By The Ford Motor Company Fund

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.

Contact

Stephen A. McLeod

Director, Library Programs

703.799.8686

smcleod@mountvernon.org

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