Mount Vernon: Background Knowledge

When I arrived at home, yesterday, there was a package on the dining room table. 

The return address:  Mount Vernon, Virginia.

The contents:  two books (pictured left), and a short note:

Greetings from Mount Vernon!

Please enjoy the enclosed copies of General George Washington:  A Military Life by Edward Lengel and Memoir of a Revolutionary Soldier:  The Narrative of Joseph Plumb Martin.

The books will provide you with background knowledge for your week at Mount Vernon; we encourage you to read them before you arrive.  (There won't be a test.  I promise!)

As we get closer, if any additional pre-reading is requested by scholars or facilitators, you will receive an email and a link to it.

I actually searched for the former volume at the local public library (to no avail), I was excited to see it in my package as a part of my summer residency at George and Martha's mansion.  These will be the next books I read.

I've recently read these other books (some for children, some for adults) concerning George Washington.  I hope that these will also give me some background knowledge to prepare me for a rich visit to Mount Vernon.

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Of course, George Washington didn't live in a bubble.  He came into contact with many other revolutionaries.  In addition to video documentaries, I have also read these other books (mostly for child readers) to help familiarize myself with the era.

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