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As America marks the 250th anniversary of the Revolution, a key question still deserves our attention: how did a loose collection of North American colonies defeat the most powerful empire on earth?
In this special episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of Ohio State University and Massachusetts state champion U.S. history and civics teacher Kelley Brown explore that question with Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Ellis, author of His Excellency: George Washington and the new The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding. Their conversation centers on George Washington, the figure historians consider indispensable to American independence.
Among the topics they explore:
- A general who won by not losing: Washington lost more individual battles than he won, but by Valley Forge he understood he needed only to outlast the British, fighting a "war of posts" and engaging only when he held the advantage.
- A leader defined by surrendering power: Prof. Ellis shares that Washington never overtly sought to lead the Continental Army, or become president, and that precisely because he did not want power, he could be trusted with it.
- A presence that made the U.S. Constitution possible: Washington didn’t speak until the last day at the Constitutional Convention, yet his presence alone lent the effort its legitimacy. As Prof. Ellis puts it: without Washington, no war won, no Constitution, and no nation.
- A reckoning with the Founding's failures: Drawing on his latest book, Prof. Ellis examines the two great tragedies of the Founding, slavery and the mistreatment of Native Americans, and where Washington, who chose to free the enslaved people he owned, stood on each topic.
Tune in to hear this fascinating conversation about why George Washington's example remains relevant today.