George Washington is one of the most well-studied (some might say overstudied) figures in history. While it is something of a cliché to begin a book review by noting the abundance of Washington scholarship the world has already been graced with, it is important to remember the crowded field into which John Rhodehamel and John Avlon are entering with their books on his life and legacy. Recent Washington scholarship has placed a premium on demythologizing and humanizing the “father of his country” in order to better understand the “real” George Washington. Rhodehamel and Avlon eschew the humanizing trend, opting instead to emphasize Washington’s larger-thanlife qualities and monumental achievements. Rhodehamel explains in his introduction that Washington’s “identification with the new republic was so complete, and his heroic character so carefully contrived, that it is unlikely that the ‘real’ Washington will ever escape the obscuring embrace of myth” (p. 8). Washington’s “greatness,” Rhodehamel argues, “is to be found in his public achievements, and those achievements are authentically monumental. So the man must remain a monument” (p. 9). Whether man or monument, Rhodehamel and Avlon largely fail to contribute anything new to our understanding of Washington and his legacy, with the former writing an at-times excellent but on balance unremarkable biography, and the latter offering little more than a list of historical curiosities lacking meaning or substance. The opening chapters of Rhodehamel’s George Washington: The Wonder of the Age, which generally reads as a briskly paced greatest hits collection of Washington’s life, are the strongest of the book. They focus on Washington’s early life and service in the French and Indian War. Rhodehamel does an excellent job situating the young Washington within colonial, imperial, and

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人与纪念碑：关于华盛顿的新书站不住脚

乔治华盛顿是历史上研究最充分（有人可能会说研究过度）的人物之一。虽然通过注意到世界已经获得华盛顿丰富的奖学金来开始书评有点陈词滥调，但重要的是要记住约翰·罗德哈默和约翰·阿夫隆带着他们关于他的生活的书进入的拥挤的领域和遗产。为了更好地理解“真正的”乔治华盛顿，最近的华盛顿奖学金非常重视“他的国家之父”的去神话化和人性化。Rhodehamel 和 Avlon 避开了人性化的趋势，而是选择强调华盛顿超越生命的品质和巨大的成就。罗德哈梅尔在他的介绍中解释说，华盛顿“对新共和国的认同是如此完整，以及他精心设计的英雄性格，“真正的”华盛顿不太可能摆脱神话的模糊拥抱”（第 8 页）。罗德哈默尔认为，华盛顿的“伟大”在于他的公开成就，而这些成就确实具有纪念意义。因此，这个人必须成为一座纪念碑”（第 9 页）。无论是人还是纪念碑，罗德哈默尔和阿夫隆基本上都没有为我们对华盛顿及其遗产的理解做出任何新的贡献，前者写的传记有时很出色但总的来说平平无奇，而后者只不过提供了一份历史奇闻清单缺乏意义或实质。Rhodehamel 的 George Washington：The Wonder of the Age 的开篇章节，通常读起来是华盛顿生活中节奏轻快的最热门作品集，是书中最强的。他们专注于华盛顿在法国和印度战争中的早期生活和服务。Rhodehamel 出色地将年轻的华盛顿置于殖民地、帝国和