[Sacajaweau]

Hardly a hatchet job....I’ve read this many times. He just wasn’t ready for the job. Virginia politics...

[Pharmboy]

Well, I guess we'll have to disagree at my characterization. I have read many descriptions of the incident, but none have focused so sharply on a 21-one year old's acting in bad faith; there has been much more context.

For example, I believe in the 7-volume Freeman biography, there is evidence presented that when the colonials came upon the French (it was not an "ambush") in the glen, they watched and waited, but a musket went off (it could very well have been by accident...not an unheard of event with a cocked Brown Bess) and the stuff hit the fan. Also, it was a vengeful Indian guide who applied the killing blow to the French ambassador, something Washington was powerless to stop.

This appears to be a one-sided account who's scholarship is even called into question by the reviewer (you can click and read the whole review if you have not).

[Gondring]

Hardly a hatchet job....I’ve read this many times.

Wow...many times? It's been out only a week, hasn't it?

It sure seems like a hatchet job to me, using poor sourcing. As the reviewer points out, he was very political and inexperienced in the early days. I think everyone agrees he made many mistakes then.

But to rely on edited letters that were never sent? Poor scholarship.

As for being a hatchet job, did you find commentary like the "getting it on with slaves rather than a married woman" to be important for reminding the reader of the context of the times instead of just being snarky? Was this an isolated example, or does the book have such little jabs throughout?