The George Washington Book Prize

When we began our freshman year at Washington College, it was the first year for something else, as well: the George Washington Book Prize. This prize is awarded to a book which provides a new angle on either George Washington or the founding of the country.

We both recall slogging through the rain to hear Ron Chernow's lecture on Alexander Hamilton that Thursday freshman year, even though Gillian and I did not know each other then. Last year, we again slogged through the rain, together, this time to hear Stacy Shiff talk about Benjamin Franklin. Gillian read Stacy Schiff's book, which analyzed Franklin's experience in France and his role in securing the French as allies in the American Revolution. She said that it was a really fascinating book and a great read, and I do plan on reading it, at some point...

It has become a point of pride for us that we have attended all three GW Book Prize winner lectures thus far. This year, we got to hear Charles Rappleye talk about the Brown brothers and their relationship to the slave trade in Revolutionary era America. I, unfortunately, could not stay for the whole talk, due to the fact that I had a rehearsal at which I needed to be. Normally, I would have skipped the rehearsal; however, I'd already missed two, one for my Fellowship talk and the other for our trip to Virginia. Gillian said the talk was really interesting; Rappleye talked about the personality differences between the two brothers who were polar opposites, as one was a fervent abolitionist, and the other was firmly devoted to the slave trade and its profitability. Rappleye also chronicled Moses' various efforts to end the slave trade and John's efforts to keep it going. Gillian intended to finish the book before school started, and began reading the book at the beginning of the semester, but she had to set it aside to do the things that professors assigned. That will be the first book she reads over winter break (which, horrifyingly enough, is only a few weeks away).

After the talk and my vocal consort rehearsal, we hooked up and headed downtown to the president's house for the reception. We got invited because we are cool history majors. Since we had both conscientiously RSVP'd, we had name tags with our year on them waiting for us so that people would know who we were. I talked to a woman from the C. V. Starr Center that I had met when I did my presentation, which was nice. There were lots of hors d'oeurves, and Adam Goodheart made a few presentations, recognized some people, and introduced a professor who is a visiting fellow this year at the C. V. Starr Center. After all that, we worked our way over to where Dr. Miller and Dr. Black were, and talked to them the rest of the time. I'm sure that some college students would cringe in horror at the idea of talking to professors outside of the classroom, but we like our professors here. They are nice people. They are not scary, they don't look like they are going to eat our children or anything odd like that. We also walked back to campus with them, which was nice, because walking home in the dark is not the most fun thing in the world. The conversation was pretty hilarious, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next day, Adam Goodheart, the head of the C. V. Starr Center, conducted an interview with Mr. Rappleye about writing about history, which we both attended (at least until I had to go to Ancient Rome). The talk was very interesting, and at the end, the audience members had the chance to ask Mr. Rappleye their own questions. Everyone was surprised that it wasn't raining all over everything this year, which was certainly a nice change of pace.

Getting to go to these lectures is one of the reasons why being at this school is so rewarding. Washington College has been around since 17 82, and we take all of that history quite seriously. Being a history major, all of that background provides a wonderful environment in which to study. The school also does a pretty good job of having a lot of good speakers come each semester, which add to the college experience for students, professors, and the other members of the College community.