250 YEARS ISN'T THE EXPECTED LIFESPAN OF A REPUBLIC: 1/8: Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy, by Nathaniel Philbrick.
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 6 July 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Travels-George-Search-Washington-Legacy/dp/0525562176/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
When George Washington became president in 1789, the United States of America was still a loose and quarrelsome confederation and a tentative political experiment. Washington undertook a tour of the ex-colonies to talk to ordinary citizens about his new government, and to imbue in them the idea of being one thing—Americans.
In the fall of 2018, Nathaniel Philbrick embarked on his own journey into what Washington called “the infant woody country” to see for himself what America had become in the 229 years since. Writing in a thoughtful first person about his own adventures with his wife, Melissa, and their dog, Dora, Philbrick follows Washington’s presidential excursions: from Mount Vernon to the new capital in New York; a monthlong tour of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island; a venture onto Long Island and eventually across Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The narrative moves smoothly between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries as we see the country through both Washington’s and Philbrick’s eyes.
1889 CENTENIAL WASHINTON INAUGURATION
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| 0:00.0 | Rural communities are being squeezed from every side. |
| 0:05.0 | From rising health care costs to crumbling hospitals, |
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| 0:18.0 | and now Project 2025 is back, with a plan to finish what Elon Musk started. |
| 0:24.8 | Trump and the Republicans won rural votes, then turn their backs on us. |
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| 1:08.5 | This is CBS Eye on the World. |
| 1:10.5 | Here's John Batchelor. I welcome Nathaniel Fildred, the author of the |
| 1:14.7 | exciting and comprehensive new story of George Washington on the road. It is entitled Travels |
| 1:22.3 | with George in Search of Washington and His Legacy. We begin in April 1789. |
| 1:30.6 | George Washington is in Elizabeth, New Jersey, |
| 1:33.5 | getting on a barge that will carry him across the vast New York Harbor to the capital. |
| 1:38.7 | The capital of the United States just conceived is in New York at this point. |
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