This week on C-SPAN's Lectures in History podcast, a lecture on the character of the

first president of the United States, George Washington. Joining C-SPAN is Gene Allen Smith, a Texas

Christian University history professor. He examines how the first president interacted with his

contemporaries, how he viewed himself, and how he is remembered.

A note to our listeners, with the academic year now wrapped, lectures in history will pause new episodes until September.

Over the summer, we will revisit some of our most engaging past lectures and other history-focused content.

This episode was recorded in April of 2019.

More in a moment.

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Okay, today, what we're planning to do is spend a little time talking about George Washington

and the character that he developed over a lifetime.

And if you think about what we've done for the duration of this course, we've brought him into the story intermittently throughout, whether

it's talking about individual battles or whether it's talking about how he organized men or how he

recruited men to get them to maintain or stay in the service.

And one of the things I try to get across whenever I'm talking about Washington is that Washington is a bit of an enigma to modern audience.

Why?

Because we really don't know who he was, what he was, how he looked.

I mean, when I show you these images here, these images are of three of our noteworthy presidents.

...