This is a concise and edifying overview of the Washington administration which emphasizes the president's attitude to the structure of the nation's infant government through his votes and comments at the constitutional convention and, of course, the way that he established, or tried to, the workings of the federal government. The authors contrast this view of government, which the also identify with that of Alexander Hamilton, with the Jeffersonian and Madisonian models, and trace their influence through American history. The authors praise Washington's first term and are largely critical of his second, with the departure of so many good minds from the cabinet, a rather foundering foreign policy, and the president's lashing out at dissenters. The book is always well-written and its arguments well-supported. ( )