The Friends of Mount Vernon Book Club welcomes historian Frank Cogliano for a wide-ranging conversation about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, the American Revolution, and the difficult questions the founding generation left behind.

Cogliano joins the group to explore the relationship between Washington and Jefferson, the ideals that united them, the political differences that eventually pulled them apart, and what those disagreements reveal about the creation of the early American republic. The conversation also considers independence, political leadership, slavery and the contradictions of the founding era, and the ways Washington, Jefferson, and the Revolution continue to be interpreted and debated 250 years later.

It is a lively discussion about friendship and rivalry, historical memory, and what it means to reconsider the founding generation on the 250th anniversary of American independence.

We discuss the latest George Washington biography.