An interesting concept for a world history book that will appeal to adults as well as children. It is somewhat romanticized and the author understandably has to skim over most events and personalities, given the sweeping nature of her subject. However, for the most part, the book is accurate and Foster's grasp of world history is remarkable. A very readable book, nicely illustrated by the author, which makes one want to read more about George Washington and this era in world history.

This book was okay, it talked about George Washington and his history of how his success became. Talking about the things he overcame and what not, I think a few kids might have interest but if they love history than this book is totally for them.

This book described all of the historical events that took place during George Washington's life. It is so beneficial to see all those events in context, and I liked the pages at the beginning of each segment of Washington's life that illustrated the things that would be discussed. I expected more of what life was like at the time, though, and less collection of biographies if all the people making names for themselves at the time.

Slavery was given one brief section, from the viewpoint of a Scotsman who ended up working on a slave ship and quit after two years. All that was mentioned of Washington's slaves were three instances when specific enslaved people were mentioned fondly. Nothing was said about the slaves held by any of the other founding fathers, or of the controversy that slavery was in the Constitution, even though Jefferson was discussed at length. One other nod in the discussion of the cotton gin, "A good Negro could pick 200 pounds of cotton in a day...". Or, an enslaved person was required to pick 200 pounds of cotton a day or would be whipped. None of the individuals or nations responsible for the slave trade were given any responsibility in these pages.

I fully enjoyed this! The key word in the title is: "World." Foster gave us a terrific horizontal history book that couches Washington's life within a framework of what was happening not only in the colonies, but also throughout Europe, Russia, and China.

This brings a much better understanding of all the significant events of that time, and the reader can easily see the way they interrelated and affected responses between countries.

Not sure a youth would read through this on their own, but it would make a terrific base for a unit study. It's an interesting read for adults. I'll be looking for others of these "horizontal histories" that Foster wrote.

The style of following one person's life and discussing the events that happened around them is an interesting way to do history. In all, a good read. Sometimes the jumping around is confusing, but overall the final result is better comprehension of the timeline.

Great book

I had to read this book for school, it is the third book by Genevieve Foster that I have read. I loved the first two and this one was no different! I really like her writing style and how clearly she tells the stories. She writes her books almost as if they are storybooks, rather than giving you a bunch of random and confusing facts (like most history textbooks these days). These are some of my favorite history books, and I have read A LOT of history books! The last one that I have to read for school is "Abraham Lincoln's World", and I am really looking forward to it! All in all, I'd say this is a great book to read for school or even for fun! :) I highly recommend it!

All of Genevieve Foster's history books are well-worth reading. George Washington's World covers the time in history from George Washington's birth to his death. What a fabulous way to learn world history as well as US history.

Excellent resource!

Great history book. I really enjoyed reading horizontally like this. You can see how the storyline fit together.

I really enjoy Genevieve Foster's lateral approach to history. She ties together so many events we learn about in school but don't necessarily connect to one another, allowing kids to see how intertwined history really is. We enjoyed following not just George Washington's life, but also those of all different historical figures. And the chapters added by her daughter fit seamlessly into the overall work. It is a dense book, covering a lot of details, so we found we can only read so much a day. But we are excited to continue and read others by Foster.

Really helpful, got an A on the assignment I had to read this for.

I'm only giving it three stars cause it counts as homework, and I don't like homework.

If you need to write an essay on George Washington, my fellow high schoolers, this book will give a pretty good grade without killing your brain cells!