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2005 Theme: Inventing a Country
“We Won the War--What’s Next?”
The annual George Washington Symposium addresses early Alexandria and the parallel life of its most famous home town hero. This year, the Symposium covers the period 1781-1788; the period just following the Revolutionary War; George Washington was only 49 years old, and was destined to have a great influence on how the country defined itself—then and now.
What happens when you win the Revolution, and then struggle to invent a new form of government? How will that government be seen by the rest of the world? How did we develop a system of procedures and rules by which we could govern ourselves? How was the outcome of the War viewed by the British? When Washington visited Barbados in his youth, what was the lifelong influence of that trip? And what was our favorite hero doing just after the war, and before his Presidency? How did he view the inevitable (as he expected) westward expansion of the country? What was some of the music he enjoyed? Let us explore the period together as our speakers discuss some of these issues for the time period: 1781– 1788.
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