Out April 7! Pre-order here.

How should we remember George Washington’s entanglement in slavery? Americans have argued over that question for nearly 250 years. More than any other Founding Father, Washington’s ties to slavery have vexed us. He enslaved more people than any of his fellow founders, yet he was the only one of them to emancipate the people he held in bondage. Since his death, Americans have grappled with this contradiction, shaping and reshaping our collective memory of Washington and slavery—along with our understanding of the nation.

In Thy Will Be Done, I tell the story of Americans’ long, fraught struggle to come to terms with Washington’s legacy of slavery.

  • "Thy Will Be Done is an exceptional book. This is how George Washington should be taught. This is how history should be done.”

    —Clint Smith, New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

  • “John Garrison Marks has written an unsparing audit of our inherited memory—proving that the real revolution is in who gets to tell the story. "

    —Alexis Coe, American history columnist at the New York Times and New York Times bestselling author of You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington

  • Thy Will Be Done is a vital contribution to understanding our national history and memory.”

    —Cassandra A. Good, author of First Family: George Washington’s Heirs and the Making of America

Media & Interviews for Thy Will Be Done

Podcast/Video Interviews

Media

Book Tour

Want me to come speak about my book? Get in touch.

March 30: Cambridge Public Library (Cambridge, MA)

April 14: Tudor Place (Washington, DC)

April 18: Woodlawn and Pope-Leighey House (Alexandria, VA)

April 28: Schnackenberg Lecture, Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA)

April 30: James Monroe’s Highland (virtual)

May 9: The Henry Ford (Dearborn, MI)

May 10: Detroit Public Library (Detroit, MI)

May 15: Politics & Prose, The Wharf (Washington, DC)

May 21: Talbot County Historical Society (Easton, MD)

June 2: Clemson University (Clemson, SC)

July 1: Historic Sotterley (Hollywood, MD)

July 9: Maryland Center for History and Culture (Baltimore, MD)

August 27: Filson Historical Society (Louisville, KY)

September 24: Virginia Museum of History and Culture (Richmond, VA)

October 23: Keynote, Pennsylvania Historical Association Annual Meeting (Bethlehem, PA)

October 28: Washington & Lee University (Lexington, VA)