Edward Lengel on "First Entrepreneur: How George Washington Built His — and the Nation's — Prosperity"

Lunch and Learn Series

Edward Lengel on \

Wednesday, August 17, 2016 | 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM

The United States was conceived in business, founded on business and operated as a business—all because of the entrepreneurial mind of the greatest American businessman of any generation: George Washington.

Using Washington's extensive but often overlooked financial papers, Edward G. Lengel chronicles the fascinating and inspiring story of how this self-educated man built the Mount Vernon estate into a vast multi-layered enterprise and prudently managed meager resources to win the war of independence. Later, as president, he helped establish the national economy on a solid footing and favorably positioned the nation for the Industrial Revolution. Washington's steadfast commitment to the core economic principles of probity, transparency, careful management and calculated boldness are timeless lessons that should inspire and instruct investors even today.

About the Author
Edward G. Lengel is an American military historian and professor at the University of Virginia. He is the director of the Washington Papers documentary editing project in Charlottesville, Virginia. In addition to First Entrepreneur, he is the author of General George Washington: A Military Life, which was a finalist for the 2006 George Washington Book Prize, and Inventing George Washington: America's Founder, in Myth and Memory.