[In "The Unvanquished" Mr. Fast makes George Washington's greatness] human and credible. Describing the retreat from New York in 1776—and describing it through Washington's eyes, a feat attempted by no other novelist of our time—he presents a series of disasters never mentioned in the schoolbooks…. Without [all the necessary details that Mr. Fast supplies,] we cannot understand the meaning of ritualistic phrases like "father of his country" or "the soul of the Revolution."
Not so long ago, the apparent aim of every popular biography was to prove that great men of the past were hypocritical, stupid, drunken, fond of other men's wives and, in short, totally incapable of achieving the enlightened standards of the 1920's. Washington was treated no worse and no better than the others…. The real originality of "The Unvanquished" is that it uses the technique and even the material of the debunkers for a purpose exactly the opposite of theirs: to restore our conviction of human greatness. In these times, Mr. Fast is saying by implication, we have no less need of it than during the retreat across the Jersey meadows, when the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot were stealing back to their homes.
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