Join bestselling historian H. W. Brands for the 2026 J. Harvie Wilkinson, Jr. Lecture on the life and leadership of George Washington.

From George Washington’s early military career and role among the Virginia gentry, to his leadership during the American Revolution and reluctant return to public service as the first president of the United States, American Patriarch brings to life the man who was called on time and again by his peers to lead. With a dazzling cast of characters—from the French and Indians on the Ohio frontier; to the Marquis de Lafayette, Benedict Arnold, and Baron von Steuben on the revolutionary battlefield; to Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton locked in conflict during his presidency—Brands’s new biography casts George Washington as the icon of American virtue who wrested America free from British control, gave credibility to the Constitution, and crafted the norms that would steady America as a nation for generations to follow. Arriving in time for the 250th anniversary of American independence, American Patriarch is a masterful portrait of Washington as the unrivaled leader of his times.

Dr. H. W. Brands holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written thirty books, coauthored or edited five others, and published dozens of articles and scores of reviews. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic Monthly, the Smithsonian, the National Interest, the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History, the Political Science Quarterly, American History, and many other newspapers, magazines and journals. His writings have received critical and popular acclaim. The First American and Traitor to His Class were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. His latest book is American Patriarch: The Life of George Washington.

A book signing and light refreshments will follow the program.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.