In "George Washington in the American Revolution (1775-1783)," we are witness to eight fateful years, as Washington lived them day by day and month by month. We see a Virginia officer catapulted - despite his obvious military limitations and his own protestations of inadequacy - into the command of an amateur army opposing an experienced European force under elite leadership. The fact that Washington was at first out-generaled is not supressed. His failures and reverses are not diminished or excused.