Newspaper of record is a term that may refer either to any publicly available newspaper that has been authorized by a government to publish public or legal notices (often known as a ''newspaper of public record''), or any major newspaper that has a large circulation and whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered professional and typically authoritative.

Newspapers of public record

The first type of newspaper of record is often formally defined by a statute or other official action of a governing body. Such a newspaper is supposed to be available to the public, and publication of notices in that newspaper is considered sufficient to comply with legal requirements for public notice. In some jurisdictions, these newspapers are referred to as gazettes (for example, the Canada Gazette, the London Gazette and The Government of The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Gazette).

In some jurisdictions, privately-owned newspapers may register with the public authorities in order to publish public and legal notices.

Newspapers of record (by reputation)

The second type of "newspaper of record" (also known by the French terms ''Presse de référence'', or simply ''de référence'') is not defined by any formal criteria and its characteristics can be variable. The category typically consists of those newspapers that are considered to meet higher standards of journalism than most print media and are usually renowned internationally. Notwithstanding changes in society, such newspapers have historically tended to maintain the same tone, coverage, style and traditions.

Examples

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;" !width=15%|Country !width=15% class="unsortable"|Logo !width=15%|Newspaper !width=15%|City of publication !width=7% class="unsortable"|Founded !width=15%|Language !width=7% class="unsortable"|Source(s) |- | Argentina | | ''La Nación'' | Buenos Aires | 1870 | Spanish | |- | Belgium | | ''De Standaard'' | Groot-Bijgaarden, near Brussels | 1918 | Dutch | |- | Canada | | ''The Globe and Mail'' | Toronto | 1844 | English | |- | Canada | | ''La Presse'' | Montreal | 1884 | French | |- | Chile | | ''El Mercurio'' | Santiago | 1827 (Valparaíso ed.)1900 (Santiago ed.) | Spanish | |- | France | — | ''Le Monde'' | Paris | 1944 | French | |- | Germany | | ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' | Frankfurt | 1949 | German | |- | Hungary | | ''Népszabadság'' | Budapest | 1956 | Hungarian | |- | India | | ''The Times of India'' | New Delhi | 1838 | English | |- | Ireland | | ''The Irish Times'' | Dublin | 1859 | English | |- | Italy | | ''Corriere della Sera'' | Milan | 1876 | Italian | |- | Netherlands | | ''NRC Handelsblad'' | Rotterdam | 1970 | Dutch | |- | Portugal | | ''Diário de Notícias'' | Lisbon | 1864 | Portuguese | |- | Serbia | | ''Politika'' | Belgrade | 1904 | Serbo-Croatian (Serbian Cyrillic) | |- | Spain | | ''El País'' | Madrid | 1976 | Spanish | |- | United Kingdom | — | ''The Times'' | London | 1785 | English | |- | United Kingdom | | ''The Daily Telegraph'' | London | 1855 | English | |- | United States | | ''The New York Times'' | New York City | 1851 | English | |}

References

Category:Newspaper terminology Category:Public records

de:Leitmedium fr:Presse internationale he:עיתון מתעד

Name	George Washington
Office	1st President of the United States
Term start	April 30, 1789*
Term end	March 4, 1797
Vicepresident	John Adams
Predecessor	New creation
Successor	John Adams
Office2	Senior Officer of the Army
Appointer2	John Adams
Term start2	July 13, 1798
Term end2	December 14, 1799
Predecessor2	James Wilkinson
Successor2	Alexander Hamilton
Office3	Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army
Appointer3	Continental Congress
Term start3	June 15, 1775
Term end3	December 23, 1783
Predecessor3	New creation
Successor3	Henry Knox (Senior Officer of the Army)
Office4	Delegate to the Second Continental Congressfrom Virginia
Term start4	May 10, 1775
Term end4	June 15, 1775
Predecessor4	New creation
Successor4	Thomas Jefferson
Office5	Delegate to the First Continental Congressfrom Virginia
Term start5	September 5, 1774
Term end5	October 26, 1774
Predecessor5	New creation
Successor5	Office abolished
Birth date
Birth place	Westmoreland, Virginia Colony
Death date	December 14, 1799
Death place	Mount Vernon, Virginia, U.S.
Party	Independent
Spouse	Martha Dandridge
Religion	Church of EnglandEpiscopal
Profession	PlanterOfficer
Signature	George Washington signature.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink
Allegiance	Great BritainUnited States
Branch	Virginia RegimentContinental ArmyUnited States Army
Serviceyears	Militia: 1752–1758Continental Army: 1775–1783Army: 1798–1799
Rank	30px Lieutenant general30px General of the Armies (posthumous: 1976)
Commands	Virginia Colony's regimentContinental ArmyUnited States Army
Battles	French and Indian WarBattle of Jumonville GlenBattle of Fort NecessityBraddock ExpeditionBattle of the MonongahelaForbes ExpeditionAmerican Revolutionary WarBoston campaignNew York and New Jersey campaignPhiladelphia campaignYorktown campaign
Awards	Congressional Gold MedalThanks of Congress
Footnotes	*March 4 is the official start of the first presidential term. April 6 is when Congress counted the votes of the Electoral College and certified a president. April 30 is when Washington was sworn. }}

George Washington ( – December 14, 1799) was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1775–1783, and presided over the writing of the Constitution in 1787. The unanimous choice to serve as the first President of the United States (1789–1797), Washington presided over the creation of a strong, well-financed national government that stayed neutral in the wars raging in Europe, suppressed rebellion and won acceptance among Americans of all types. His leadership style established many forms and rituals of government that have been used ever since, such as using a cabinet system and delivering an inaugural address. Washington is universally regarded as the "Father of his Country".

Washington was born into the provincial gentry of a wealthy, well connected Colonial Virginia family who owned tobacco plantations. After his father and older brother both died young, Washington became personally and professionally attached to the powerful Fairfax family, which promoted his career as a surveyor and soldier. Washington quickly became a senior officer of the colonial forces during the first stages of the French and Indian War. Chosen by the Second Continental Congress in 1775 to be commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, he managed to force the British out of Boston in 1776, but was defeated and nearly captured later that year when he lost New York City. After crossing the Delaware River in the dead of winter, he defeated the enemy in two battles, retook New Jersey, and restored momentum to the Patriot cause. Because of his strategy, Revolutionary forces captured two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781. Historians give Washington high marks for his selection and supervision of his generals, his encouragement of morale and ability to hold together the army, his coordination with the state governors and state militia units, his relations with Congress, and his attention to supplies, logistics, and training. In battle, however, Washington was repeatedly outmaneuvered by British generals with larger armies. After victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to the emerging American political ideology of republicanism. He returned to his home, Mount Vernon, and his domestic life there, continuing to manage a variety of enterprises. Washington's final 1799 will specified all his slaves be set free.

Dissatisfied with the weaknesses of Articles of Confederation, Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention that drafted the United States Constitution in 1787. Elected as the first President of the United States in 1789, he attempted to bring rival factions together to unify the nation. He supported Alexander Hamilton's programs to pay off all state and national debt, implement an effective tax system, and create a national bank, despite opposition from Thomas Jefferson. Washington proclaimed the U.S. neutral in the wars raging in Europe after 1793. He avoided war with Great Britain and guaranteed a decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795, despite intense opposition from the Jeffersonians. Although never officially joining the Federalist Party, he supported its programs. Washington's "Farewell Address" was an influential primer on republican virtue and a stern warning against partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars.

Washington had a vision of a great and powerful nation that would be built on republican lines using federal power. He sought to use the national government to preserve liberty, improve infrastructure, open the western lands, promote commerce, found a permanent capital, reduce regional tensions and promote a spirit of American nationalism. At his death, Washington was hailed as "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen". The Federalists made him the symbol of their party but for many years, the Jeffersonians continued to distrust his influence and delayed building the Washington Monument. As the leader of the first successful revolution against a colonial empire in world history, Washington became an international icon for liberation and nationalism, especially in France and Latin America. He is consistently ranked among the top presidents of the United States according to polls of both scholars and the general public.

Early life (1732–1753)

The first child of Augustine Washington (1694–1743) and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington (1708–1789), George Washington was born on their Pope's Creek Estate near present-day Colonial Beach in Westmoreland County, Virginia. According to the Julian calendar (which was in use at the time), Washington was born on February 11, 1731; according to the Gregorian calendar, implemented in 1752 according to the provisions of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, the date was February 22, 1732. Washington's ancestors were from Sulgrave, England; his great-grandfather, John Washington, had immigrated to Virginia in 1657. George's father Augustine was a slave-owning tobacco planter who later tried his hand in iron-mining ventures. In George's youth, the Washingtons were moderately prosperous members of the Virginia gentry, of "middling rank" rather than one of the leading families.

Washington was the first-born child from his father's marriage to Mary Ball Washington. Six of his siblings reached maturity including two older half-brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, from his father's first marriage to Jane Butler Washington and four full-siblings, Samuel, Elizabeth (Betty), John Augustine and Charles. Three siblings died before becoming adults: his full-sister Mildred died when she was about one, his half-brother Butler died while an infant and his half-sister Jane died at the age of 12 when George was about 2.

The death of his father prevented Washington from crossing the Atlantic to receive the rest of his education at England's Appleby School, as his older brothers had done. He received the equivalent of an elementary school education from a variety of tutors and also at least one school (run by an Anglican clergyman in or near Fredericksburg). Talk of securing an appointment in the Royal Navy for him when he was 15 was dropped when his mother learned how hard that would be on him. Thanks to Lawrence's connection to the powerful Fairfax family, at age 17 Washington was appointed official surveyor for Culpeper County in 1749, a well-paid position which enabled him to purchase land in the Shenandoah Valley, the first of his many land acquisitions in western Virginia. Thanks also to Lawrence's involvement in the Ohio Company, a land investment company funded by Virginia investors, and Lawrence's position as commander of the Virginia militia, Washington came to the notice of the new lieutenant governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie. Washington was hard to miss: At exactly six feet, he towered over most of his contemporaries.

In 1751, Washington travelled to Barbados with Lawrence, who was suffering from tuberculosis, with the hope that the climate would be beneficial to Lawrence's health. Washington contracted smallpox during the trip, which left his face slightly scarred, but immunized him against future exposures to the dreaded disease. Lawrence's health did not improve: he returned to Mount Vernon, where he died in 1752. Lawrence's position as Adjutant General (militia leader) of Virginia was divided into four offices after his death. Washington was appointed by Governor Dinwiddie as one of the four district adjutants in February 1753, with the rank of major in the Virginia militia. Washington also joined the Freemasons in Fredericksburg at this time.

French and Indian War (or 'Seven Years War', 1754–1758)

In 1753, the French began expanding their military control into the "Ohio Country", a territory also claimed by the British colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania. These competing claims led to a war in the colonies called the French and Indian War (1754–62), and contributed to the start of the global Seven Years' War (1756–63). Washington was at the center of its beginning. The Ohio Company was one vehicle through which British investors planned to expand into the territory, opening new settlements and building trading posts for the Indian trade. Governor Dinwiddie received orders from the British government to warn the French of British claims, and sent Major Washington in late 1753 to deliver a letter informing the French of those claims and asking them to leave. Washington also met with Tanacharison (also called "Half-King") and other Iroquois leaders allied to Virginia at Logstown to secure their support in case of conflict with the French; Washington and Tanacharison became friends and allies. Washington delivered the letter to the local French commander, who politely refused to leave.

Governor Dinwiddie sent Washington back to the Ohio Country to protect an Ohio Company group building a fort at present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but before he reached the area, a French force drove out the company's crew and began construction of Fort Duquesne. A small detachment of French troops led by Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, was discovered by Tanacharison and a few warriors east of present-day Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Along with their Mingo allies, Washington and some of his militia unit then ambushed the French. What exactly happened during and after the battle is a matter of some controversy, but the immediate outcome was that Jumonville was injured in the initial attack and then was killed - whether tomahawked by Tanacharison in cold blood or somehow shot by another onlooker with a musket as the injured man sat with Washington is not completely clear. The French responded by attacking and capturing Washington at Fort Necessity in July 1754. However, he was allowed to return with his troops to Virginia. Historian Joseph Ellis concludes that the episode demonstrated Washington's bravery, initiative, inexperience and impetuosity. These events had international consequences; the French accused Washington of assassinating Jumonville, who they claimed was on a diplomatic mission.

Braddock disaster 1755

In 1755, Washington was the senior American aide to British General Edward Braddock on the ill-fated Braddock expedition. This was the largest British expedition to the colonies, and was intended to expel the French from the Ohio Country. The French and their Indian allies ambushed Braddock, who was mortally wounded in the Battle of the Monongahela. After suffering devastating casualties, the British retreated in disarray; however, Washington rode back and forth across the battlefield, rallying the remnants of the British and Virginian forces to an organized retreat.

Commander of Virginia Regiment

Governor Dinwiddie rewarded Washington in 1755 with a commission as "Colonel of the Virginia Regiment and Commander in Chief of all forces now raised in the defense of His Majesty's Colony" and gave him the task of defending Virginia's frontier. The Virginia Regiment was the first full-time American military unit in the colonies (as opposed to part-time militias and the British regular units). Washington was ordered to "act defensively or offensively" as he thought best. In command of a thousand soldiers, Washington was a disciplinarian who emphasized training. He led his men in brutal campaigns against the Indians in the west; in 10 months units of his regiment fought 20 battles, and lost a third of its men. Washington's strenuous efforts meant that Virginia's frontier population suffered less than that of other colonies; Ellis concludes "it was his only unqualified success" in the war.

In 1758, Washington participated in the Forbes Expedition to capture Fort Duquesne. He was embarrassed by a friendly fire episode in which his unit and another British unit thought the other was the French enemy and opened fire, with 14 dead and 26 wounded in the mishap. Washington was not involved in any other major fighting on the expedition, and the British scored a major strategic victory, gaining control of the Ohio Valley, when the French abandoned the fort. Following the expedition, Washington retired from his Virginia Regiment commission in December 1758. He did not return to military life until the outbreak of the revolution in 1775.

Lessons learned

Although Washington never gained the commission in the British army he yearned for, in these years the young man gained valuable military, political, and leadership skills. He closely observed British military tactics, gaining a keen insight into their strengths and weaknesses that proved invaluable during the Revolution. He demonstrated his toughness and courage in the most difficult situations, including disasters and retreats. He developed a command presence—given his size, strength, stamina, and bravery in battle, he appeared to soldiers to be a natural leader and they followed him without question. Washington learned to organize, train, drill, and discipline his companies and regiments. From his observations, readings and conversations with professional officers, he learned the basics of battlefield tactics, as well as a good understanding of problems of organization and logistics. He gained an understanding of overall strategy, especially in locating strategic geographical points. Historian Ron Chernow is of the opinion that his frustrations in dealing with government officials during this conflict led him to advocate the advantages of a strong national government and a vigorous executive agency that could get results; other historians tend to ascribe Washington's position on government to his later American Revolutionary War service. He developed a very negative idea of the value of militia, who seemed too unreliable, too undisciplined, and too short-term compared to regulars. On the other hand, his experience was limited to command of at most 1000 men, and came only in remote frontier conditions that were far removed from the urban situations he faced during the Revolution at Boston, New York, Trenton and Philadelphia.

Between the wars: Mount Vernon (1759–1774)

On January 6, 1759, Washington married the wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis. Surviving letters suggest that he may have been in love at the time with Sally Fairfax, the wife of a friend. Nevertheless, George and Martha made a compatible marriage, because Martha was intelligent, gracious, and experienced in managing a slave plantation. Together the two raised her two children from her previous marriage, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis, affectionately called "Jackie" and "Patsy" by the family. Later the Washingtons raised two of Mrs. Washington's grandchildren, Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis. George and Martha never had any children together – his earlier bout with smallpox in 1751 may have made him sterile. Washington may not have been able to admit to his own sterility while privately he grieved over not having his own children. The newlywed couple moved to Mount Vernon, near Alexandria, where he took up the life of a planter and political figure.

Washington's marriage to Martha greatly increased his property holdings and social standing, and made him one of Virginia's wealthiest men. He acquired one-third of the Custis estate upon his marriage, worth approximately $100,000, and managed the remainder on behalf of Martha's children, for whom he sincerely cared. He frequently bought additional land in his own name and was granted land in what is now West Virginia as a bounty for his service in the French and Indian War. By 1775, Washington had doubled the size of Mount Vernon to , and had increased the slave population there to more than 100 persons. As a respected military hero and large landowner, he held local office and was elected to the Virginia provincial legislature, the House of Burgesses, beginning in 1758.

Washington lived an aristocratic lifestyle—fox hunting was a favorite leisure activity. He also enjoyed going to dances and parties, in addition to the theater, races, and cockfights. Washington also was known to play cards, backgammon, and billiards. Like most Virginia planters, he imported luxuries and other goods from England and paid for them by exporting his tobacco crop.

Washington began to pull himself out of debt in the mid 1760s by diversifying his previously tobacco-centric business interests into other ventures and paying more attention to his affairs. In 1766, he started switching Mount Vernon's primary cash crop away from tobacco to wheat, a crop that could be processed and then sold in various forms in the colonies, and further diversified operations to include flour milling, fishing, horse breeding, spinning, weaving and (in the 1790s) whiskey production. Patsy Custis's death in 1773 from epilepsy enabled Washington to pay off his British creditors, since half of her inheritance passed to him.

A successful planter, he was a leader in the social elite in Virginia. From 1768 to 1775, he invited some 2000 guests to his Mount Vernon estate, mostly those he considered "people of rank". As for people not of high social status, his advice was to "treat them civilly" but "keep them at a proper distance, for they will grow upon familiarity, in proportion as you sink in authority". In 1769 he became more politically active, presenting the Virginia Assembly with legislation to ban the importation of goods from Great Britain.

In 1754 Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie had promised land bounties to the soldiers and officers who volunteered to serve during the French and Indian War. Washington tried for years to get the lands promised to him and his men. Governor Norborne Berkeley finally fulfilled that promise in 1769–1770, with Washington subsequently receiving title to near where the Kanawha River flows into the Ohio River, in what is now western West Virginia.

American Revolution (1775–1787)

Although he expressed opposition to the 1765 Stamp Act, the first direct tax on the colonies, he did not take a leading role in the growing colonial resistance until protests of the Townshend Acts (enacted in 1767) became widespread. In May 1769, Washington introduced a proposal, drafted by his friend George Mason, calling for Virginia to boycott English goods until the Acts were repealed. Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts in 1770. However, Washington regarded the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774 as "an Invasion of our Rights and Privileges". In July 1774, he chaired the meeting at which the "Fairfax Resolves" were adopted, which called for the convening of a Continental Congress, among other things. In August, Washington attended the First Virginia Convention, where he was selected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress.

Commander in chief

After the Battles of Lexington and Concord near Boston in April 1775, the colonies went to war. Washington appeared at the Second Continental Congress in a military uniform, signaling that he was prepared for war. Washington had the prestige, military experience, charisma and military bearing of a military leader and was known as a strong patriot. Virginia, the largest colony, deserved recognition, and New England—where the fighting began—realized it needed Southern support. Washington did not explicitly seek the office of commander and said that he was not equal to it, but there was no serious competition. Congress created the Continental Army on June 14, 1775. Nominated by John Adams of Massachusetts, Washington was then appointed Major General and Commander-in-chief.

Washington had three roles during the war. In 1775–77, and again in 1781 he led his men against the main British forces. Although he lost many of his battles, he never surrendered his army during the war, and he continued to fight the British relentlessly until the war's end. He plotted the overall strategy of the war, in cooperation with Congress.

Second, he was charged with organizing and training the army. He recruited regulars and assigned General von Steuben, a German professional, to train them. The war effort and getting supplies to the troops were under the purview of Congress, but Washington pressured the Congress to provide the essentials. In June 1776 Congress' first attempt at running the war effort was established with the committee known as "Board of War and Ordnance", succeeded by the Board of War in July 1777, a committee which eventually included members of the military. The command structure of the Americans' armed forces was a hodgepodge of Congressional appointees (and Congress sometimes made those appointments without Washington's input) with state-appointments filling the lower ranks and of all of the militia-officers. The results of his general staff were mixed, as some of his favorites (like John Sullivan) never mastered the art of command. Eventually he found capable officers, like General Nathaniel Greene, and his chief-of-staff Alexander Hamilton. The American officers never equalled their opponents in tactics and maneuver, and consequently they lost most of the pitched battles. The great successes, at Boston (1776), Saratoga (1777) and Yorktown (1781), came from trapping the British far from base with much larger numbers of troops.

Third, and most important, Washington was the embodiment of armed resistance to the Crown—the representative man of the Revolution. His enormous stature and political skills kept Congress, the army, the French, the militias, and the states all pointed toward a common goal. By voluntarily stepping down and disbanding his army when the war was won, he permanently established the principle of civilian supremacy in military affairs. And yet his constant reiteration of the point that well-disciplined professional soldiers counted for twice as much as erratic amateurs helped overcome the ideological distrust of a standing army.

Victory at Boston

Washington assumed command of the Continental Army in the field at Cambridge, Massachusetts in July 1775, during the ongoing siege of Boston. Realizing his army's desperate shortage of gunpowder, Washington asked for new sources. American troops raided British arsenals, including some in the Caribbean, and some manufacturing was attempted. They obtained a barely adequate supply (about 2.5 million pounds) by the end of 1776, mostly from France. Washington reorganized the army during the long standoff, and forced the British to withdraw by putting artillery on Dorchester Heights overlooking the city. The British evacuated Boston in March 1776 and Washington moved his army to New York City.

Although highly disparaging toward most of the Patriots, British newspapers routinely praised Washington's personal character and qualities as a military commander. These articles were bold, as Washington was an enemy general who commanded an army in a cause that many Britons believed would ruin the empire.

Defeat at New York City and Fabian tactics

In August 1776, British General William Howe launched a massive naval and land campaign designed to seize New York. The Continental Army under Washington engaged the enemy for the first time as an army of the newly independent United States at the Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the entire war. The Americans were badly outnumbered, many men deserted, and Washington was badly beaten. Subsequently, Washington was forced to retreat across the East River at night. He did so without loss of life or materiel. Washington retreated north from the city to avoid encirclement, enabling Howe to take the offensive and capture Fort Washington on November 16 with high Continental casualties. Washington then retreated across New Jersey; the future of the Continental Army was in doubt due to expiring enlistments and the string of losses. On the night of December 25, 1776, Washington staged a comeback with a surprise attack on a Hessian outpost in western New Jersey. He led his army across the Delaware River to capture nearly 1,000 Hessians in Trenton, New Jersey. Washington followed up his victory at Trenton with another over British regulars at Princeton in early January. The British retreated back to New York City and its environs, which they held until the peace treaty of 1783. Washington's victories wrecked the British carrot-and-stick strategy of showing overwhelming force then offering generous terms. The Americans would not negotiate for anything short of independence. These victories alone were not enough to ensure ultimate Patriot victory, however, since many soldiers did not reenlist or deserted during the harsh winter. Washington and Congress reorganized the army with increased rewards for staying and punishment for desertion, which raised troop numbers effectively for subsequent battles.

Historians debate whether or not Washington preferred a Fabian strategy to harass the British with quick, sharp attacks followed by a retreat so the larger British army could not catch him, or whether he preferred to fight major battles. While his southern commander Greene in 1780-81 did use Fabian tactics, Washington, only did so in fall 1776 to spring 1777, after losing New York City and seeing much of his army melt away. Trenton and Princeton were Fabian examples. By summer 1777, however, Washington had rebuilt his strength and his confidence and stopped using raids and went for large-scale confrontations, as at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Yorktown.

1777 campaigns

In the late summer of 1777 the British under John Burgoyne sent a major invasion army south from Quebec, with the intention of splitting off rebellious New England. General Howe in New York took his army south to Philadelphia instead of going up the Hudson River to join with Burgoyne near Albany. It was a major strategic mistake for the British, and Washington rushed to Philadelphia to engage Howe, while closely following the action in upstate New York. In pitched battles that were too complex for his relatively inexperienced men, Washington was defeated. At the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, Howe outmaneuvered Washington, and marched into the American capital at Philadelphia unopposed on September 26. Washington's army unsuccessfully attacked the British garrison at Germantown in early October. Meanwhile, Burgoyne, out of reach from help from Howe, was trapped and forced to surrender his entire army at Saratoga, New York. It was a major turning point militarily and diplomatically. France responded to Burgoyne's defeat by entering the war, openly allying with America and turning the Revolutionary War into a major worldwide war. Washington's loss of Philadelphia prompted some members of Congress to discuss removing Washington from command. This attempt failed after Washington's supporters rallied behind him.

Valley Forge

Washington's army of 11,000 went into winter quarters at Valley Forge north of Philadelphia in December 1777. Over the next six months, the deaths in camp numbered in the thousands (the majority being from disease), with historians' death toll estimates ranging from 2000 to 2500 to over 3000 men. The next spring, however, the army emerged from Valley Forge in good order, thanks in part to a full-scale training program supervised by Baron von Steuben, a veteran of the Prussian general staff. The British evacuated Philadelphia to New York in 1778, shadowed by Washington. Washington attacked them at Monmouth, fighting to an effective draw in one of the war's largest battles. Afterwards, the British continued to head towards New York, and Washington moved his army outside of New York.

Victory at Yorktown

In the summer of 1779 at Washington's direction, General John Sullivan carried out a scorched earth campaign that destroyed at least 40 Iroquois villages in central and upstate New York; the Indians were British allies who had been raiding American settlements on the frontier. In July 1780, 5,000 veteran French troops led by General Comte Donatien de Rochambeau arrived at Newport, Rhode Island to aid in the war effort. The Continental Army having been funded by $20,000 in French gold, Washington delivered the final blow to the British in 1781, after a French naval victory allowed American and French forces to trap a British army in Virginia. The surrender at Yorktown on October 17, 1781, marked the end of major fighting in continental North America.

Demobilization

Washington could not know that after Yorktown the British would not reopen hostilities. They still had 26,000 troops occupying New York City, Charleston and Savannah, together with a powerful fleet. The French army and navy departed, so the Americans were on their own in 1782-83. The treasury was empty, and the unpaid soldiers were growing restive, almost to the point of mutiny or possible coup d'état. Washington dispelled unrest among officers by suppressing the Newburgh Conspiracy in March 1783, and Congress came up with the promise of a five years bonus.

By the Treaty of Paris (signed that September), Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. Washington disbanded his army and, on November 2, gave an eloquent farewell address to his soldiers.

On November 25, the British evacuated New York City, and Washington and the governor took possession. At Fraunces Tavern on December 4, Washington formally bade his officers farewell and on December 23, 1783, he resigned his commission as commander-in-chief. Historian Gordon Wood concludes that the greatest act in his life was his resignation as commander of the armies—an act that stunned aristocratic Europe. King George III called Washington "the greatest character of the age" because of this.

Constitutional Convention (1787)

Washington's retirement to Mount Vernon was short-lived. He made an exploratory trip to the western frontier in 1784, was persuaded to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, and was unanimously elected president of the Convention. He participated little in the debates (though he did vote for or against the various articles), but his high prestige maintained collegiality and kept the delegates at their labors. The delegates designed the presidency with Washington in mind, and allowed him to define the office once elected. After the Convention, his support convinced many to vote for ratification; the new Constitution was ratified by all thirteen states.

Presidency (1789–1797)

The Electoral College elected Washington unanimously as the first president in 1789, and again in the 1792 election; he remains the only president to have received 100 percent of the electoral votes. John Adams, who received the next highest vote total, was elected Vice President. At his inauguration, Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States of America on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York City.

The 1st United States Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 a year—a large sum in 1789. Washington, already wealthy, declined the salary, since he valued his image as a selfless public servant. At the urging of Congress, however, he ultimately accepted the payment, to avoid setting a precedent whereby the presidency would be perceived as limited only to independently wealthy individuals who could serve without any salary. The president, aware that everything he did set a precedent, attended carefully to the pomp and ceremony of office, making sure that the titles and trappings were suitably republican and never emulated European royal courts. To that end, he preferred the title "Mr. President" to the more majestic names suggested.

Washington proved an able administrator. An excellent delegator and judge of talent and character, he talked regularly with department heads and listened to their advice before making a final decision. In handling routine tasks, he was "systematic, orderly, energetic, solicitous of the opinion of others but decisive, intent upon general goals and the consistency of particular actions with them."

Washington reluctantly served a second term. He refused to run for a third, establishing the customary policy of a maximum of two terms for a president.

Domestic issues

Washington was not a member of any political party and hoped that they would not be formed, fearing conflict that would undermine republicanism. His closest advisors formed two factions, setting the framework for the future First Party System. Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton had bold plans to establish the national credit and build a financially powerful nation, and formed the basis of the Federalist Party. Secretary of the State Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Jeffersonian Republicans, strenuously opposed Hamilton's agenda, but Washington typically favored Hamilton over Jefferson, and it was Hamilton's agenda that went into effect. Jefferson's political actions, and his attempt to undermine Hamilton, nearly led George Washington to dismiss Jefferson from his cabinet. Though Jefferson left the cabinet voluntarily, Washington never forgave him, and never spoke to him again.

The Residence Act of 1790, which Washington signed, authorized the President to select the specific location of the permanent seat of the government, which would be located along the Potomac River. The Act authorized the President to appoint three commissioners to survey and acquire property for this seat. Washington personally oversaw this effort throughout his term in office. In 1791, the commissioners named the permanent seat of government "The City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia" to honor Washington. In 1800, the Territory of Columbia became the District of Columbia when the federal government moved to the site according to the provisions of the Residence Act.

In 1791, Congress imposed an excise tax on distilled spirits, which led to protests in frontier districts, especially Pennsylvania. By 1794, after Washington ordered the protesters to appear in U.S. district court, the protests turned into full-scale defiance of federal authority known as the Whiskey Rebellion. The federal army was too small to be used, so Washington invoked the Militia Act of 1792 to summon militias from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey. The governors sent the troops and Washington took command, marching into the rebellious districts. The rebels dispersed and there was no fighting, as Washington's forceful action proved the new government could protect itself. These events marked the first time under the new constitution that the federal government used strong military force to exert authority over the states and citizens.

Foreign affairs

In spring 1793 a major war broke out between conservative Great Britain and its allies and revolutionary France, launching an era of large-scale warfare that engulfed Europe until 1815. Washington, with cabinet approval, proclaimed American neutrality. The revolutionary government of France sent diplomat Edmond-Charles Genêt, called "Citizen Genêt," to America. Genêt was welcomed with great enthusiasm and propagandized the case for France in the French war against Great Britain, and for this purpose promoted a network of new Democratic Societies in major cities. He issued French letters of marque and reprisal to French ships manned by American sailors so they could capture British merchant ships. Washington, warning and mistrustful of the influence of Illuminism that had been so strong in the French Revolution (as recounted by John Robison and Abbé Augustin Barruel) and its Reign of Terror, demanded the French government recall Genêt, and denounced the societies.

Hamilton and Washington designed the Jay Treaty to normalize trade relations with Great Britain, remove them from western forts, and resolve financial debts left over from the Revolution. John Jay negotiated and signed the treaty on November 19, 1794. The Jeffersonians supported France and strongly attacked the treaty. Washington's strong support mobilized public opinion and proved decisive in securing ratification in the Senate by the necessary two-thirds majority. The British agreed to depart from their forts around the Great Lakes, subsequently the U.S.-Canadian boundary had to be re-adjusted, numerous pre-Revolutionary debts were liquidated, and the British opened their West Indies colonies to American trade. Most importantly, the treaty delayed war with Great Britain and instead brought a decade of prosperous trade with Great Britain. The treaty angered the French and became a central issue in many political debates. Relations with France deteriorated after the treaty was signed, leaving his successor, John Adams, with the prospect of war.

Farewell Address

Washington's Farewell Address (issued as a public letter in 1796) was one of the most influential statements of republicanism. Drafted primarily by Washington himself, with help from Hamilton, it gives advice on the necessity and importance of national union, the value of the Constitution and the rule of law, the evils of political parties, and the proper virtues of a republican people. He called morality "a necessary spring of popular government". He said, "Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

Washington's public political address warned against foreign influence in domestic affairs and American meddling in European affairs. He warned against bitter partisanship in domestic politics and called for men to move beyond partisanship and serve the common good. He warned against "permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world", saying the United States must concentrate primarily on American interests. He counseled friendship and commerce with all nations, but warned against involvement in European wars and entering into long-term "entangling" alliances. The address quickly set American values regarding foreign affairs.

Retirement (1797–1799)

After retiring from the presidency in March 1797, Washington returned to Mount Vernon with a profound sense of relief. He devoted much time to farming and other business interests, including his distillery which produced its first batch of spirits in February 1797. As Chernow (2010) explains, his farm operations were at best marginally profitable. The lands out west yielded little income because they were under attack by Indians and the squatters living there refused to pay him rents. However most Americans assumed he was truly rich because of the well-known "glorified façade of wealth and grandeur" at Mount Vernon. Historians estimate his estate was worth about $1 million in 1799 dollars, equivalent to about $18 million in 2009 purchasing power.

By 1798 relations with France had deteriorated to the point that war seemed imminent, and on July 4, 1798, President Adams offered Washington a commission as lieutenant general and Commander-in-chief of the armies raised or to be raised for service in a prospective war. He reluctantly accepted, and served as the senior officer of the United States Army between July 13, 1798, and December 14, 1799. He participated in the planning for a Provisional Army to meet any emergency that might arise, but avoided involvement in details as much as possible, delegating most of the work, including leadership of the army, to Hamilton.

Death

On Thursday December 12, 1799, Washington spent several hours inspecting his farms on horseback, in snow, hail and freezing rain — later that evening eating his supper without changing from his wet clothes. Friday morning, he awoke with a severe sore throat (either quinsy or acute epiglottitis) and became increasingly hoarse as the day progressed. Sometime around 3 am that Saturday morning, he awoke his wife and said he felt ill. Following common medical practice at the time, he was bled; initially by an employee and later again by physicians. "A vein was opened, but no relief afforded. Couriers were dispatched to Dr. Craik, the family, and Drs. Dick and Brown, the consulting physicians, all of whom came with speed. The proper remedies were administered, but without producing their healing effects; while the patient, yielding to the anxious looks of all around him, waived his usual objections to medicines, and took those which were prescribed without hesitation or remark." Washington died at home around 10 pm on Saturday December 14, 1799, aged 67. The last words in his diary were "'Tis well."

Throughout the world, men and women were saddened by Washington's death. Napoleon ordered ten days of mourning throughout France; in the United States, thousands wore mourning clothes for months. To protect their privacy, Martha Washington burned the correspondence between her husband and herself following his death. Only a total of five letters between the couple are known to have survived, two letters from Martha to George and three from George to Martha.

On December 18, 1799, a funeral was held at Mount Vernon, where his body was interred. Congress passed a joint resolution to construct a marble monument in the United States Capitol for his body, supported by Martha. In December 1800, the United States House passed an appropriations bill for $200,000 to build the mausoleum, which was to be a pyramid that had a base square. Southern opposition to the plan defeated the measure because they felt it was best to have his body remain at Mount Vernon.

In 1831, for the centennial of his birth, a new tomb was constructed to receive his remains. That year, an attempt was made to steal the body of Washington, but proved to be unsuccessful. Despite this, a joint Congressional committee in early 1832 debated the removal of Washington's body from Mount Vernon to a crypt in the Capitol, built by Charles Bulfinch in the 1820s. Yet again, Southern opposition proved very intense, antagonized by an ever-growing rift between North and South. Congressman Wiley Thompson of Georgia expressed the fear of Southerners when he said: This ended any talk of the movement of his remains, and he was moved to the new tomb that was constructed there on October 7, 1837, presented by John Struthers of Philadelphia. After the ceremony, the inner vault's door was closed and the key was thrown into the Potomac.

Legacy

Congressman Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, a Revolutionary War comrade, famously eulogized Washington:

Lee's words set the standard by which Washington's overwhelming reputation was impressed upon the American memory. Washington set many precedents for the national government, and the presidency in particular, and was called the "Father of His Country" as early as 1778. Washington's Birthday (celebrated on Presidents' Day), is a federal holiday in the United States.

During the United States Bicentennial year, George Washington was posthumously appointed to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States by the congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 passed on January 19, 1976, with an effective appointment date of July 4, 1976. This restored Washington's position as the highest-ranking military officer in U.S. history.

Cherry tree

Apocryphal stories about Washington's childhood include a claim that he skipped a silver dollar across the Potomac River at Mount Vernon, and that he chopped down his father's cherry tree and admitted the deed when questioned: "I can't tell a lie, Pa." The anecdote was first reported by biographer Parson Weems, who after Washington's death interviewed people who knew him as a child. The Weems version was very widely reprinted throughout the 19th century, for example in McGuffey ''Readers.'' Moralistic adults wanted children to learn moral lessons from the past from history, especially as taught by great national heroes like Washington. After 1890 however, historians insisted on scientific research methods to validate every story, and there was no evidence for this anecdote apart from Weems' report. Joseph Rodman in 1904 noted that Weems plagiarized other Washington tales from published fiction set in England. No one has found an alternative source for the cherry tree story, thus Weems' credibility is questioned.

Monuments and memorials

Starting with victory in their Revolution, there were many proposals to build a monument to Washington. After his death, Congress authorized a suitable memorial in the national capital, but the decision was reversed when the Republicans took control of Congress in 1801. The Republicans were dismayed that Washington had become the symbol of the Federalist Party; furthermore the values of Republicanism seemed hostile to the idea of building monuments to powerful men. Further political squabbling, along with the North-South division on the Civil War, blocked the completion of the Washington Monument until the late 19th century. By that time, Washington had the image of a national hero who could be celebrated by both North and South, and memorials to him were no longer controversial. Predating the obelisk on the National Mall by several decades, the first public memorial to Washington was built by the citizens of Boonsboro, Maryland, in 1827.

Today, Washington's face and image are often used as national symbols of the United States. He appears on contemporary currency, including the one-dollar bill and the quarter coin, and on U.S. postage stamps. Along with appearing on the first postage stamps issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1847, Washington, together with Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Lincoln, is depicted in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial. The Washington Monument, one of the most well known American landmarks, was built in his honor. The George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, was constructed between 1922 and 1932 with voluntary contributions from all 52 local governing bodies of the Freemasons in the United States.

Many places and entities have been named in honor of Washington. Washington's name became that of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., one of two national capitals across the globe to be named after an American president (the other is Monrovia, Liberia). The state of Washington is the only state to be named after a United States President. George Washington University and Washington University in St. Louis were named for him, as was Washington and Lee University (once Washington Academy), which was renamed due to Washington's large endowment in 1796. Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland (established by Maryland state charter in 1782) was supported by Washington during his lifetime with a 50 guineas pledge and with service on the college's Board of Visitors and Governors until 1789 (when Washington was elected President). According to the 1993 US Census, Washington is the 17th most common street name in the United States and the only person's name so honored.

The Confederate Seal prominently featured George Washington on horseback, in the same position as a statue of him in Richmond, Virginia.

London hosts a standing statue of Washington, one of 22 bronze identical replicas. Based on Jean-Antoine Houdon's original marble statue in the Rotunda of the State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, the duplicate was given to the British in 1921 by the Commonwealth of Virginia. It stands in front of the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square.

In space, asteroid 886 Washingtonia is named in his honor.

Papers

The serious collection and publication of Washington's documentary record began with the pioneer work of Jared Sparks in the 1830s, ''Life and Writings of George Washington'' (12 vols., 1834–1837). ''The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799'' (1931–44) is a 37 volume set edited by John C. Fitzpatrick. It contains over 17,000 letters and documents and is available online from the University of Virginia.

The definitive letterpress edition of his writings was begun by the University of Virginia in 1968, and today comprises 52 published volumes, with more to come. It contains everything written by Washington, or signed by him, together with most of his incoming letters. Part of the collection is available online from the University of Virginia.

Personal life

Along with Martha's biological family noted above, George Washington had a close relationship with his nephew and heir Bushrod Washington, son of George's younger brother John Augustine Washington. After his uncle's death, Bushrod became an Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court. George's relationship with his mother, Mary Ball Washington, however, was apparently somewhat difficult and strained.

As a young man, Washington had red hair. A popular myth is that he wore a wig, as was the fashion among some at the time. Washington did not wear a wig; instead, he powdered his hair, as represented in several portraits, including the well-known unfinished Gilbert Stuart depiction.

Washington had unusually great physical strength that amazed younger men. While the story of him throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac River is untrue, he did throw a rock to the top of the 215 feet-tall Natural Bridge. Jefferson called Washington "the best horseman of his age", and both American and European observers praised his riding; the horsemanship benefited his hunting, a favorite hobby. Washington was an excellent dancer and frequently attended the theater, often referencing Shakespeare in letters. He drank in moderation and precisely recorded gambling wins and losses, but Washington disliked the excessive drinking, gambling, smoking, and profanity that was common in colonial Virginia. Although he grew tobacco he eventually stopped smoking, and considered drunkenness a man's worst vice; Washington was glad that post-Revolutionary Virginia society was less likely to "force [guests] to drink and to make it an honor to send them home drunk."

Washington suffered from problems with his teeth throughout his life. He lost his first adult tooth when he was twenty-two and had only one left by the time he became President. John Adams claims he lost them because he used them to crack Brazil nuts but modern historians suggest the mercury oxide, which he was given to treat illnesses such as smallpox and malaria, probably contributed to the loss. He had several sets of false teeth made, four of them by a dentist named John Greenwood. Contrary to popular belief, none of the sets were made from wood. The set made when he became President was carved from hippopotamus and elephant ivory, held together with gold springs. The hippo ivory was used for the plate, into which human teeth (quite possibly from slaves) and bits of horses' and donkeys' teeth were inserted. Dental problems left Washington in constant pain, for which he took laudanum. This distress may be apparent in many of the portraits painted while he was still in office,

On the death of his father in 1743, the 11-year-old inherited 10 slaves. At the time of his marriage to Martha Custis in 1759, he personally owned at least 36 (and the widow's third of her first husband's estate brought at least 85 "dower slaves" to Mount Vernon). Using his wife's great wealth he bought land, tripling the size of the plantation, and additional slaves to farm it. By 1774, he paid taxes on 135 slaves (this does not include the "dowers"). The last record of a slave purchase by him was in 1772, although he later received some slaves in repayment of debts. Washington also used some hired staff and white indentured servants; in April 1775, he offered a reward for the return of two runaway white servants.

One historian claims that Washington desired the material benefits from owning slaves and wanted to give his wife's family a wealthy inheritance. Before the American Revolution, Washington expressed no moral reservations about slavery, but in 1786, Washington wrote to Robert Morris, saying, "There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery." In 1779, he told his manager at Mount Vernon that he wished to sell his slaves when the war ended, if it ended in an American victory. Maintaining a large, and increasingly elderly, slave population at Mount Vernon was not economically profitable. Washington could not legally sell the "dower slaves," however, and because these slaves had long intermarried with his own slaves, he could not sell his slaves without breaking up families.

As president, Washington brought seven slaves to New York City in 1789 to work in the first presidential household. Following the transfer of the national capital to Philadelphia in 1790, he brought nine slaves to work in the President's House. At the time of his death, there were 317 slaves at Mount Vernon– 123 owned by Washington, 154 "dower slaves," and 40 rented from a neighbor. Dorothy Twohig argues that Washington did not speak out publicly against slavery, because he did not wish to create a split in the new republic, with an issue that was sensitive and divisive.

By 1794 as he contemplated retirement Washington began organizing his affairs so that he could free all the slaves he owned outright in his will. He did so. His will provided they be freed when Martha died, but she freed them 12 months after his death. Chernow says, "By freeing his slaves Washington accomplished....what no other founding father dared to do. He brought the American experience that much closer to the ideals of the American revolution."

Religion

Washington was an outspoken leader in calling for religious liberty and tolerance, and used his prestige as general and president to promote good will among Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. He sought to create a national ethos that would enable every American to, in his paraphrase of the Book of Micah, "sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid." In private and in public he strongly rejected any sign of intolerance, prejudice, and "every species of religious persecution", while hoping that "bigotry and superstition" would be overcome by "truth and reason" in the United States.

In Virginia, Washington was a member of the Anglican Church, which had 'established status' (meaning tax money was used to pay its minister). As a leading land owner he served on the vestry (governing board) for Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia and for Pohick Church near his Mount Vernon home until the war began. The parish was the unit of local government and the vestry dealt mostly with civic affairs such as roads and poor relief.

According to historian Paul F. Boller Jr., "Washington was in fact a typical 18th-century deist." Boller finds that "Washington seems to have had the characteristic unconcern of the eighteenth-century Deist for the forms and creeds of institutional religion. He had, moreover, the strong aversion of the upper-class Deist for sectarian quarrels that threatened to upset the 'peace of Society'." Washington never made attempts to personalize his own religious views or express any appeal to the aesthetic side of biblical passages. Boller states that Washington's "allusions to religion are almost totally lacking in depths of feeling." In philosophical terms, he admired and adopted the Stoic philosophy of the ancient Romans, which emphasized virtue and humanitarianism and was highly compatible with Deism. Historian Patrick Allitt characterized Washington's religious views as "lukewarm", and said "he went through the motions but he clearly wasn't a man of particular piety or devotion."

In a letter to George Mason in 1785, Washington wrote that he was not among those alarmed by a bill "making people pay towards the support of that [religion] which they profess," but felt that it was "impolitic" to pass such a measure, and wished it had never been proposed, believing that it would disturb public tranquility.

Washington frequently accompanied his wife to church services. Although there are third-hand reports that he took communion, he is usually characterized as never or rarely participating in the rite. He would regularly leave services before communion with the other non-communicants (as was the custom of the day), until, after being admonished by a rector, he ceased attending at all on communion Sundays. As president he made a point of being seen attending services at numerous churches, including Presbyterian, Quaker, Congregational and Catholic. As president he officially saluted 22 religious groups and proclaimed his general support for religion. Washington was known for his generosity. Highly gregarious, he attended many charity events and donated money to colleges, schools and to the poor. As Philadelphia's leading citizen, President Washington took the lead in providing charity to widows and orphans hit by the yellow fever epidemic that devastated the capital city in 1793.

Freemasonry

Washington was initiated into Freemasonry in 1752. Washington had a high regard for the Masonic Order and often praised it, but he seldom attended lodge meetings. He was attracted by the movement's dedication to Enlightenment principles of rationality, reason and fraternalism; the American lodges did not share the anti-clerical perspective that made the European lodges so controversial.

See also

1932 Washington Bicentennial

Historical rankings of Presidents of the United States

List of federal judges appointed by George Washington

List of Presidents of the United States, sortable by previous experience

Old Style and New Style dates

Town Destroyer, a nickname given to Washington by the Iroquois

Washington Monument State Park

US Presidents on US postage stamps

Notes

References

Sources used

For a bibliography see George Washington bibliography

Buchanan, John. ''The Road to Valley Forge: How Washington Built the Army That Won the Revolution'' (2004). 368 pp.

Burns, James MacGregor and Dunn, Susan. ''George Washington.'' Times, 2004. 185 pp. explore leadership style

Cunliffe, Marcus. ''George Washington: Man and Monument'' (1958), explores both the biography and the myth

Ferling, John E. ''The First of Men: A Life of George Washington'' (1989). Biography from a leading scholar.

Fischer, David Hackett. ''Washington's Crossing.'' (2004), prize-winning military history focused on 1776–1777.

Flexner, James Thomas. ''Washington: The Indispensable Man.'' (1974). ISBN 978-0-316-28616-9 (1994 reissue). Single-volume condensation of Flexner's popular four-volume biography.

Freeman, Douglas S. ''George Washington: A Biography''. 7 volumes (1948–1957). New York: Scribner. . The standard scholarly biography, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Freeman, Douglas S. and Harwell, Richard. ''Washington'' (1968). New York: Scribner. . Abridgement of Freeman's multivolume biography.

Grizzard, Frank E., Jr. ''George Washington: A Biographical Companion.'' ABC-CLIO, 2002. 436 pp.  Comprehensive encyclopedia; Grizzard was Senior Associate Editor of ''The Papers of George Washington''

Grizzard, Frank E., Jr. ''The Ways of Providence: Religion and George Washington.'' Buena Vista and Charlottesville, VA: Mariner Publishing. 2005. ISBN 978-0-9768238-1-0.

Grizzard, Frank E., Jr. ''George! A Guide to All Things Washington.'' Buena Vista and Charlottesville, VA: Mariner Publishing. 2005. ISBN 978-0-9768238-0-3.

Higginbotham, Don, ed. ''George Washington Reconsidered''. University Press of Virginia, (2001). 336 pp of essays by scholars

Higginbotham, Don. "The Washington Theme in Recent Historical Literature," ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography,'' Volume 114, Number 3 (July, 1990), 423-438 online edition

Higginbotham, Don. ''George Washington: Uniting a Nation.'' Rowman & Littlefield, (2002). 175 pp.

Hirschfeld, Fritz. ''George Washington and Slavery: A Documentary Portrayal''. University of Missouri Press, 1997.

Hofstra, Warren R., ed. ''George Washington and the Virginia Backcountry''. Madison House, 1998. Essays on Washington's formative years.

Ketchum, Richard. ''The Winter Soldiers: The Battles for Trenton and Princeton.'' Holt Paperbacks; 1st Owl books ed edition, 1999. ISBN 978-0-8050-6098-0.

LaBan, Craig. ''Hercules: Master of cuisine, slave of Washington''. Philly.Com(Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News). 2010-02-21.Hercules: Master of cuisine, slave of Washington

Laban, Craig. ''A birthday shock from Hercules''. Philly.Com(The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News). 2010-02-22. A birthday shock from Washington's chef

Lengel, Edward G. ''General George Washington: A Military Life.'' New York: Random House, 2005. ISBN 978-1-4000-6081-8.

Lodge, Henry Cabot. ''George Washington,'' 2 vols. (1889), old fashioned biography vol 1 at Gutenberg; vol 2 at Gutenberg

McDonald, Forrest. ''The Presidency of George Washington''. 1988. Intellectual history showing Washington as exemplar of republicanism.

Smith, Richard Norton ''Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation'' (1997) Focuses on last 10 years of Washington's life. excerpt and text search

Spalding, Matthew. "George Washington's Farewell Address", ''The Wilson Quarterly'' v20#4 (Autumn 1996) pp: 65+.

Vadakan, Vibul V., M.D. "A Physician Looks At The Death of Washington", ''The Early America Review'' Vol VI, #1(Winter/Spring 2005) A Physician Looks At The Death of Washington

Wallenborn, White McKenzie, M.D. ''George Washington's Terminal Illness:A Modern Medical Analysis of the Last illness and Death of George Washington''.Washington's Terminal Illness

Wiencek, Henry. ''An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America''. (2003).

External links

George Washington Resources from the University of Virginia

George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens

* ''Discover the Real George Washington'' a traveling exhibit

George Washington from the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia

Washington's Commission as Commander in Chief from the Library of Congress

George Washington Birthplace National Monument from the National Park Service

Painting of John Gano Baptizing George Washington

A biography at the Mount Vernon museum website

A biography at the Biography Channel website

Rediscovering George Washington, a PBS documentary & online information source

Wills of George & Martha Washington

Category:1732 births Category:1799 deaths Category:18th-century American Episcopalians Category:18th-century Anglicans Category:American Episcopalians Category:American farmers Category:American foreign policy writers Category:American people of English descent Category:American planters Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats Category:British America army officers Category:Chancellors of the College of William & Mary Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Continental Army generals Category:Continental Army officers from Virginia Category:Continental Congressmen from Virginia Category:Deaths from asphyxiation Category:George Washington Category:House of Burgesses members Category:Members of the Society of the Cincinnati Category:People from Westmoreland County, Virginia Category:People of Virginia in the American Revolution Category:People of Virginia in the French and Indian War Category:Presidents of the United States Category:Recipients of a posthumous promotion Category:Signers of the United States Constitution Category:United States presidential candidates, 1789 Category:United States presidential candidates, 1792 Category:United States presidential candidates, 1796 Category:Virginia colonial people Category:Washington and Lee University people Category:Washington College people Category:Washington family Category:United States Army generals Category:Virginia militiamen in the American Revolution

af:George Washington am:ጆርጅ ዋሽንግተን ang:George Washington ar:جورج واشنطن an:George Washington arc:ܓܘܪܓ ܘܐܫܝܢܓܛܘܢ ast:George Washington ay:George Washington az:Corc Vaşinqton bn:জর্জ ওয়াশিংটন zh-min-nan:George Washington ba:Джордж Вашингтон be:Джордж Вашынгтон be-x-old:Джордж Вашынгтон bcl:George Washington bar:George Washington bs:George Washington br:George Washington bg:Джордж Вашингтон ca:George Washington ceb:George Washington cs:George Washington co:George Washington cy:George Washington da:George Washington de:George Washington dv:ޖޯޖް ވޮޝިންގޓަން et:George Washington el:Τζορτζ Ουάσινγκτον es:George Washington eo:George Washington eu:George Washington fa:جورج واشنگتن hif:George Washington fo:George Washington fr:George Washington fy:George Washington ga:George Washington gd:Seòras Washington gl:George Washington gan:喬治·華盛頓 ko:조지 워싱턴 hy:Ջորջ Վաշինգտոն hi:जार्ज वाशिंगटन hr:George Washington io:George Washington ilo:George Washington id:George Washington is:George Washington it:George Washington he:ג'ורג' וושינגטון jv:George Washington kn:ಜಾರ್ಜ್ ವಾಷಿಂಗ್ಟನ್ pam:George Washington ka:ჯორჯ ვაშინგტონი kk:Джордж Уошингтон kw:George Washington rw:George Washington sw:George Washington ku:George Washington la:Georgius Washingtonius lv:Džordžs Vašingtons lb:George Washington lt:George Washington hu:George Washington mk:Џорџ Вашингтон mg:George Washington ml:ജോർജ് വാഷിംഗ്ടൺ mi:George Washington mr:जॉर्ज वॉशिंग्टन arz:جورج واشينطون mzn:جورج واشنگتن ms:George Washington mn:Жорж Вашингтон my:ဝါရှင်တန်, ဂျော့ချ် nah:George Washington nl:George Washington (president) ne:जर्ज वासिङ्टन ja:ジョージ・ワシントン no:George Washington nn:George Washington oc:George Washington uz:George Washington pnb:جارج واشنگٹن pap:George Washington nds:George Washington pl:George Washington pt:George Washington ksh:George Washington ro:George Washington qu:George Washington rue:Джордж Вашінґтон ru:Вашингтон, Джордж sa:जार्ज वाशिंगटन sco:George Washington sq:George Washington scn:George Washington simple:George Washington sk:George Washington sl:George Washington ckb:جۆرج واشێنگتن sr:Џорџ Вашингтон sh:George Washington fi:George Washington sv:George Washington tl:George Washington ta:சியார்ச் வாசிங்டன் tt:Джордж Вашингтон te:జార్జి వాషింగ్టన్ th:จอร์จ วอชิงตัน tg:Ҷорҷ Вашингтон tr:George Washington uk:Джордж Вашингтон ur:جارج واشنگٹن ug:گېئورگى ۋاشىنگتون vi:George Washington zh-classical:華盛頓 war:George Washington yi:דזשארזש וואשינגטאן yo:George Washington zh-yue:佐治華盛頓 bat-smg:Džuordžos Vašėngtuons zh:乔治·华盛顿

Region	Western philosophy
Era	20th / 21st-century philosophy
Color	#B0C4DE
Name	Noam Chomsky
Other names	Avram Noam Chomsky
Birth date	December 07, 1928
Birth place	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania (BA 1949, MA 1951, PhD 1955)
School tradition	Generative linguistics, Analytic philosophy
Main interests	Linguistics PsychologyPhilosophy of languagePhilosophy of mind Politics Ethics
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania
Religion	Atheist
Notable ideas	Generative grammar, universal grammar, transformational grammar, government and binding, X-bar theory, Chomsky hierarchy, context-free grammar, principles and parameters, Minimalist program, language acquisition device, poverty of the stimulus, Chomsky–Schützenberger theorem, Chomsky Normal Form, propaganda model
Influences	Dwight Macdonald, Pāṇini, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, John Dewey, Mikhail Bakunin, Karl Marx, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Adam Smith, Zellig Harris, Rudolf Rocker, Immanuel Kant, René Descartes, George Orwell, C. West Churchman, Alan Turing, W. V. O. Quine
Influenced	Niall McLaren, Colin McGinn, Edward Said, Christopher Hitchens, Steven Pinker, Peter Ludlow, Tanya Reinhart, Morris Halle, Gilbert Harman, Jerry Fodor, Howard Lasnik, Robert Fisk, Neil Smith, Ray Jackendoff, Norbert Hornstein, Jean Bricmont, Marc Hauser, Norman Finkelstein, Robert Lees, Hugo Chavez, Mark Baker, Julian Boyd, Ray C. Dougherty, Derek Bickerton, Amy Goodman, Michael Albert }}

Avram Noam Chomsky (; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and a major figure of analytic philosophy. His work has influenced fields such as computer science, mathematics, and psychology.

Chomsky is credited as the creator or co-creator of the Chomsky hierarchy, the universal grammar theory, and the Chomsky–Schützenberger theorem.

Ideologically identifying with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism, Chomsky is known for his critiques of U.S. foreign policy and contemporary capitalism, and he has been described as a prominent cultural figure. His media criticism has included ''Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media'' (1988), co-written with Edward S. Herman, an analysis articulating the propaganda model theory for examining the media.

According to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index in 1992, Chomsky was cited as a source more often than any other living scholar from 1980 to 1992, and was the eighth most cited source overall. Chomsky is the author of over 100 books.

Life and career

Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928, to Jewish parents in the affluent East Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the elder son of noted professor of Hebrew at Gratz College and IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) member William Chomsky (1896–1977), a native of Ukraine. His mother, Elsie Chomsky (née Simonofsky)—a native of what is present-day Belarus—grew up in the United States and, unlike her husband, spoke "ordinary New York English". Chomsky's parents' first language was Yiddish, but Chomsky said it was "taboo" in his family to speak it. Although Chomsky's mother was part of the radical activism in the 1930s, he was influenced largely by his uncle who, having never passed 4th grade, owned a newsstand that acted as an "intellectual center [where] professors of this and that argu[ed] all night". Chomsky was influenced also by being a part of a Hebrew-based, Zionist organization, as well as by hanging around anarchist bookstores.

He describes his family as living in a sort of "Jewish ghetto", split into a "Yiddish side" and "Hebrew side", with his family aligning with the latter and bringing him up "immersed in Hebrew culture and literature", though he means more a "cultural ghetto than a physical one". Chomsky also describes tensions he experienced with Irish Catholics and German Catholics and anti-semitism in the mid-1930s. He recalls "beer parties" celebrating the fall of Paris to the Nazis. In a discussion of the irony of his staying in the 1980s in a Jesuit House in Central America, Chomsky explained that during his childhood, "We were the only Jewish family around. I grew up with a visceral fear of Catholics. They're the people who beat you up on your way to school. So I knew when they came out of that building down the street, which was the Jesuit school, they were raving anti-Semites. So childhood memories took a long time to overcome."

Chomsky remembers the first article he wrote was at age 10 while a student at Oak Lane Country Day School about the threat of the spread of fascism, following the fall of Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War. From the age of 12 or 13, he identified more fully with anarchist politics.

A graduate of Central High School of Philadelphia, Chomsky began studying philosophy and linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945, taking classes with philosophers such as C. West Churchman and Nelson Goodman and linguist Zellig Harris. Harris's teaching included his discovery of transformations as a mathematical analysis of language structure (mappings from one subset to another in the set of sentences). Chomsky referred to the morphophonemic rules in his 1951 master's thesis—''The Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew''—as transformations in the sense of Carnap's 1938 notion of rules of transformation (vs. rules of formation), and subsequently reinterpreted the notion of grammatical transformations in a very different way from Harris, as operations on the productions of a context-free grammar (derived from Post production systems). Harris's political views were instrumental in shaping those of Chomsky. Chomsky earned a BA in 1949 and an MA in 1951.

In 1949, he married linguist Carol Schatz. They remained married for 59 years until her death from cancer in December 2008. The couple had two daughters, Aviva (b. 1957) and Diane (b. 1960), and a son, Harry (b. 1967). With his wife Carol, Chomsky spent time in 1953 living in HaZore'a, a kibbutz in Israel. Asked in an interview whether the stay was "a disappointment" Chomsky replied, "No, I loved it"; however, he "couldn't stand the ideological atmosphere" and "fervent nationalism" in the early 1950s at the kibbutz, with Stalin being defended by many of the left-leaning kibbutz members who chose to paint a rosy image of future possibilities and contemporary realities in the USSR. Chomsky notes seeing many positive elements in the commune-like living of the kibbutz, in which parents and children lived together in separate houses, and when asked whether there were "lessons that we have learned from the history of the kibbutz", responded, that in "some respects, the kibbutzim came closer to the anarchist ideal than any other attempt that lasted for more than a very brief moment before destruction, or that was on anything like a similar scale. In these respects, I think they were extremely attractive and successful; apart from personal accident, I probably would have lived there myself – for how long, it's hard to guess."

Chomsky received his PhD in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955. He conducted part of his doctoral research during four years at Harvard University as a Harvard Junior Fellow. In his doctoral thesis, he began to develop some of his linguistic ideas, elaborating on them in his 1957 book ''Syntactic Structures'', one of his best-known works in linguistics.

Chomsky joined the staff of MIT in 1955 and in 1961 was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (now the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy). From 1966 to 1976 he held the Ferrari P. Ward Professorship of Modern Languages and Linguistics, and in 1976 he was appointed Institute Professor. As of 2010, Chomsky has taught at MIT continuously for 55 years.

In February 1967, Chomsky became one of the leading opponents of the Vietnam War with the publication of his essay, "The Responsibility of Intellectuals", in ''The New York Review of Books''. This was followed by his 1969 book, ''American Power and the New Mandarins,'' a collection of essays that established him at the forefront of American dissent. His far-reaching criticisms of U.S. foreign policy and the legitimacy of U.S. power have raised controversy he is frequently sought out for his views by publications and news outlets internationally. In 1977 he delivered the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden, the Netherlands, under the title: ''Intellectuals and the State''.

Chomsky has received death threats because of his criticisms of U.S. foreign policy. He was also on a list of planned targets created by Theodore Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber; during the period that Kaczynski was at large, Chomsky had all of his mail checked for explosives. He states that he often receives undercover police protection, in particular while on the MIT campus, although he does not agree with the police protection.

Chomsky resides in Lexington, Massachusetts, and travels often, giving lectures on politics.

Thought

Linguistics

Chomskyan linguistics, beginning with his ''Syntactic Structures'', a distillation of his '' Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory'' (1955, 75), challenges structural linguistics and introduces transformational grammar. This approach takes utterances (sequences of words) to have a syntax characterized by a formal grammar; in particular, a context-free grammar extended with transformational rules.

Perhaps his most influential and time-tested contribution to the field, is the claim that modeling knowledge of language using a formal grammar accounts for the "productivity" or "creativity" of language. In other words, a formal grammar of a language can explain the ability of a hearer-speaker to produce and interpret an infinite number of utterances, including novel ones, with a limited set of grammatical rules and a finite set of terms. He has always acknowledged his debt to Pāṇini for his modern notion of an explicit generative grammar although it is also related to rationalist ideas of a priori knowledge.

It is a popular misconception that Chomsky proved that language is entirely innate and discovered a "universal grammar" (UG). In fact, Chomsky simply observed that while a human baby and a kitten are both capable of inductive reasoning, if they are exposed to exactly the same linguistic data, the human child will always acquire the ability to understand and produce language, while the kitten will never acquire either ability. Chomsky labeled whatever the relevant capacity the human has which the cat lacks the "language acquisition device" (LAD) and suggested that one of the tasks for linguistics should be to figure out what the LAD is and what constraints it puts on the range of possible human languages. The universal features that would result from these constraints are often termed "universal grammar" or UG.

The Principles and Parameters approach (P&P;)—developed in his Pisa 1979 Lectures, later published as ''Lectures on Government and Binding'' (LGB)—makes strong claims regarding universal grammar: that the grammatical principles underlying languages are innate and fixed, and the differences among the world's languages can be characterized in terms of parameter settings in the brain (such as the pro-drop parameter, which indicates whether an explicit subject is always required, as in English, or can be optionally dropped, as in Spanish), which are often likened to switches. (Hence the term principles and parameters, often given to this approach.) In this view, a child learning a language need only acquire the necessary lexical items (words, grammatical morphemes, and idioms), and determine the appropriate parameter settings, which can be done based on a few key examples.

Proponents of this view argue that the pace at which children learn languages is inexplicably rapid, unless children have an innate ability to learn languages. The similar steps followed by children all across the world when learning languages, and the fact that children make certain characteristic errors as they learn their first language, whereas other seemingly logical kinds of errors never occur (and, according to Chomsky, should be attested if a purely general, rather than language-specific, learning mechanism were being employed), are also pointed to as motivation for innateness.

More recently, in his Minimalist Program (1995), while retaining the core concept of "principles and parameters," Chomsky attempts a major overhaul of the linguistic machinery involved in the LGB model, stripping from it all but the barest necessary elements, while advocating a general approach to the architecture of the human language faculty that emphasizes principles of economy and optimal design, reverting to a derivational approach to generation, in contrast with the largely representational approach of classic P&P.;

Chomsky's ideas have had a strong influence on researchers of the language acquisition in children, though many researchers in this area such as Elizabeth Bates and Michael Tomasello argue very strongly against Chomsky's theories, and instead advocate emergentist or connectionist theories, explaining language with a number of general processing mechanisms in the brain that interact with the extensive and complex social environment in which language is used and learned.

His best-known work in phonology is ''The Sound Pattern of English'' (1968), written with Morris Halle (and often known as simply ''SPE''). This work has had a great significance for the development in the field. While phonological theory has since moved beyond "SPE phonology" in many important respects, the SPE system is considered the precursor of some of the most influential phonological theories today, including autosegmental phonology, lexical phonology and optimality theory. Chomsky no longer publishes on phonology.

Generative grammar

The Chomskyan approach towards syntax, often termed generative grammar, studies grammar as a body of knowledge possessed by language users. Since the 1960s, Chomsky has maintained that much of this knowledge is innate, implying that children need only learn certain parochial features of their native languages. The innate body of linguistic knowledge is often termed universal grammar. From Chomsky's perspective, the strongest evidence for the existence of Universal Grammar is simply the fact that children successfully acquire their native languages in so little time. Furthermore, he argues that there is an enormous gap between the linguistic stimuli to which children are exposed and the rich linguistic knowledge they attain (the "poverty of the stimulus" argument). The knowledge of Universal Grammar would serve to bridge that gap.

Chomsky's theories have been immensely influential within linguistics, but they have also received criticism. One recurring criticism of the Chomskyan variety of generative grammar is that it is Anglocentric and Eurocentric, and that often linguists working in this tradition have a tendency to base claims about Universal Grammar on a very small sample of languages, sometimes just one. Initially, the Eurocentrism was exhibited in an overemphasis on the study of English. However, hundreds of different languages have now received at least some attention within Chomskyan linguistic analyses. In spite of the diversity of languages that have been characterized by UG derivations, critics continue to argue that the formalisms within Chomskyan linguistics are Anglocentric and misrepresent the properties of languages that are different from English. Thus, Chomsky's approach has been criticized as a form of linguistic imperialism. In addition, Chomskyan linguists rely heavily on the intuitions of native speakers regarding which sentences of their languages are well-formed. This practice has been criticized on general methodological grounds. Some psychologists and psycholinguists, though sympathetic to Chomsky's overall program, have argued that Chomskyan linguists pay insufficient attention to experimental data from language processing, with the consequence that their theories are not psychologically plausible. Other critics (see language learning) have questioned whether it is necessary to posit Universal Grammar to explain child language acquisition, arguing that domain-general learning mechanisms are sufficient.

Today there are many different branches of generative grammar; one can view grammatical frameworks such as head-driven phrase structure grammar, lexical functional grammar and combinatory categorial grammar as broadly Chomskyan and generative in orientation, but with significant differences in execution.

Chomsky hierarchy

Chomsky is famous for investigating various kinds of formal languages and whether or not they might be capable of capturing key properties of human language. His Chomsky hierarchy partitions formal grammars into classes, or groups, with increasing expressive power, i.e., each successive class can generate a broader set of formal languages than the one before. Interestingly, Chomsky argues that modeling some aspects of human language requires a more complex formal grammar (as measured by the Chomsky hierarchy) than modeling others. For example, while a regular language is powerful enough to model English morphology, it is not powerful enough to model English syntax. In addition to being relevant in linguistics, the Chomsky hierarchy has also become important in computer science (especially in compiler construction and automata theory). Indeed, there is an equivalence between the Chomsky language hierarchy and the different kinds of automata. Thus theorems about languages are often dealt with as either languages (grammars) or automata.

An alternate method of dealing with languages is based upon Formal Power series. Formal Power series as well as the relationship between languages and semi-groups continued to occupy M. P. Schützenberger at the Sorbonne. Formal Power Series are similar to the Taylor Series one encounters in a course on Calculus, and is especially useful for languages where words (terminal symbols) are commutative.

Politics

Chomsky has stated that his "personal visions are fairly traditional anarchist ones, with origins in the Enlightenment and classical liberalism" and he has praised libertarian socialism. Although Chomsky tries to avoid the ambiguity of labels, his political views are often characterized in news accounts as "leftist" or "left-wing," and he has described himself as an anarcho-syndicalist. He is a member of the Campaign for Peace and Democracy and the Industrial Workers of the World international union. He published a book on anarchism titled ''Chomsky on Anarchism'', published by the anarchist book collective AK Press in 2006.

Chomsky has engaged in political activism all of his adult life and expressed opinions on politics and world events, which are widely cited, publicized and discussed. Chomsky has in turn argued that his views are those the powerful do not want to hear and for this reason he is considered an American political dissident.

Chomsky asserts that authority, unless justified, is inherently illegitimate and that the burden of proof is on those in authority. If this burden can't be met, the authority in question should be dismantled. Authority for its own sake is inherently unjustified. An example given by Chomsky of a legitimate authority is that exerted by an adult to prevent a young child from wandering into traffic. He contends that there is little moral difference between chattel slavery and renting one's self to an owner or "wage slavery". He feels that it is an attack on personal integrity that undermines individual freedom. He holds that workers should own and control their workplace, a view held (as he notes) by the Lowell Mill Girls.

Chomsky has strongly criticized the foreign policy of the United States. He claims double standards in a foreign policy preaching democracy and freedom for all while allying itself with non-democratic and repressive organizations and states such as Chile under Augusto Pinochet and argues that this results in massive human rights violations. He often argues that America's intervention in foreign nations, including the secret aid given to the Contras in Nicaragua, an event of which he has been very critical, fits any standard description of terrorism, including "official definitions in the US Code and Army Manuals in the early 1980s." Before its collapse, Chomsky also condemned Soviet imperialism; for example in 1986 during a question/answer following a lecture he gave at Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua, when challenged about how he could "talk about North American imperialism and Russian imperialism in the same breath," Chomsky responded: "One of the truths about the world is that there are two superpowers, one a huge power which happens to have its boot on your neck; another, a smaller power which happens to have its boot on other people's necks. I think that anyone in the Third World would be making a grave error if they succumbed to illusions about these matters."

Regarding the death of Osama bin Laden, Chomsky stated: "We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush's compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden’s, and he is not a 'suspect' but uncontroversially the 'decider' who gave the orders to commit the 'supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole' (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, [and] the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region."

He has argued that the mass media in the United States largely serve as a "bought priesthood" of the U.S. government and U.S.-based corporations, with the three intertwined through common interests. In a famous reference to Walter Lippmann, Chomsky along with his coauthor Edward S. Herman has written that the American media manufactures consent among the public. Chomsky has condemned the 2010 US Supreme Court ''Citizens United'' ruling revoking the limits on campaign finance, calling it a "corporate takeover of democracy."

Chomsky opposes the U.S. global "war on drugs", claiming its language is misleading, and refers to it as "the war on certain drugs." He favors drug policy reform, in education and prevention rather than military or police action as a means of reducing drug use. In an interview in 1999, Chomsky argued that, whereas crops such as tobacco receive no mention in governmental exposition, other non-profitable crops, such as marijuana are attacked because of the effect achieved by persecuting the poor. He has stated:

U.S. domestic drug policy does not carry out its stated goals, and policymakers are well aware of that. If it isn't about reducing substance abuse, what is it about? It is reasonably clear, both from current actions and the historical record, that substances tend to be criminalized when they are associated with the so-called dangerous classes, that the criminalization of certain substances is a technique of social control.

Chomsky is critical of the American "state capitalist" system and big business, he describes himself as a socialist, specifically an anarcho-syndicalist, and is critical of "authoritarian" communist branches of socialism. He also believes that socialist values exemplify the rational and morally consistent extension of original unreconstructed classical liberal and radical humanist ideas to an industrial context. He believes that society should be highly organized and based on democratic control of communities and work places. He believes that the radical humanist ideas of his two major influences, Bertrand Russell and John Dewey, were "rooted in the Enlightenment and classical liberalism, and retain their revolutionary character."

Chomsky has stated that he believes the United States remains the "greatest country in the world", a comment that he later clarified by saying, "Evaluating countries is senseless and I would never put things in those terms, but that some of America's advances, particularly in the area of free speech, that have been achieved by centuries of popular struggle, are to be admired." He has also said "In many respects, the United States is the freest country in the world. I don't just mean in terms of limits on state coercion, though that's true too, but also in terms of individual relations. The United States comes closer to classlessness in terms of interpersonal relations than virtually any society."

Chomsky objects to the criticism that anarchism is inconsistent with support for government welfare, stating in part:

One can, of course, take the position that we don't care about the problems people face today, and want to think about a possible tomorrow. OK, but then don't pretend to have any interest in human beings and their fate, and stay in the seminar room and intellectual coffee house with other privileged people. Or one can take a much more humane position: I want to work, today, to build a better society for tomorrow – the classical anarchist position, quite different from the slogans in the question. That's exactly right, and it leads directly to support for the people facing problems today: for enforcement of health and safety regulation, provision of national health insurance, support systems for people who need them, etc. That is not a sufficient condition for organizing for a different and better future, but it is a necessary condition. Anything else will receive the well-merited contempt of people who do not have the luxury to disregard the circumstances in which they live, and try to survive.

Chomsky holds views that can be summarized as anti-war but not strictly pacifist. He prominently opposed the Vietnam War and most other wars in his lifetime. He expressed these views with tax resistance and peace walks. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. He published a number of articles about the war in Vietnam, including "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". He maintains that U.S. involvement in World War II to defeat the Axis powers was probably justified, with the caveat that a preferable outcome would have been to end or prevent the war through earlier diplomacy. He believes that the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were "among the most unspeakable crimes in history".

Chomsky has made many criticisms of the Israeli government, its supporters, the United States' support of the government and its treatment of the Palestinian people, arguing that " 'supporters of Israel' are in reality supporters of its moral degeneration and probable ultimate destruction" and that "Israel's very clear choice of expansion over security may well lead to that consequence." Chomsky disagreed with the founding of Israel as a Jewish state, saying, "I don't think a Jewish or Christian or Islamic state is a proper concept. I would object to the United States as a Christian state." Chomsky hesitated before publishing work critical of Israeli policies while his parents were alive, because he "knew it would hurt them" he says, "mostly because of their friends, who reacted hysterically to views like those expressed in my work." On May 16, 2010, Israeli authorities detained Chomsky and ultimately refused his entry to the West Bank via Jordan. A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister indicated that the refusal of entry was simply due to a border guard who "overstepped his authority" and a second attempt to enter would likely be allowed. Chomsky disagreed, saying that the Interior Ministry official who interviewed him was taking instructions from his superiors. Chomsky maintained that based on the several hours of interviewing, he was denied entry because of the things he says and because he was visiting a university in the West Bank but no Israeli universities.

Chomsky has a broad view of free-speech rights, especially in the mass media, and opposes censorship. He has stated that "with regard to freedom of speech there are basically two positions: you defend it vigorously for views you hate, or you reject it and prefer Stalinist/fascist standards". With reference to the United States diplomatic cables leak, Chomsky suggested that "perhaps the most dramatic revelation ... is the bitter hatred of democracy that is revealed both by the U.S. Government -- Hillary Clinton, others -- and also by the diplomatic service." Chomsky refuses to take legal action against those who may have libeled him and prefers to counter libels through open letters in newspapers. One notable example of this approach is his response to an article by Emma Brockes in ''The Guardian'' which alleged he denied the existence of the Srebrenica massacre. Chomsky's complaint prompted The Guardian to publish an apologetic correction and to withdraw the article from the paper's website.

Chomsky has frequently stated that there is no connection between his work in linguistics and his political views and is generally critical of the idea that competent discussion of political topics requires expert knowledge in academic fields. In a 1969 interview, he said regarding the connection between his politics and his work in linguistics:

I still feel myself that there is a kind of tenuous connection. I would not want to overstate it but I think it means something to me at least. I think that anyone's political ideas or their ideas of social organization must be rooted ultimately in some concept of human nature and human needs.

Some critics have accused Chomsky of hypocrisy when, in spite of his political criticism of American and European military imperialism, early research at the institution (MIT) where he did his linguistic research had been substantially funded by the American military. Chomsky makes the argument that because he has received funding from the U.S. military, he has an even greater responsibility to criticize and resist its immoral actions.

He is also an outspoken advocate against the use of the death penalty and has spoken against the execution of Steven Woods.

I think the death penalty is a crime no matter what the circumstances, and it is particularly awful in the Steven Woods case. I strongly oppose the execution of Steven Woods on September 13, 2011.

In March of 2012, Chomsky endorsed Jill Stein for President of the United States in 2012, saying,

Media

Another focus of Chomsky's political work has been an analysis of mainstream mass media (especially in the United States), its structures and constraints, and its perceived role in supporting big business and government interests. Edward S. Herman and Chomsky's book ''Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media'' (1988) explores this topic in depth, presenting their "propaganda model" of the news media with numerous detailed case studies demonstrating it. According to this propaganda model, more democratic societies like the U.S. use subtle, non-violent means of control, unlike totalitarian systems, where physical force can readily be used to coerce the general population. In an often-quoted remark, Chomsky states that "propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state." (Media Control)

The model attempts to explain this perceived systemic bias of the mass media in terms of structural economic causes rather than a conspiracy of people. It argues the bias derives from five "filters" that all published news must "pass through," which combine to systematically distort news coverage.

In explaining the first filter, ownership, he notes that most major media outlets are owned by large corporations. The second, funding, notes that the outlets derive the majority of their funding from advertising, not readers. Thus, since they are profit-oriented businesses selling a product—readers and audiences—to other businesses (advertisers), the model expects them to publish news that reflects the desires and values of those businesses. In addition, the news media are dependent on government institutions and major businesses with strong biases as sources (the third filter) for much of their information. Flak, the fourth filter, refers to the various pressure groups that attack the media for supposed bias. Norms, the fifth filter, refer to the common conceptions shared by those in the profession of journalism. (Note: in the original text, published in 1988, the fifth filter was "anticommunism". However, with the fall of the Soviet Union, it has been broadened to allow for shifts in public opinion.) The model describes how the media form a decentralized and non-conspiratorial but nonetheless very powerful propaganda system, that is able to mobilize an elite consensus, frame public debate within elite perspectives and at the same time give the appearance of democratic consent.

Chomsky and Herman test their model empirically by picking "paired examples"—pairs of events that were objectively similar except for the alignment of domestic elite interests. They use a number of such examples to attempt to show that in cases where an "official enemy" does something (like murder of a religious official), the press investigates thoroughly and devotes a great amount of coverage to the matter, thus victims of "enemy" states are considered "worthy". But when the domestic government or an ally does the same thing (or worse), the press downplays the story, thus victims of US or US client states are considered "unworthy."

They also test their model against the case that is often held up as the best example of a free and aggressively independent press, the media coverage of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. Even in this case, they argue that the press was behaving subserviently to elite interests.

Science

Chomsky sees science as a straightforward search for explanation, and rejects the views of it as a catalog of facts or mechanical explanations. In this light, the majority of his contributions to science have been frameworks and hypotheses, rather than "discoveries."

As such, he considers certain so-called post-structuralist or postmodern critiques of logic and reason to be nonsensical:

I have spent a lot of my life working on questions such as these, using the only methods I know of; those condemned here as "science", "rationality," "logic," and so on. I therefore read the papers with some hope that they would help me "transcend" these limitations, or perhaps suggest an entirely different course. I'm afraid I was disappointed. Admittedly, that may be my own limitation. Quite regularly, "my eyes glaze over" when I read polysyllabic discourse on the themes of poststructuralism and postmodernism; what I understand is largely truism or error, but that is only a fraction of the total word count. True, there are lots of other things I don't understand: the articles in the current issues of math and physics journals, for example. But there is a difference. In the latter case, I know how to get to understand them, and have done so, in cases of particular interest to me; and I also know that people in these fields can explain the contents to me at my level, so that I can gain what (partial) understanding I may want. In contrast, no one seems to be able to explain to me why the latest post-this-and-that is (for the most part) other than truism, error, or gibberish, and I do not know how to proceed.

Although Chomsky believes that a scientific background is important to teach proper reasoning, he holds that science in general is "inadequate" to understand complicated problems like human affairs:

Science talks about very simple things, and asks hard questions about them. As soon as things become too complex, science can’t deal with them... But it’s a complicated matter: Science studies what’s at the edge of understanding, and what’s at the edge of understanding is usually fairly simple. And it rarely reaches human affairs. Human affairs are way too complicated.

Psychology

Chomsky's work in linguistics has had profound implications for modern psychology. For Chomsky, linguistics is a branch of cognitive psychology; genuine insights in linguistics imply concomitant understandings of aspects of mental processing and human nature. His theory of a universal grammar was seen by many as a direct challenge to the established behaviorist theories of the time and had major consequences for understanding how children learn language and what, exactly, the ability to use language is.

In 1959, Chomsky published an influential critique of B.F. Skinner's ''Verbal Behavior'', a book in which Skinner offered a theoretical account of language in functional, behavioral terms. He defined "Verbal Behavior" as learned behavior that has characteristic consequences delivered through the learned behavior of others. This makes for a view of communicative behaviors much larger than that usually addressed by linguists. Skinner's approach focused on the circumstances in which language was used; for example, asking for water was functionally a different response than labeling something as water, responding to someone asking for water, etc. These functionally different kinds of responses, which required in turn separate explanations, sharply contrasted both with traditional notions of language and Chomsky's psycholinguistic approach. Chomsky thought that a functionalist explanation restricting itself to questions of communicative performance ignored important questions. (Chomsky—Language and Mind, 1968). He focused on questions concerning the operation and development of innate structures for syntax capable of creatively organizing, cohering, adapting and combining words and phrases into intelligible utterances.

In the review Chomsky emphasized that the scientific application of behavioral principles from animal research is severely lacking in explanatory adequacy and is furthermore particularly superficial as an account of human verbal behavior because a theory restricting itself to external conditions, to "what is learned," cannot adequately account for generative grammar. Chomsky raised the examples of rapid language acquisition of children, including their quickly developing ability to form grammatical sentences, and the universally creative language use of competent native speakers to highlight the ways in which Skinner's view exemplified under-determination of theory by evidence. He argued that to understand human verbal behavior such as the creative aspects of language use and language development, one must first postulate a genetic linguistic endowment. The assumption that important aspects of language are the product of universal innate ability runs counter to Skinner's radical behaviorism.

Chomsky's 1959 review has drawn fire from a number of critics, the most famous criticism being that of Kenneth MacCorquodale's 1970 paper ''On Chomsky’s Review of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior'' (''Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,'' volume 13, pages 83–99). MacCorquodale's argument was updated and expanded in important respects by Nathan Stemmer in a 1990 paper, ''Skinner's Verbal Behavior, Chomsky's review, and mentalism'' (''Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,'' volume 54, pages 307–319). These and similar critiques have raised certain points not generally acknowledged outside of behavioral psychology, such as the claim that Chomsky did not possess an adequate understanding of either behavioral psychology in general, or the differences between Skinner's behaviorism and other varieties. Consequently, it is argued that he made several serious errors. On account of these perceived problems, the critics maintain that the review failed to demonstrate what it has often been cited as doing. As such, it is averred that those most influenced by Chomsky's paper probably either already substantially agreed with Chomsky or never actually read it. The review has been further critiqued for misrepresenting the work of Skinner and others, including by quoting out of context. Chomsky has maintained that the review was directed at the way Skinner's variant of behavioral psychology "was being used in Quinean empiricism and naturalization of philosophy."

It has been claimed that Chomsky's critique of Skinner's methodology and basic assumptions paved the way for the "cognitive revolution", the shift in American psychology between the 1950s through the 1970s from being primarily behavioral to being primarily cognitive. In his 1966 ''Cartesian Linguistics'' and subsequent works, Chomsky laid out an explanation of human language faculties that has become the model for investigation in some areas of psychology. Much of the present conception of how the mind works draws directly from ideas that found their first persuasive author of modern times in Chomsky.

There are three key ideas. First is that the mind is "cognitive", or that the mind actually contains mental states, beliefs, doubts, and so on. Second, he argued that most of the important properties of language and mind are innate. The acquisition and development of a language is a result of the unfolding of innate propensities triggered by the experiential input of the external environment. The link between human innate aptitude to language and heredity has been at the core of the debate opposing Noam Chomsky to Jean Piaget at the Abbaye de Royaumont in 1975 (''Language and Learning. The Debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky,'' Harvard University Press, 1980). Although links between the genetic setup of humans and aptitude to language have been suggested at that time and in later discussions, we are still far from understanding the genetic bases of human language. Work derived from the model of selective stabilization of synapses set up by Jean-Pierre Changeux, Philippe Courrège and Antoine Danchin, and more recently developed experimentally and theoretically by Jacques Mehler and Stanislas Dehaene in particular in the domain of numerical cognition lend support to the Chomskyan "nativism". It does not, however, provide clues about the type of rules that would organize neuronal connections to permit language competence. Subsequent psychologists have extended this general "nativist" thesis beyond language. Lastly, Chomsky made the concept of "modularity" a critical feature of the mind's cognitive architecture. The mind is composed of an array of interacting, specialized subsystems with limited flows of inter-communication. This model contrasts sharply with the old idea that any piece of information in the mind could be accessed by any other cognitive process (optical illusions, for example, cannot be "turned off" even when they are known to be illusions).

Debates

Chomsky has been known to vigorously defend and debate his views and opinions, in philosophy, linguistics, and politics. He has had notable debates with Jean Piaget, Michel Foucault, William F. Buckley, Jr., Christopher Hitchens, George Lakoff, Richard Perle, Hilary Putnam, Willard Quine, and Alan Dershowitz, to name a few. In response to his speaking style being criticized as boring, Chomsky said that "I'm a boring speaker and I like it that way.... I doubt that people are attracted to whatever the persona is.... People are interested in the issues, and they're interested in the issues because they are important." "We don't want to be swayed by superficial eloquence, by emotion and so on."

Influence

''Chomskyan'' models have been used as a theoretical basis in various fields of study. The Chomsky hierarchy is often taught in fundamental computer science courses as it confers insight into the various types of formal languages. This hierarchy can also be discussed in mathematical terms and has generated interest among mathematicians, particularly combinatorialists. Some arguments in evolutionary psychology are derived from his research results.

The 1984 Nobel Prize laureate in Medicine and Physiology, Niels K. Jerne, used Chomsky's generative model to explain the human immune system, equating "components of a generative grammar ... with various features of protein structures". The title of Jerne's Stockholm Nobel lecture was "The Generative Grammar of the Immune System".

Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee who was the subject of a study in animal language acquisition at Columbia University, was named after Chomsky in reference to his view of language acquisition as a uniquely human ability.

Famous computer scientist Donald Knuth admits to reading Syntactic Structures during his honeymoon and being greatly influenced by it. "...I must admit to taking a copy of Noam Chomsky's Syntactic Structures along with me on my honeymoon in 1961 ... Here was a marvelous thing: a mathematical theory of language in which I could use a computer programmer's intuition!".

Academic achievements, awards and honors

In early 1969, he delivered the John Locke Lectures at Oxford University; in January 1970, the Bertrand Russell Memorial Lecture at University of Cambridge; in 1972, the Nehru Memorial Lecture in New Delhi; in 1977, the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden; in 1988 the Massey Lectures at the University of Toronto, titled "Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies"; in 1997, The Davie Memorial Lecture on Academic Freedom in Cape Town, and many others.

Chomsky has received many honorary degrees from universities around the world, including from the following:

University of London

University of Chicago

Loyola University of Chicago

Swarthmore College

University of Delhi

Bard College

University of Massachusetts

University of Pennsylvania

Georgetown University

Amherst College

University of Cambridge

University of Colorado

University of Buenos Aires

McGill University

Rovira i Virgili University

Columbia University

Villanova University

University of Connecticut

University of Maine

Scuola Normale Superiore

University of Western Ontario

University of Toronto

Harvard University

Universidad de Chile

University of Bologna

Universidad de La Frontera

University of Calcutta

Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Santo Domingo Institute of Technology

Uppsala University

University of Athens

University of Cyprus

Central Connecticut State University

National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

Peking University National Tsing Hua University He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. In addition, he is a member of other professional and learned societies in the United States and abroad, and is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, the Helmholtz Medal, the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award, the 1999 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science, and others. He is twice winner of The Orwell Award, granted by The National Council of Teachers of English for "Distinguished Contributions to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language" (in 1987 and 1989).

He is a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Department of Social Sciences.

In 2005, Chomsky received an honorary fellowship from the Literary and Historical Society. In 2007, Chomsky received The Uppsala University (Sweden) Honorary Doctor's degree in commemoration of Carolus Linnaeus. In February 2008, he received the President's Medal from the Literary and Debating Society of the National University of Ireland, Galway. Since 2009 he is an honorary member of IAPTI.

In 2010, Chomsky received the Erich Fromm Prize in Stuttgart, Germany. In April 2010, Chomsky became the third scholar to receive the University of Wisconsin's A.E. Havens Center's Award for Lifetime Contribution to Critical Scholarship.

Chomsky has an Erdős number of four.

Chomsky was voted the leading living public intellectual in The 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll conducted by the British magazine ''Prospect''. He reacted, saying "I don't pay a lot of attention to polls". In a list compiled by the magazine ''New Statesman'' in 2006, he was voted seventh in the list of "Heroes of our time".

Actor Viggo Mortensen with avant-garde guitarist Buckethead dedicated their 2006 album, called ''Pandemoniumfromamerica'', to Chomsky.

On January 22, 2010, a special honorary concert for Chomsky was given at Kresge Auditorium at MIT. The concert, attended by Chomsky and dozens of his family and friends, featured music composed by Edward Manukyan and speeches by Chomsky's colleagues, including David Pesetsky of MIT and Gennaro Chierchia, head of the linguistics department at Harvard University.

In June 2011, Chomsky was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize, which cited his "unfailing courage, critical analysis of power and promotion of human rights".

In 2011, Chomsky was inducted into IEEE Intelligent Systems' AI's Hall of Fame for the "significant contributions to the field of AI and intelligent systems".

Bibliography

Filmography

''Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media'', Director: Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick (1992)

''Last Party 2000'', Director: Rebecca Chaiklin and Donovan Leitch (2001)

''Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times'', Director: John Junkerman (2002)

''Distorted Morality—America's War On Terror?'', Director: John Junkerman (2003)

''Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause'' (TV), Director: Will Pascoe (2003)

''The Corporation'', Directors: Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott; Writer: Joel Bakan (2003)

''Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land'', Directors: Sut Jhally and Bathsheba Ratzkoff (2004)

''On Power, Dissent and Racism: A discussion with Noam Chomsky'', Journalist: Nicolas Rossier; Producers: Eli Choukri, Baraka Productions (2004)

''Lake of Fire'', Director: Tony Kaye (2006)

''American Feud: A History of Conservatives and Liberals'', Director: Richard Hall (2008)

''Chomsky & Cie'' Director: Olivier Azam (out in 2008)

''An Inconvenient Tax'', Director: Christopher P. Marshall (out in 2009)

''The Money Fix,'' Director: Alan Rosenblith (2009)

''Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space'', Director: Denis Delestrac (2010)

''Article 12: Waking up in a surveillance society'', Director: Juan Manuel Biaiñ (2010)

See also

American philosophy

Axiom of categoricity

Chomskybot

"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously"

English studies

Knowledge worker

List of American philosophers

Important publications in computability

''The Anti-Chomsky Reader''

References

External links

chomsky.info official website

Noam Chomsky at MIT

Noam Chomsky articles on libcom.org

Noam Chomsky at ''Democracy Now!''

Column archive at ''The Guardian''

*''In Depth'' interview with Chomsky, June 1, 2003

Articles and videos featuring Noam Chomsky at AnarchismToday.org

;Interviews and articles

Talks by Noam Chomsky at A-Infos Radio Project

Interview about Human Rights by scholars (English with French subtitles) – 2009

Chomsky media files at the Internet Archive

Noam Chomsky interviewed by Alyssa McDonald on ''New Statesman'', September 2010.

The Real News (TRNN) ">Noam Chomsky Interviews on The Real News (TRNN)

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance – discussion on the "Bush doctrine" and its implications, C-SPAN, Feb 2004

Philosophies of Language & Politics – talk at The Commonwealth Club, October 2009

Thought Economics Interviews Noam Chomsky – Noam Chomsky interviewed on global democracy, April 2011

Category:1928 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century philosophers Category:American anarchists Category:American anti–Iraq War activists Category:American anti–Vietnam War activists Category:American dissidents Category:American libertarians Category:American linguists Category:American media critics Category:American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Category:American philosophy academics Category:American political philosophers Category:American socialists Category:American tax resisters Category:Analytic philosophers Category:Anarchist academics Category:Anarcho-syndicalists Category:Anti-corporate activists Category:Cognitive scientists Category:Computer pioneers Category:Consciousness researchers and theorists Category:Contemporary philosophers Category:Developmental psycholinguists Category:Drug policy reform activists Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Category:G7 Welcoming Committee Records artists Category:Generative linguistics Category:Gifford Lecturers Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:Huizinga Lecturers Category:Industrial Workers of the World members Category:Jewish American social scientists Category:Jewish American writers Category:Jewish anarchists Category:Jewish anti-Zionism Category:Jewish peace activists Category:Jewish philosophers Category:Jewish socialists Category:Lecturers Category:Left-libertarians Category:Libertarian socialists Category:Libertarian theorists Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Category:Massey Lecturers Category:Members of the Democratic Socialists of America Category:Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:People from Lexington, Massachusetts Category:People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:Personae non gratae Category:Philosophers of language Category:Philosophers of mind Category:Phonologists Category:Political theorists Category:Propaganda theorists Category:Rationalists Category:Syntacticians Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni Category:Writers from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:21st-century philosophers Category:Jewish activists Category:Jewish scientists

ar:نعوم تشومسكي an:Noam Chomsky ast:Noam Chomsky az:Noam Çomski bn:নোম চম্‌স্কি zh-min-nan:Noam Chomsky be:Ноам Хомскі be-x-old:Ноам Чомскі bg:Ноам Чомски bo:ནམ་ཆོམ་སི་ཀེ། bs:Noam Chomsky br:Noam Chomsky ca:Noam Chomsky cs:Noam Chomsky cy:Noam Chomsky da:Noam Chomsky de:Noam Chomsky et:Noam Chomsky el:Νόαμ Τσόμσκι es:Noam Chomsky eo:Noam Chomsky ext:Noam Chomski eu:Noam Chomsky fa:نوآم چامسکی hif:Noam Chomsky fr:Noam Chomsky ga:Noam Chomsky gd:Noam Chomsky gl:Noam Chomsky gu:નોઆમ ચોમ્સ્કી ko:노엄 촘스키 hy:Նոամ Չոմսկի hi:नोआम चाम्सकी hr:Noam Chomsky io:Noam Chomsky id:Noam Chomsky ia:Noam Chomsky os:Хомски, Ноам is:Noam Chomsky it:Noam Chomsky he:נועם חומסקי kn:ನೋಅಮ್ ಚಾಮ್ಸ್ಕೀ ka:ნოამ ჩომსკი kk:Ноам Чомски sw:Noam Chomsky ku:Noam Chomsky la:Noam Chomsky lv:Noams Čomskis lb:Noam Chomsky lt:Noam Chomsky jbo:nom.tcomskis hu:Noam Chomsky mk:Ноам Чомски ml:നോം ചോംസ്കി mr:नोआम चॉम्स्की arz:ناعوم تشومسكى ms:Noam Chomsky nl:Noam Chomsky ja:ノーム・チョムスキー no:Noam Chomsky nn:Noam Chomsky oc:Noam Chomsky pnb:نوم چومسکی ps:نوم چومسكي pl:Noam Chomsky pt:Noam Chomsky ro:Noam Chomsky rue:Ноам Чомскі ru:Хомский, Ноам sc:Noam Chomsky sq:Noam Chomsky simple:Noam Chomsky sk:Noam Avram Chomsky sl:Noam Chomsky cu:Аврамъ Ноамъ Хомьскꙑи sr:Ноам Чомски sh:Noam Chomsky su:Noam Chomsky fi:Noam Chomsky sv:Noam Chomsky ta:நோம் சோம்சுக்கி th:โนม ชัมสกี tr:Noam Chomsky uk:Ноам Чомскі vi:Noam Chomsky war:Noam Chomsky yi:נועם כאמסקי yo:Noam Chomsky bat-smg:Noam Chomsky zh:诺姆·乔姆斯基

name	Susan Boyle
birth name	Susan Magdalane Boyle
background	solo_singer
born	April 01, 1961
origin	Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland
instrument	Vocals
genre	Pop
occupation	Singer
years active	2009–present
label	Syco, Columbia
website	}}

Susan Magdalane Boyle (born 1 April 1961) is a Scottish singer who came to international public attention when she appeared as a contestant on reality TV programme ''Britain's Got Talent'' on 11 April 2009, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from ''''. Her first album was released in November 2009 and debuted as the number one best-selling CD on charts around the globe.

Global interest in Boyle was triggered by the contrast between her powerful mezzo-soprano voice and her plain appearance on stage. The juxtaposition of the audience's first impression of her, with the standing ovation she received during and after her performance, led to an international media and internet response. Within nine days of the audition, videos of Boyle—from the show, various interviews and her 1999 rendition of "Cry Me a River" – had been watched over 100 million times. Her audition video has been viewed on the internet several hundred million times. Despite the sustained media interest she later finished in second place in the final of the show behind dance troupe Diversity.

Boyle's first album, ''I Dreamed a Dream'', was released on 23 November 2009 and became Amazon's best-selling album in pre-sales. According to ''Billboard'', "The arrival of ''I Dreamed a Dream'' ... marks the best opening week for a female artist's debut album since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991." In only six weeks of sales, it became the biggest selling album in the world for 2009, selling 9 million copies. In September 2010, Boyle was officially recognised by Guinness World Records as having had the fastest selling debut album by a female artist in the UK, the most successful first week sales of a debut album in the UK, and was also awarded the record for being the oldest person to reach number one with a debut album in the UK.

Biography

Boyle was born in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland, to Patrick Boyle, a miner, World War II veteran and singer at the Bishop's Blaize, and Bridget, a shorthand typist, who were both immigrants from County Donegal, Ireland. She was the youngest of four brothers and six sisters. Born when her mother was 47, Boyle was briefly deprived of oxygen during the difficult birth and was later diagnosed as having learning difficulties. Boyle says she was bullied as a child and was nicknamed "Susie Simple" at school.

After leaving school with few qualifications, she was employed for the only time in her life as a trainee cook in the kitchen of West Lothian College for six months, took part in government training programmes, and performed at a number of local venues.

Boyle still lives in the family home, a four-bedroom council house, with her 10-year-old cat, Pebbles. Her father died in the 1990s, and her siblings had left home. Boyle never married, and she dedicated herself to care for her ageing mother until she died in 2007 at the age of 91. Boyle has a reputation for modesty and propriety, admitting during her first appearance on ''Britain's Got Talent'' that she had "never been married, never been kissed". A neighbour reported that when Bridget Boyle died, her daughter "wouldn't come out for three or four days or answer the door or phone."

Boyle is a practising Roman Catholic and sang in her church choir at her church in Blackburn. Boyle remains active as a volunteer at her church, visiting elderly members of the congregation in their homes. On a 2010 episode of the ''Oprah Winfrey Show'', Boyle summarised that her daily life was "mundane" and "routine" prior to stardom.

Early singing

Boyle took singing lessons from voice coach Fred O'Neil. She attended Edinburgh Acting School and took part in the Edinburgh Fringe. Prior to ''Britain's Got Talent'', her main experience had come from singing in her local Catholic church, Our Lady of Lourdes; in local choirs; and in karaoke performances at pubs in and around her village. She had also auditioned several times for ''My Kind of People''. She also has long participated in her parish church's pilgrimages to the Knock Shrine, County Mayo, Ireland, and has sung there at the Marian basilica.

Her repertoire through the years has included songs such as "The Way We Were" and "I Don't Know How to Love Him." British tabloids claimed "exclusives" of video clips of some early performances. In 1995, her audition for Michael Barrymore's ''My Kind of People'' at the Olympia Shopping Centre in East Kilbride was filmedthe amateur video shows Barrymore was more interested in mocking her than in her ability to sing.

In 1999, she recorded a track for a charity CD to commemorate the Millennium produced at a West Lothian school. Only 1,000 copies of the CD, ''Music for a Millennium Celebration, Sounds of West Lothian'', were pressed. An early review in the ''West Lothian Herald & Post'' said Boyle's rendition of "Cry Me a River" was "heartbreaking" and "had been on repeat in my CD player ever since I got this CD..." The recording found its way onto the internet following her first televised appearance and the ''New York Post'' said it showed that Boyle was "not a one trick pony." ''Hello!'' said the recording "cement[ed] her status" as a singing star.

In 1999, Boyle used all her savings to pay for a professionally cut demo, copies of which she later sent to record companies, radio talent competitions, local and national TV. The demo consisted of her versions of "Cry Me a River" and "Killing Me Softly with His Song"; the songs were uploaded to the Internet after her ''BGT'' audition.

After Boyle won several local singing competitions, her mother urged her to enter ''Britain's Got Talent'' and take the risk of singing in front of an audience larger than her parish church. Former coach O'Neil said Boyle abandoned an audition for ''The X Factor'' because she believed people were being chosen for their looks. She almost abandoned her plan to enter ''Britain's Got Talent'' believing she was too old, but O'Neil persuaded her to audition nevertheless. Boyle said that she was motivated to seek a musical career to pay tribute to her mother. Her performance on the show was the first time she had sung in public since her mother died.

Music career

''Britain's Got Talent'' (2009)

In August 2008, Boyle applied for an audition for the third series of ''Britain's Got Talent'' (as contestant number 43212) and was accepted after a preliminary audition in Glasgow. When Boyle first appeared on ''Britain's Got Talent'' at the city's Clyde Auditorium, she said that she aspired to become a professional singer "as successful as Elaine Paige". Boyle sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from ''Les Misérables'' in the first round of the third series of ''Britain's Got Talent'', which was watched by over 10 million viewers when it aired on 11 April 2009. Programme judge Amanda Holden remarked upon the audience's initially cynical attitude, and the subsequent "biggest wake-up call ever" upon hearing her performance.

This performance was widely reported and tens of millions of people viewed the video on YouTube. Boyle was "absolutely gobsmacked" by the strength of this reaction. Boyle is aware that the audience on ''Britain's Got Talent'' was initially hostile to her because of her appearance, but she has refused to change her image. Since the appearance, Paige has expressed interest in singing a duet with Boyle, and has called her "a role model for everyone who has a dream". Boyle's rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" has been credited with causing a surge in ticket sales in the Vancouver production of ''Les Misérables''. Cameron Mackintosh, the producer of the ''Les Misérables'' musical, also praised the performance, as thrilling and uplifting".

She was one of 40 acts that were put through to the semi-finals. She appeared last on the first semi-final on 24 May 2009, performing "Memory" from the musical ''Cats''. In the public vote she was the act to receive the highest number of votes and go through to the final. She was the clear favourite to win the final, but ended up in second place to Diversity; the UK TV audience was a record of 17.3 million viewers.

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) became concerned by press reports about Boyle's erratic behaviour and speculation about her mental condition and wrote to remind editors about clause 3 (privacy) of their code of press conduct. The day after the final, Boyle was admitted to The Priory, a private psychiatric clinic in London, TalkbackThames explained "Following Saturday night's show, Susan is exhausted and emotionally drained." Her stay in hospital attracted widespread attention, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown wishing her well. Cowell offered to waive Boyle's contractual obligation to take part in the BGT tour. Her family said "she's been battered non-stop for the last seven weeks and it has taken its toll [...but...] her dream is very much alive," as she had been invited to the Independence Day celebrations at the White House.

Boyle left the clinic five days after her admission and said she would participate in the BGT tour. Despite health worries, she appeared in 20 of the 24 dates of the tour, and was well received in cities such as Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Dublin, Sheffield, Coventry, Birmingham and London. The ''Belfast Telegraph'' said "Despite reports of crumbling under the pressure..., she exuded a confidence resembling that of a veteran who has been performing for years".

''I Dreamed a Dream'' and tour (2009–2010)

Boyle's first album, ''I Dreamed a Dream'', was released on 23 November 2009. The album includes covers of "Wild Horses" and "You'll See" as well as "I Dreamed a Dream", and "Cry Me a River". ''I Dreamed a Dream'' became Amazon.com's best-selling album in pre-sales on 4 September 2009, three months before the scheduled release. In Britain, Boyle's debut album was recognised as the fastest selling UK debut album of all time selling 411,820 copies, beating the previous fastest selling debut of all time, ''Spirit'' by Leona Lewis. ''I Dreamed a Dream'' also outsold the rest of the top 5 albums combined in its first week.

In the U.S., the album sold 701,000 copies in its first week, the best opening week for a debut artist in over a decade. It topped the ''Billboard'' chart for six straight weeks and although it narrowly failed to become the best-selling album of 2009, with sales of 3,104,000 compared to 3,217,000 for Taylor Swift's ''Fearless'', it was one of only two albums to sell over 3 million copies in the U.S., and was also the top selling "physical" album of 2009, with only 86,000 of its sales coming from digital downloads. This has in turn garnered more media attention, as mentioned by ''People'' magazine.

In Italy, it was the first album of the month in the Italian #1 Account by a non-Italian artist ever. In only a week, it sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, becoming the fastest selling global female debut album.

Boyle gave a U.S. concert tour in November as a lead-up to the album release. On 13 December 2009 she appeared in her own television special "I Dreamed a Dream: the Susan Boyle Story", featuring a duet with Elaine Paige. It got ratings of 10 million viewers in the United Kingdom and in America was the TV Guide Network's highest rated television special in its history.

In November 2009 it was reported that Boyle's rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream' would be the theme song of the anime movie ''Eagle Talon The Movie 3'', that was released in Japan on 16 January 2010. Boyle performed for Pope Benedict XVI on his tour of Britain in 2010. In May 2010, Susan Boyle was voted by ''Time'' magazine as the seventh most influential person in the world.

''The Gift'' (2010–2011)

On 9 July 2010, Boyle announced that her second album would be a Christmas album entitled ''The Gift''. As part of the lead up to the album, she will be holding a competition 'Susan's Search', the winner of which would get to sing a duet with her on her new CD. The album was released on 8 November 2010.

Produced by Steve Mac, who says "Now Susan's used to the studio and the recording process, this time round we might go even further down a traditional route of recording by getting a band together and rehearsing songs before we go into the studio to see what works, how she reacts with certain parts, and so we can change the arrangements that way. I think that’s going to work much better....With Susan it’s very important she connects with the public and the public connect with her. She doesn’t want to sing anything that hasn’t happened to her or she can’t relate to." Boyle has suggested the album will include some jazz numbers now she's "a bit more content" within herself. "My next album has to have an element of surprise in it again. I'm hoping to make it better and a bit extra special."

In August 2010, British tabloid, ''News of the World'', reported that Boyle was experiencing financial woes as Boyle was unable to access her fortune, which was being controlled by her management team – consisting of Andy Stephens, Ossie Killkenny, and Susan's lawyer niece Kirsty Foy. Boyle's brother Gerry said his sister was fearful of losing her contract and of returning to her previous financial situation, and that she has been unable to move into her £300,000 five-bedroom house in Blackburn because she does not have the cash to furnish it. He said "[Susan's] millions are ring-fenced but Susan has no concept of money," and was "extremely distressed" at having to live off £300 a week, after being banned from withdrawing money from the bank or owning a credit card. This story was contradicted the following day though by the news that she had bought two houses. It was also reported that she had recently been on a spending spree, where she had bought a grand piano, iPhone, and five dresses made by Stewart Parvin, the Queen's dressmaker. The press had previously stated that Susan Boyle was suing her brother Gerry for other stories he'd sold to the newspapers.

In November 2010, Boyle became only one of three to ever top both the UK and US album charts twice in the same year. On 30 November 2010, Susan performed both on ABC"s ''The View'' and sang "O Holy Night", and later on NBC's ''Christmas at Rockefeller Center'', where she performed "Perfect Day" and "Away in a Manger". During her appearance on ''The View'' she was unable to finish her song, stating she had a "frog in her throat"; she wanted to start the song over but wasn't allowed to. The audience applauded her anyway, and she later performed an unaired version of the song, which was uploaded to The View's YouTube account.

''Someone to Watch Over Me'' (2011–present)

Emeli Sande is reported to be helping Susan write songs for her third studio album, which is due this autumn. The album is also reported to be an R&B; styled album. Susan performed on the second semi-final results show of the sixth season of ''America's Got Talent'', which aired on August 31, 2011.

Legacy

Media impact

Web sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have been crucial in facilitating Boyle's rapid rise to fame: The most popular YouTube video submission of her audition garnered nearly 2.5 million views in the first 72 hours. On the day following the performance, the YouTube video was the most popular article on Digg and made the front page of Reddit. Within a week, the audition performance had been viewed more than 66 million times, setting an online record, while on Wikipedia her biographical article attracted nearly half a million page views. A total of 103 million video views on 20 different Web sites was reached within nine days. The ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote that her popularity on YouTube may in part be due to the broad range of emotion packed into a short clip which was "perfect for the Internet". In December 2009 her audition was named the most watched YouTube video of the year with over 120 million viewings, more than three times higher than the second most popular video.

Additionally, Boyle’s first on camera interview with Scots journalist Richard Mooney for her local newspaper the West Lothian Courier, was named as YouTube’s Most Memorable Video of 2009. The video went viral after being uploaded to YouTube on 14 April 2009.

Many newspapers around the world (including China, Brazil and the Middle East) carried articles on Boyle's performance. British tabloid ''The Sun'' gave her the nickname "Paula Potts" in reference to the first series' winner Paul Potts. Later, the British press took to referring to her by a short-form of her name, 'SuBo'. In the U.S., several commentators also drew parallels between Boyle's performance and that of Potts. ''ABC News'' hailed "Britain's newest pop sensation", and its Entertainment section headlined Boyle as "The Woman Who Shut Up Simon Cowell".

Within the week following her performance on ''Britain's Got Talent'', Boyle was a guest on STV's ''The Five Thirty Show''. She was interviewed via satellite on CBS's ''Early Show'', ''Good Morning America'', NBC's Today, FOX's ''America's Newsroom''. and ''The Oprah Winfrey Show''. Via satellite on ''Larry King Live'', Boyle performed an a cappella verse of "My Heart Will Go On". She was also portrayed in drag by Jay Leno, who joked that they were related through his mother's Scottish heritage.

At the invitation of NHK, a major Japanese broadcaster, Boyle appeared as a guest singer for the 2009 edition of Kōhaku Uta Gassen, annual songfest on 31 December in Tokyo. She was introduced as the by the MCs and appeared on the stage escorted by Takuya Kimura, and sang "I Dreamed a Dream".

Although Boyle was not eligible for the 2010 Grammy Awards, its host Stephen Colbert paid tribute to Boyle at the ceremony, telling its audience "you may be the coolest people in the world, but this year your industry was saved by a 48-year-old Scottish cat lady in sensible shoes." There was also earlier controversy, when Boyle was not nominated in any of the categories for the 2010 Brit Awards.

Musical biography

It was originally planned that Boyle would appear as herself in a musical about her life. She was quoted as saying "having to sit watching people up there" who are actors. However it was later announced actress Elaine C Smith would be portraying her. The musical will "tell the singer's entire life story, including her years living with her moggy back in Blackburn before her world-famous telly audition." The show may play in the West End before touring the United Kingdom.

Social analyses

Judging by appearance

''The Huffington Post'' noted that the producers of the show would have anticipated the potential of this story arc, by deliberately presenting Boyle in a manner that would enhance this initial reaction. ''The Herald'' described Boyle's story as a modern parable and a rebuke to people's tendency to judge others based on their physical appearance. Similarly, ''Entertainment Weekly'' said that Boyle's performance was a victory for talent and artistry in a culture obsessed with physical attractiveness and presentation. ''The Washington Post'' believed that her initial demeanour and homely appearance caused the judges and audience to be "waiting for her to squawk like a duck". New York's ''Daily News'' said that an underdog being ridiculed or humiliated but then enjoying an unexpected triumph is a common trope in literature, and the stark contrast between the audience's low expectations and the quality of her singing made Boyle's performance such an engaging piece of television.

Feminist view

R.M. Campbell, music critic for ''The Gathering Note'' compared her to Ella Fitzgerald, in that "[... it is] really, really hard to make a career if a woman isn't attractive." In another ''Huffington Post'' article, Letty Cottin Pogrebin wrote that although people may "weep for the years of wasted talent", Boyle's performance was a triumph for "women of a certain age" over a youth culture that often dismisses middle-aged women. Tanya Gold wrote in ''The Guardian'' that the difference between Boyle's hostile reception and the more neutral response to Paul Potts in his first audition reflected society's expectation that women be both good-looking and talented, with no such expectation existing for men. Los Angeles vocal coach Eric Vetro stated, "She's an Everywoman as opposed to an untouchable fantasy goddess, so maybe that's why people react to her."

'American Dream'

Several media sources have commented that Boyle's success seemed to have particular resonance in the United States. An American entertainment correspondent was quoted in ''The Scotsman'' comparing Boyle's story to the American Dream, as representing talent overcoming adversity and poverty. The Associated Press described this as Boyle's "hardscrabble story", dwelling on her modest lifestyle and what they characterised as urban deprivation in her home town. Similarly, ''The Independent'''s New York correspondent David Usborne wrote that the United States will always respond to "the fairy tale where the apparently unprepossessing suddenly becomes pretty, from ''Shrek'' to ''My Fair Lady''".

Cultural references

The American cartoon show ''South Park'' made a reference to the Susan Boyle craze in the episode "Fatbeard", which aired on 22 April 2009; the ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' show aired a comedy sketch showing the "feel good" effect that Susan Boyle's performance has had on people; ''The Simpsons'' aired a new commercial for its 20th-anniversary show "Springfield's Got Talent", in which Homer Simpson talks about his dreams "to be a great singer like Boyle". A European trailer for the video game ''The Sims 3'' includes a character mocked up as Boyle. In June 2009, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a short story called "I Dreamed a Dream" that was based on a combination of Boyle's appearances on ''Britain's Got Talent'' and the political difficulties of Gordon Brown. The 5 November 2009 episode of the show ''30 Rock'' showed recurring character Kathy Geiss (Marceline Hugot) – who has a dowdy appearance – singing in the style of Susan Boyle as Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy teared up. In a Season 35 sketch on ''Saturday Night Live'', an accountant (Andy Samberg) doing Boyle's taxes, notes that her income for 2008 was $1, $900,000,000 for 2009, and projected to be $1 for 2010. Bobby Moynihan played Boyle in the sketch.

In the ''Futurama'' episode "Attack of the Killer App", Leela has a boil named Susan ("Susan Boil") that can sing show tunes.

Discography

Studio albums

1 1

scope="col" rowspan="2"

Album Titles

Album details

Peak chart positions

! scope="col" rowspan="2"

Sales

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"

! scope="row"

* Release date: 23 November 2009

* Label: Syco, Columbia Records

Music download>digital download

1

1

|

1

1

3

1

1

1

1

British Phonographic Industry>UK: 7× Platinum

Australian Recording Industry Association>AUS: 9× Platinum

Canadian Recording Industry Association>CAN: 5× Platinum

Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique>FRA: Platinum

Oricon>JPN: Platinum

Recording Industry Association of New Zealand>NZ: 11× Platinum

Recording Industry Association of America>US: 4× Platinum

wikt:worldwide>WW: 9,000,000

scope="row">''The Gift (Susan Boyle album)

The Gift''

* Release date: 8 November 2010

* Label: Syco, Columbia Records

* Format: CD, digital download

1

2

|

7

5

18

1

1

19

1

* AUS: 3× Platinum<

* CAN: 2× Platinum

Irish Recorded Music Association>IRL: 2× Platinum

* NZ: 4× Platinum

* US: 3× Platinum

* UK: 600,000

Nielsen SoundScan>US: 1,850,000

scope="row">''Someone to Watch Over Me (Susan Boyle album)

Someone to Watch Over Me''

* Release date: 7 November 2011

* Label: Syco, Columbia Records

* Format: CD, digital download

|

Singles

— 27 65 —

scope="col" rowspan="2"	Year	Single	Peak chart positions									Album
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"	! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"		! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"	! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"	! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"	! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"	! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"	! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"	! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"
rowspan="2"	2009	! scope="row"	9	93	|	95	11	31	99	—	98	rowspan="2"	''I Dreamed a Dream''
scope="row">"I Dreamed a Dream#Susan Boyle version	I Dreamed a Dream"	37	66	|	65	20	37	—	43	62
2010	scope="row"	"Perfect Day"	124	—	|	—	—	—	—	—	—	''The Gift''
2011	scope="row"	"I Know Him So Well" (with Peter Kay for Comic Relief)	11	—	|	—	—	—	—	—	—	Non-album single

Featured singles

scope="col" rowspan="2"	Year	Single	Peak chart positions			Album
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"	! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"		! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"
2010	"Everybody Hurts" (with Helping Haiti)	1	28	1	Non-album single

Awards and nominations

! Year	! Association	! Category	! Result
2011	53rd Grammy Awards

References

External links

Category:1961 births Category:Britain's Got Talent contestants Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Internet memes Category:Living people Category:People from Blackburn, West Lothian Category:Scottish female singers Category:Scottish mezzo-sopranos Category:Scottish people of Irish descent Category:Scottish pop singers Category:Scottish Roman Catholics Category:Torch singers

af:Susan Boyle ar:سوزان بويل zh-min-nan:Susan Boyle br:Susan Boyle ca:Susan Boyle cs:Susan Boyle cy:Susan Boyle da:Susan Boyle de:Susan Boyle et:Susan Boyle es:Susan Boyle eo:Susan Boyle eu:Susan Boyle fa:سوزان بویل fo:Susan Boyle fr:Susan Boyle fy:Susan Boyle gu:સુસાન બોયલ ko:수잔 보일 hi:सूज़न बॉयल hr:Susan Boyle id:Susan Boyle it:Susan Boyle he:סוזאן בויל kn:ಸುಸನ್ ಬೋಯ್ಲ್ ka:სიუზან ბოილი la:Susanna Boyle lt:Susan Boyle hu:Susan Boyle mk:Сузан Бојл arz:سوزين بويل mn:Сюзан Бойл nl:Susan Boyle ja:スーザン・ボイル no:Susan Boyle nn:Susan Boyle pl:Susan Boyle pt:Susan Boyle ro:Susan Boyle ru:Бойл, Сьюзан simple:Susan Boyle sl:Susan Boyle sr:Сузан Бојл fi:Susan Boyle sv:Susan Boyle ta:சூசன் பாயில் tt:Сьюзан Бойл th:ซูซาน บอยล์ tr:Susan Boyle uk:Сюзан Бойл vec:Susan Boyle vi:Susan Boyle vo:Susan Boyle yi:סוזאן בויל zh:蘇珊·波伊爾

name	Dick Gaughan
landscape	Yes
background	solo_singer
birth name	Richard Peter Gaughan
born	May 17, 1948Glasgow, ScotlandUnited Kingdom
instrument	Vocals, guitar,
genre	Protest songs, folk
occupation	Musician, songwriter Composer, Orchestrator
associated acts	The Boys of the Lough, Clan Alba
website	Dick Gaughan's official website
notable instruments	}}

Richard Peter Gaughan usually known as Dick Gaughan (born 17 May 1948, Glasgow) is a Scottish musician, singer, and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs.

Early years

He was born in Glasgow's Rottenrow Maternity Hospital, when his father was working in Glasgow as an engine driver. He spent the first one and a half years of his life in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, after which the whole family moved to Leith, a port on the outskirts of Edinburgh. He has never returned to Rutherglen, and is proud to be a Leither. His mother was a Macdonald from Lochaber, and was a native speaker of Gaelic. As a child in the 1930s she won a silver medal at the Gaelic Mod. His father was born in Leith, and his paternal grandfather was an Irish speaker from Mayo, who played the fiddle. The three children, of whom Gaughan was the eldest, grew up surrounded by the music of both Scotland and Ireland. The family experienced considerable poverty, which had a very strong influence on Gaughan's chosen path in life and his political views.

Gaughan took up the guitar at the age of seven. Although he later sang in Scottish Gaelic he is not fluent in that language; however, he has a powerful command of Scots. He sang in Edinburgh folk clubs and became a professional musician in 1970. Gaughan began playing mainly traditional songs on an acoustic guitar. He now writes his own songs as well as performing those of others. Although his approach to performing concentrates strongly on the song itself, Gaughan is known as being a master of the acoustic guitar. An example of his purely instrumental work is ''Coppers and Brass'' (1977).

1970s

He made one solo album, ''No More Forever'', before joining The Boys of the Lough, singing and playing guitar on their debut album in 1972. After leaving, he was a guest of the High Level Ranters when they recorded ''The Bonnie Pit Laddie'' in 1975, performing on two tracks. From 1976 to 1978 there then followed a hectic period of his life pursuing two careers, one as a member of Five Hand Reel and one as a soloist. It was a time of hard drinking, travelling continental Europe in vans, and seeing very little of his wife and daughter. The crisis came when his daughter was struck by a car while he was away. The daughter survived, but Gaughan had to take stock of his life and re-prioritise things.

He taught himself to read and write music, and in the late 1970s he began to write reviews for what was at the time the only national folk music paper, Folk Review. He also saw more of his family. He joined the agitprop theatre group 7:84. In this, he appeared to be following in the footsteps of another socialist theatre-director-singer Ewan MacColl, even recording a tribute album to him in 1978. (Gaughan has also taken part in a tribute to Woody Guthrie).

1980s

At the beginning of 1982, Gaughan proposed and oversaw the organisation of a conference, held at Cecil Sharp House, which set up an organisation in the UK called "Performance of Folk and Other Related Music", which was intended to be an umbrella body of people involved in "Folk and Other Related Music" in any capacity - performers, promoters, record companies, journalists, broadcasters, etc. - to facilitate greater communication and cooperation. One of the achievements in its short life was the coordinating of fundraising events to support Nic Jones and his family after his serious road accident. Gaughan served two years as chair with Susie Stockton as secretary and Matt Armour as vice-chair. Following Gaughan's stepping down as chair due to his voice problems at the beginning of 1984, he was succeeded by Matt Armour.

Gaughan's solo albums of the 1980s returned to the acoustic style in which he had begun, containing both traditional ballads ("The Muckle Sangs") as well as his own songs, and using acoustic guitar (although he can play electric guitar and in fact most fretted instruments). His decision to concentrate on songs that convey political messages, rather than those more attractive to the mainstream, is clear in the important albums ''Handful of Earth'' (1981) and ''A Different Kind of Love Song'' (1983). ''Handful of Earth'' was Melody Maker's album of the year in 1981, and in 1989 was also voted album of the decade by Folk Roots (now fRoots) magazine in both readers' and critics' polls.

1990s

In 1991, Gaughan invited seven other well-established Scots musicians to take part in a band project called Clan Alba. The original lineup was Gaughan, Mary MacMaster (Sprangeen, The Poozies, Sileas), Brian McNeill (Battlefield Band), Patsy Seddon (Sprangeen, The Poozies, Sileas), Davy Steel (Drinker's Drouth, Ceolbeg), Mike Travis (Wildcat, Cauld Blast Orchestra), Dave Tulloch (Spencer's Feat, Five Hand Reel) and Gary West (Ceolbeg). The first performance of Clan Alba was at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh as part of the 1992 Edinburgh Folk Festival, and over the next two years, Clan Alba performed at numerous festivals across the UK and Europe including Glastonbury, Cambridge, WDR Festival in Bonn, Brugge, Tønder and Stainsby. In 1993, Gary West departed and was replaced by Fred Morrison. In 1994 Clan Alba recorded a self-titled double CD at Redesdale Studios with Gaughan producer before disbanding in 1995. Since then, Gaughan has continued to pursue his solo career. In 1983 Gaughan was the subject of a BBC Spectrum documentary entitled ''Gaughan'', and in 2005 a further television documentary entitled ''A Different Kind of Love Song'' formed part of the BBC Four Sessions series.

Style and interests

Gaughan has many and various influences. In his guitar playing one can detect the influence of Doc Watson, Davy Graham and Bert Jansch, but he also claims to have been influenced by musicians as diverse as Hank Williams and Seán Ó Riada. His songs have been recorded by Billy Bragg, Mary Black, Jessica Haines & Mark Kaiser and Capercaillie amongst many others. He has also recorded extensively as a session musician.

Gaughan's interest in composition and orchestration has led to two orchestral commissions from the prestigious Celtic Connections festival: ''Timewaves (Lovesong to a People's Music)'' in 2004 and, in 2007, his first symphonic work, ''Treaty 300''; a musical examination of the effects of the Treaty of Union of 1707 on Scottish culture) composed for the inaugural concert of the Celtic Connections Youth Orchestra.

One of Gaughan's strong interests is the Internet, and he has a particular love for Usenet in which he has been an active participant for many years. While recovering from voice problems in 1984 he took a course on computing. He designs and maintains his own extensive website and is strongly in favour of web accessibility.

Present day

In 2002 Gaughan released ''Prentice Piece'', a self-selected thirty-year retrospective of his career (although some material could not be included owing to copyright disputes), and a studio album, ''Lucky for Some'', was released in April 2006. A live CD (the first since 1985) entitled ''Gaughan Live! at the Trades Club'', recorded at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, was released on 1 April 2008.

Discography

Solo or main performer

''No More Forever'' (1972)

''The Boys of the Lough'' (1973) (The Boys of the Lough)

''Kist o' Gold'' (1976)

''Five Hand Reel'' (1976) (Five Hand Reel)

''Coppers and Brass'' (1977)

''For A' That'' (1977) (Five Hand Reel)

''Songs of Ewan MacColl'' (1978) (with Dave Burland and Tony Capstick)

''Gaughan'' (1978)

''Earl o' Moray'' (1978) (Five Hand Reel)

''Handful of Earth'' (1981)

''Parallel Lines'' (1982) (with Andy Irvine)

''A Different Kind of Love Song'' (1983)

''Fanfare for Tomorrow'' (1985) (with Ken Hyder)

''Live in Edinburgh'' (1985)

''True and Bold'' (1986)

''Call It Freedom'' (1988)

''Clan Alba'' (1995) (with Clan Alba)

''Sail on'' (1996)

''Redwood Cathedral'' (1998)

''Outlaws and Dreamers'' (2001)

''Prentice Piece'' (2002)

''Lucky for Some'' (2006)

''Gaughan Live! at the Trades Club'' (2008)

As a guest contributor

''Songs of Ewan MacColl'' (1985) (with Dave Burland and Tony Capstick

''Woody Lives!'' (1987) (with Bert Jansch, Rab Noakes, Rory McLeod, Rod Clements and Ray Jackson) (commemorating Woody Guthrie)

This discography excludes recordings to which Gaughan contributed only a few tracks.

References

External links

Dick Gaughan's official website

Category:Scottish people of Irish descent Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:Scottish male singers Category:Scottish songwriters Category:People from Edinburgh Category:Scottish guitarists Category:Scottish folk singers

de:Dick Gaughan ga:Dick Gaughan nl:Dick Gaughan sco:Dick Gaughan