George Washington's Expense Account,

by Marvin Kitman and Simon & Schuster

Book Overview

Whatever the father of our country may have lacked in military genius, he more than made up for in financial acumen, as this wallet's-eye view of the Revolutionary War demonstrates. Illustrated. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671205897
• ISBN13: 9780671205898
• Release Date: July 1970
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 3.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

entertaining bookkeeping

Was George Washington first in war; first in peace; and first in discovering the joys of an unlimited expense account? Hint: Generals earned $166 per month. At the end of 8 years of war George Washington presented an expense account of $499,261.51. That was when a dollar was a continental. Washington included interest for money he loaned himself and depreciation. He later offered to work only for expenses as president and got a salary in stead.

Very Humorous Read of American History

Marvin Kitman has done a masterful job of giving us a different outlook on the Revolutionary War. When George Washington was made General of the Armies, congress offered him a salary but Washington nobly declined and instead requested that they only pay his expenses. The actual journal of his expenses are included in this book and then many journal entries are humorously interrupted by Kitman. Needless to say at war's end, the country would have been better off paying Washington a salary. Congress didn't make the same mistake when Washington became president and made the same offer. This book is easy and light reading and shows how ,in Kitman's words, George Washington became the father of the American expense account.