Join the Vienna250 Committee and Bards Alley for series of author talks celebrating the U.S. semiquincentennial! We begin by welcoming Cassandra Good to the Vienna Police Station for a discussion of her book FIRST FAMILY: GEORGE WASHINGTON'S HEIRS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA.

A rigorously researched work of historical nonfiction, FIRST FAMILY explores the crucial role that George Washington's step-grandchildren played in early American society and politics, from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. The book will be available for purchase and an author signing on site. Attendees are also welcome to reserve copies in
advance by calling Bards Alley at (571) 459-2653; they can be picked up at the event or at the store.

Attendance is free, and registration is not required. For more information on this author series and other Vienna250 events, visit Historic Vienna's website here: https://historicviennainc.org/vienna250/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cassandra Good is a writer and historian focused on gender and politics in early America. She is the author of the prize-winning Founding Friendships: Friendships between Men and Women in the Early American Republic (Oxford University Press, 2015). She has taught at Marymount University, George Washington University and University of Mary Washington and has written for Smithsonian Magazine, Mental Floss, The Atlantic and Slate.

ABOUT THE BOOK
While it’s widely known that George and Martha Washington never had children of their own, few are aware that they raised children together. In First Family, we see Washington as a father figure and are introduced to the children he helped raise, tracing their complicated roles in American history.

The children of Martha Washington’s son by her first marriage—Eliza, Patty, Nelly and Wash Custis—were born into life in the public eye, well-known as George Washington’s family and keepers of his legacy. By turns petty and powerful, glamorous and cruel, the Custises used Washington as a means to enhance their own power and status. As enslavers committed to the American empire, the Custis family embodied the failures of the American experiment that finally exploded into civil war—all the while being celebrities in a soap opera of their own making.

As the country grapples with concerns about political dynasties and the public role of presidential families, the saga of Washington’s family offers a human story of historical precedent. Award-winning historian Cassandra A. Good shows how the outspoken step-grandchildren of George Washington played an overlooked but important role in the development of American society and politics from the Revolution to the Civil War.