Talk:George Washington's political evolution

Scope and main sources
This article focuses very specifically on Washington's political evolution, from a young Virginian burning with ambition for wealth and recognition to president and father of his country. Although his two terms as president are obviously rich in content, coverage of that period of his career in this article is light. My reasoning is that by this stage, Washington had completed his political evolution, and a detailed narrative of that phase of Washington's career adds nothing to new to the story. Similarly, as a sub-article, it touches only on those aspects of Washington's life that have a direct bearing on his political evolution; significant detail, for example his actions during the Revolutionary War, is left to the main article and other, more relevant sub-articles. Factotem (talk) 10:02, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

I have based the initial incarnation of this article on three main sources. As a relatively recent, Pulitzer prize-winning biography, Ron Chernow's Washington: A Life seems to be one of the best general biographical sources. I have the E-Book edition, so the page numbering used in this article's references will differ from the print editions. The other two sources – the 1988 edition of Paul K. Longmore's The Invention of George Washington] and the 2009 edition of John E. Ferling's The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon – focus specifically on the political aspects of Washington's career, the prime focus of this article and my basis for determining its notability. All three are solidly reliable sources, the last two with strong academic credentials specifically in the field of history. Factotem (talk) 10:02, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Spelling
I have tried throughout to use American English, but this is not native to me and I may have inadvertently perpetrated some British English errors. This has in the past caused great indignation, and if I have done so here I can only apologise(!) and promise not to revert any corrections. However, in all quotes I have retained the original spelling, capitalisation and punctuation as provided in the sources. It would appear that the English of Washington and his contemporaries had not yet evolved into its American variant, and there are, therefore, deliberate instances of, for example, "Honour" instead of "Honor". Factotem (talk) 10:03, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
 * This is great. But, can I suggest that you convert some of the refs (the sources used lots of times at different pages) into harvard-style citations? --DannyS712 (talk) 10:17, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks, and thanks for helping out with the duplicate citations. I've always used the short citation style because it is, for me, the simplest form and, per WP:CITESTYLE, is perfectly valid. I would prefer, therefore, not to change it. Factotem (talk) 10:31, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Would you be okay if I try to change it? I've been wanted to learn how to use harvard style --DannyS712 (talk) 10:35, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Sorry, but no. Per WP:CITEVAR, it's normal practice to defer to the style used by the first major contributor and that style should be followed. Factotem (talk) 10:41, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Okay --DannyS712 (talk) 16:12, 14 February 2019 (UTC)