George Washington’s Expense Account by Gen. Geo.Washington and Marvin Kitman, 3/5

Any romantic notions about the American Revolution that still lingered in my mind after reading the eye-opening A Respectable Army were diffused by this cringe-inducing account of George Washington living like a literal king on the country’s dime–spending the equivalent of millions of dollars in today’s money–while his ragged soldiers were frequently hungry and unpaid. I eventually tired of Kitman’s tongue-in-cheek commentary and now-obscure political references, but perusing the included facsimile in George Washington’s tidy but inscrutably cursive handwriting helped me appreciate the accessibility of a modern transcription with context.

Why I read it: antiques expert Peter Combs mentioned it in one of his weekly YouTube videos.