Section I: The crisis of creation : The first farewell ; Washington at home ; A reluctant president ; The seeds of the two-party system ; The death of the one-term dream ; Second-term blues ; Hating George Washington ; A time of riots and insurrection ; Washington's squabbling surrogate sons ; A farewell "importantly and lastingly useful"

Section II: Washington's pillars of liberty : National unity: join or die ; Political moderation: the fight against factions ; Final discipline: debt and taxes ; Virtue and religion: the faith of the first founding father ; Education: "public opinion should be enlightened" ; A foreign policy of independence: peace through strength

Section III: The afterlife of the idea : Unshackled at the end ; Washington wins the war of ideas ; A farewell fraud? ; The farewell for sale ; Washington in blue and gray ; World wars and the temptation of empire ; Ike's inspiration ; The farewell echoes on.