Washington, D.C., is home to the most influential power brokers in the world. But how did we come to call D.C.—a place one contemporary observer called a mere swamp "producing nothing except myriads of toads and frogs (of enormous size)," a district that was strategically indefensible, captive to the politics of slavery, and a target of unbridled land speculation—our nation's capital? In Washington, acclaimed and award-winning author Fergus M. Bordewich turns his eye to the backroom deal making and shifting alliances between our Founding Fathers and in doing so pulls back the curtain on the lives of slaves who actually built the city. The answers revealed in this eye-opening book are not only surprising and exciting but also illuminate a story of unexpected triumph over a multitude of political and financial obstacles, including fraudulent real estate speculation, overextended financiers, and management more apt for a "banana republic" than an emerging world power. In this page-turning work that reveals the hidden and somewhat unsavory side of the nation's beginnings, Bordewich, once again, brings his novelist's sensibility to a little-known chapter in American history.
Author: Fergus Bordewich
Publisher: Amistad
Customer Reviews
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An Engaging History of the Nation's Capital
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book about the history of our nation's capital and why it came to be located where it is. Bordewich explains how the location of the capital was closely tied to the importance of slavery in the South. He describes the details of the negotiations in Congress and how ultimately, to the disappointment of Philadelphia and other contestants, a compromise tying the assumption of debts from the Revolution to the location of the capital placed it where it is today.
<br />But the location was tenuous from the beginning as George Washington's vision of a grand capital was fraught with all kinds of problems -including the involvement of land speculators - that would keep the capital from maturing for many years to come.
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<br />Bordewich reveals the role that slave labor played in building the capital and the ironies that abounded becuase of that, particularly the personal struggle that some, like Washington himself, dealt with to reconcile their ownership of slaves with the egalitarian pronouncements of the new republic.
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<br />The characters involved in this real life plot are engaging: Pierre L'Enfant, the architect originally commissioned to build the City; the land speculators and the founding fathers - Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison, as well as Washington himself, who is also revealed as having self-interest via land-holdings in the development of the City. In the end, however, his deity-like stature remains for posterity.
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<br />What I always find striking in books of American history of this period, is the erudite manner in which people communicated, ways that apparently have been lost to more recent generations, and makes me wonder whether we simply think differently and therefore do not have ready access to the forms of expression that were the signature of our forefathers, but I suppose that is another book.
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<br />I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the genesis of our nation's capital.
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Buy this book
This is simply a superb book. Extremely well told, rich with historical texture, with detail new even to those who "already know" this story, and especially fascinating to anyone who works in commercial real estate or finance, particularly those of us in DC.
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<br />To the real estate player, this is a development case study that will astound, amaze, and amuse on almost every page. To the financier in any industry, it will remind you our business never really changes.
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<br />Buy the book, you will find it hard to put down.
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