Washington
How Slaves, Idealists, and Scoundrels Created the Nation's Capital
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · June 2, 2009
We earn from qualifying purchases.
- Who it’s for
- The capital’s origin story unfolds through power, speculation, and the people made to build it.
- Themes
- Founding of the nation's capital, Slavery and the building of Washington, Political and financial corruption
- Pacing
- Fast
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved. Most of these share its genre: Revolutionary America (1775-1800).
Capital DamesCokie Roberts56% match
Measuring AmericaAndro Linklater49% match
Lies Across AmericaJames W. Loewen48% match
1776David McCullough51% match
The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's CapitalDavid Ovason64% matchAlso shares Middle Atlantic History
His ExcellencyJoseph J. Ellis54% matchAlso shares Presidents & World Leaders
The Great ContradictionJoseph J. Ellis61% match
For younger readers: Who Was Alexander Hamilton?, Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge, Where Is the White House?
Start with three books, and this one can be the first.
Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.
Start with this bookAbout this book
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 once described as a mere swamp "producing nothing except myriads of toads and frogs (of enormous size)," and which was strategically indefensible, captive to the politics of slavery, and the target of unbridled land speculation—our nation's capital?
Continue reading
In Washington, acclaimed, award-winning author Fergus M. Bordewich turns to the backroom deal-making and shifting alliances among our Founding Fathers to find out, and in doing so pulls back the curtain on the lives of the slaves who actually built the city. The answers revealed in this eye-opening book are not only surprising but also illuminate a story of unexpected triumph over a multitude of political and financial obstacles, including fraudulent real estate deals, overextended financiers, and management more apt for a banana republic than an emerging world power. In a page-turning work that reveals the hidden and unsavory side to the nation's beginnings, Bordewich once again brings his novelist's eye to a little-known chapter of American history.
A Capital’s Making
The capital’s origin story unfolds through power, speculation, and the people made to build it.
Come here for
- Backroom alliances and real-estate schemes behind a national symbol
- A closer look at slavery’s place in the city’s making
Expect
- Political maneuvering alongside the lives of enslaved builders
- A little-known chapter of American history, told with a novelist’s eye
Where it sits
| Middle Atlantic History | 66% |
|---|---|
| Revolutionary America (1775-1800) | 66% |
| Presidents & World Leaders | 39% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- History of Architecture
- 19th-Century America
- Middle Atlantic History
- Midwest History
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Southwest U.S. History
- Western U.S. History
- The Americas History
- Public Administration
- Authors
- Fergus Bordewich
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- June 2, 2009
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Founding of the nation's capital · Slavery and the building of Washington · Political and financial corruption
- Reading lane
- History of Architecture