Description: 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?
Brief description: Journalist Fergus M. Bordewich has written on American history as well as human rights and other issues for the New York Times, Smithsonian, American Heritage, the Atlantic Monthly, Reader's Digest, and other periodicals. He is the author of Killing the White Man's Indian: Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century; My Mother's Ghost; and Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement.
Review Quotes:
"Bordewich tells a fascinating tale, and tells it well."
-- "Publishers Weekly"