Washington: The Making of the American Capital

Author - Fergus Bordewich ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from Amistad was reviewed on 10-Dec-2008.

Search ISBN:0060842385 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Washington: The Making of the American Capital Reference Book. Classifications : General 19th Century United States Americas History Subjects Books General Revolution & Founding United States Americas History Subjects Books Mid-Atlantic State & Local United States Americas History . Click the following link to view the cover of Washington: The Making of the American Capital.

Related topics: General. 19th Century. United States. Americas. History. Subjects. Books. General. United States. Americas.

1) Hardcover Book Washington: The Making of the American Capital by Amistad. 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.
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.

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.

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.

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.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the genesis of our nation´s capital.¤

2) Hardcover Book Washington: The Making of the American Capital by Amistad. Allow me firstly to say I went in initially with high expectations for this book. The history of Washington, D.C. had been an area that I knew very little about and was greatly excited when I finally found a book about this on the shelves of my local bookstore. But, how my expectations have changed after reading this book.
Bordewich gives the reader a cast of characters that otherwise have been regulated to the dustiest pages of history, and whose contributions are indeed worthy of note.
The problem that Bordewich forces his readers to endure is his insistence of turning several chapters into abolitionist minutia history. Where one chapter of anti-slavery background filled the reader with all they really needed to know about the people and abolitionist history, Bordewich insists on dragging his readers through information that he´s already stated in other chapters. I found myself actually speed reading through those chapters in about 45 seconds and skipped to the next chapter.
It appeared as if Bordewich needed `filler´ to round out the more informative and better written chapters. Overall, I came away disappointed from a book that I had such high hopes for. Buy this if you need a reference book, but not for pleasure.
¤

3) Hardcover Book Washington: The Making of the American Capital by Amistad. This well written, easily read account of the decade long saga that is the history of Washington, D.C.´s creation as our national capital brings a bit of scholarly background of the Founding era to a general readership. The political, personal, international, financial, religious, medical, national security, and geographical details that each came to play in the selection and completion of this project are clearly explained. Whether famous or infamous, the players are presented fairly, but without omission of their very human motives and behaviors. Slavery is presented just as it was in this new Republican land-of-the-free: protected by the Constitution and a powerful force when expressed in the Federal Ratio. The quoted sentiments of many contemporaries bring the text an enjoyable contemporaneous quality. There are many poignant anecdotes, including the sheriff´s arrest of a sitting Supreme Court justice and co-father of the Constitution, James Wilson, for failure to pay his debts. Without doubt, the lack of maps is a major disappointment. I found myself digging out my old tourist guides each time reference was made to today´s geography. There is a place on the bookshelves of everyone interested in American history for this informative volume.¤

4) Hardcover Book Washington: The Making of the American Capital by Amistad. If there is truth in advertising this book should be entitled Washington The Making of an American Capital & A History of Slavery in the United States 1789 - 1801. In an attempt to show the part that African - Americans played in the founding of he nation´s capital he spent half of the book talking about the plight of free blacks and slaves in the middle atlantic states during the first dozen years of his country´s history. While the book is a very good read it gets tiresome in points and goes overboard in the name of "political correctness"¤

5) Hardcover Book Washington: The Making of the American Capital by Amistad. 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.

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.

Buy the book, you will find it hard to put down.¤

6) Hardcover Book Washington: The Making of the American Capital by Amistad.

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.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 7-Jan-2009, 00608423859780060842383, 180-850-890-470-340-G8B-8

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