Washington A History of Our National City

When George Washington announced the site of the nation's capital, he envisioned an agrarian city that would reflect the values of the young United States. But Washington, D.C., took shape under the direction of Pierre L'Enfant, a mercurial French artist whose plans for grand avenues clashed with Washington's vision and were never fully realized. It was the first of many times when the city would fail to live up to the dreams of its founders. In Washington, the historian Tom Lewis constructs a sweeping portrait of our capital city, breathing life into the men and women who shaped itfrom the land speculator who nearly bankrupted the city in the 1790s to the black New Deal photographer who gave a face to its slums. Interweaving the story of D.C.'s physical transformation with an account of its political, economic, and social evolution, Lewis argues that the history of Washington doubles as a powerful narrative about the nation writ large. Through wars, expansion, financial depression, and the fight for civil rights, Washington's contradictions and compromises have embodied our nation's highest ideals and deepest failures.