Washington: The Making of the American Capital

Washington‚ D.C. is home to the most influential power brokers in the world. But how did we come to call D.C.-a district 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‚ award-winning author Fergus M. Bordewich turns his eye to the backroom deal-making and shifting alliances between our Founding Fathers to find out and in so doing pulls back the curtain on the lives of the slaves who actually built the city. The answers revealed in this eye-opening and well-researched 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‚ over-extended 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 eye to a little-known chapter of American history.