Who, Why, What, Where and When – these are questions you want to know when visiting or living in Washington, DC. This unique book gives you the contextual origins of what can now be seen rather than what one would find in the casual tourist guide. It explores the interaction of geography and history, the place and the effects of politics on that place.
Explore each era starting in the 1790s as the Seat of Government of the Revolutionary Generation; from the 1830s onward as the straggly Ante-Bellum Federal City; during the 1860s when the Civil War, Reconstruction and Gilded Age made it truly the National Capital. After 1900, the Capital became the epitome of the City Beautiful; and after World War II, by the time of its bicentennial in 2000, the International Capital and also a City representative of a more inclusive sense of America.
