Book Review

Washington is a problem and long has been. As the national capital, it is the place where we stage many of our political conflicts, and it is the place upon which we project our political imagery. The current media miasma that hangs over the city is only the latest image projection in a series that has long obscured the culture and functions of the city and its residents. Carl Abbott offers this fine short history to tell us what is going on within the fog. His story opens with the choice of the Potomac River location for the capital and continues down to the present multi-city metropolis, the national control and information center, and the center of international political and military power.

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Abbott tells his history in an easy narrative of local and national events, enriched by repeated references to contemporary fiction. Beneath the vignettes of visitors and residents lies a solid framework of analysis. First, for each period, he tells who lives in Washington and what they do there. In telling where whites and African Americans, men and women, come from he wants to explain the social experiences that give rise to vernacular cultures. Second, he locates the city in its region, the nation, and the world by recounting its economic functions: what is the business of Washington? Third, he recounts the major political events that give each era its special qualities, whether Tidewater small town or government office center.

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