| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Capital Speculations: Writing and Building Washington, D.C. By Sarah Luria. (Durham: University of New Hampshire Press, 2006. xxxii, 196 pp. Cloth, $65.00, ISBN 1-58465-501-1. Paper, $26.00, ISBN 1-58465-502-X.)

The title is a play on the multiple meanings of each word (capital: seat of government, financial assets, excellent or first-rate; speculation: contemplation, conjecture, risky financial transaction). In case the reader does not get it, the author explains: "I argue that both Washington's successes and its failures can be traced in large part to the practice in which politics, literature, architecture, and urban planning intersect: speculation" (p. xxii). In four essays, organized in pairs around themes of "the politics of circulation" and "models of national domesticity," Sarah Luria speculates upon the intersection of literature, urban planning, politics, and financial speculation (p. xxvi). The author handles the first two components well; her interpretations of Washington-related literature and urban planning texts (expanded to include maps, images, photographs, and the built environment as texts) are for the most part insightful and based on the best current scholarship. Political history, as well as economic history and theory, are less well incorporated.

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