Washington: The Making of the American Capital by Fergus M. Bordewich

Bordewich, Fergus M. Washington: The Making of the American Capital. New York: Harper Collins, 2008.

I haven't ever read a lot of American history. So this book was welcome Father's Day present.  Reading the text did give me an interest in spending more time on reading history, particularly American history. Unfortunately, I can't give Bordewich high marks otherwise. The book, in reality, isn't so much about Washington D.C. as it is an anti-slavery polemic. Bordewich spent page after page detailing the injustices which were foisted upon enslaved people. Yet at the same time he seemed to take positions both in favor of a strong centralized federal government and against it, generally coming down in support of a strong but anti-slavery federal government which would use its coercive power to end slavery throughout the nation. The prose in the book tends to be bloated, the plot line rambling. Sorry, this isn't a book to seek out, even if you want to read a book that's about abolishing slavery.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com