Book Roundup, DC Edition
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Shortly after arriving in DC, I asked a retired bookseller to recommend books about the city, in any genre. I’ve since added a number of my own finds to this list, which I present in the hopes that other residents of our capital will find it useful in developing an appreciation for the history and beauty of the city of Washington.
Reveille in Washington: 1860-1865 (Margaret Leech, 1941. 524pp). The Civil War transforms a sleepy backwater into the center of the Union’s war effort.
Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders, 2017. 368pp). Willie Lincoln was temporarily interred in Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown during the Civil War, and Lincoln visited on several occasions to hold the body of his child. Saunders writes a moving narrative about the President’s grief.
The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends, 1880-1918 (Patricia O’Toole, 2006. 459pp). Describes the social circle of Henry Adams, the grandson of presidents and an acute observer of political life.
Spring in Washington (Louis J. Halle, 1947. 252pp). A bureaucrat during the Second World War observes the changing on the seasons. While Halle sometimes makes dangerous forays into philosophizing, his description of the birds, plants, and weather gives one a persistent itch to bike along the Mount Vernon trail.
First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America’s First Black Public High School (Alison Stewart, 2013. 352pp). How does an all-black school during the 1950s compete with and even outperform the best white schools in the city? Stewart describes the culture of excellence at a school that produced educators, lawyers, academics, and politicians and engendered a deep loyalty among its graduates.