Bücher von Carl Abbott

Washington, D.C., President John F. Kennedy once remarked, is a city of "e;southern efficiency and northern charm."e; Kennedy's quip was close to the mark. Since its creation two centuries ago, Washington has been a community with multiple personalities. Located on the regional divide between North and South, it has been a tidewater town, a southern city, a coveted prize in fighting between the states, a symbol of a reunited nation, a hub for central government, an extension of the Boston-New York megalopolis, and an international metropolis.In an exploration of the many identities Washington has taken on over time, Carl Abbott examines the ways in which the city's regional orientation and national symbolism have been interpreted by novelists and business boosters, architects and blues artists, map makers and politicians. Each generation of residents and visitors has redefined Washington, he says, but in ways that have utilized or preserved its past. The nation's capital is a city whose history lives in its neighborhoods, people, and planning, as well as in its monuments and museums.

?This is a brilliantly conceived, extremely thorough, and eminently satisfying piece of historical scholarship that successfully blends distinctive approaches--economic growth and the role of ideas--into the history of middle western cities. ... Particularly valuable is his closing chapter, which sorts out and analyzes the many strains of thought that made up the booster intellectual tradition; his examination of its relationship to the growth of the statistical method in the study of society is especially original.?-Wisconsin Magazine of History

Written for a mature audience with an interest in music, history and mystery, this historical novel investigates the subtleties of love, guilt and forgiveness, ambition and ego, the rewards of a personal adventure, the career of the real-life de Pachmann, and Europe on the verge of another world war.