Empire of Mud: The Secret History of Washington, D.C. by J.D. Dickey
Empire of Mud: The Secret History of Washington, D.C. by J.D. Dickey
Washington, D.C., gleams with stately columns and neoclassical memorials today, but for decades it was one of the worst excuses for a capital city the world had ever seen. Before America became a world power, Washington City -- as it was known for most of the nineteenth century -- was an eyesore at best and a disgrace at worst. Unfilled swamps, filthy canals, and rutted horse trails littered its landscape. Beneath pestilential air, the town's muddy roads led to a half-finished Washington Monument, a domeless U.S. Capitol, and the wasteland of the National Mall. Boardinghouses and slums lined the streets, and opposing factions of volunteer firefighters battled one another in gang warfare. Legendary madams entertained clients from all stations of society. Mobs and duelists ran amok with near impunity, and political bosses dispatched hooligans and thugs to conduct the nation's affairs. Featuring a rich cast of characters from radical journalists and political demagogues to insidious slave traders and enterprising criminals, Empire of Mud unearths and untangles the roots of our capital's beginnings, exploring how the city was tainted from the start. Teeming with sin, scandal, and subterfuge, the book reveals the down-at-the-heel lives of common citizens and the working poor, the savage realities of the slave economy, the ins and outs of the sex trade, the gruesome circumstances of the Civil War, and the government's willingness to dissolve the city itself in order to curtail voting rights. The city's turbulent history set a precedent for the dishonesty and mismanagement that have prompted generations to look suspiciously at the deeds of its politicians ever since. In this new and vibrant look at Washington's origins, author J.D. Dickey reveals what the history textbooks don't tell you.
Lyons Press, Hardcover, 2014
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK.