Through a Fiery Trial [Hardcover]

Bob Arnebeck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 26, 1991

Historians have dismissed the ten years it took to ready the new capital as nothing more than man's inability to tame a a swamp. In a brilliant narrative Bob Arnebeck shows how with slave axe-men, lawyers' writs, and speculators' greed a hilly, well wooded paradise was turned into a land of stumps ruts, shacks, and isolated mansions. The stories of the slaves and workers are a last told.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Arnebeck offers the first full-length history of the establishment of the national capital in Washington, D.C. After outlining the machinations involved in selecting a site, the author painstakingly details the progress in building the capital, recounting one year of activity per chapter from 1791 to 1801. In the process, he describes the roles of James Madison, architect Pierre L'Enfant, speculators Samuel Blodget and James Greenleaf, and Washington himself. Arnebeck provides a readable, meticulously researched narrative which intends to chronicle the course of events rather than explain and interpret them. This very detailed work is recommended for interested (and informed) history fans.
- David Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

To judge from the colorful, hugely entertaining, irreverent history, it's a wonder Washington, D.C., got built at all. George Washington welcomed Congress's decisions to move from Philadelphia to the Potomac, but just before his death in 1799, the first president vented his spleen at nine years of inept financing, lawsuits, builders' inflated costs, real estate sharks' greed and other roadblocks that impeded the capital's developement. Obstinate French architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant jockeyed for total control of the city's construction, spreading confusion in his wake. His successor, Samuel Blodget, an ingratiating Bostonian, frittered away seven years trying to salvage a $350,000 lottery he organized to finance an unfinished hotel. Land speculator Thomas Jefferson, charmed by the capital's rural character, cultivated more botanists than he did investors in the city. Arnebeck draws on reams of previously untapped archival material for this exhaustive year-by-year chronicle. (Publishers Weekly )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 701 pages
• Publisher: Madison Books; First Edition edition (February 26, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819178322
• ISBN-13: 978-0819178329
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,293,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Washington, D.C., in 1947, graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in 1965 and then Beloit College in 1969, and then tried to make it producing my epic dramatic poem history of the Ford Motor Company! Fat chance. Then I worked for a government agency, leaked documents, wrote a story for the Washington Post Magazine about leaking documents, and then began a career as a freelance writer. I specialized in humor, out of which grew Proust's Last Beer: a History of Curious Demises, and history, out of the which grew Through A Fiery Trial: Building Washington 1790-1800. I also did commentaries on historical topics for NPR's Morning Edition for a couple years. I wrote a manuscript on Benjamin Rush and the yellow fever epidemics of the 1790s but could not find a publisher. In 1994 I left Washington for an island in the St. Lawrence River. I write about beavers and otters, especially, and have continued writing web articles on Washington History, expanding on my research on the use of slaves in building the early city, and the life of Pierre L'Enfant. You can find links to web pages on mammals, yellow fever, my Ford Motor Company poem, and Washington history at www.bobarnebeck.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, September 14, 2005

By 

Betty (Pickerington, Ohio, OH USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Through a Fiery Trial (Hardcover)

Although I usually love detail in reading history, this book overwhelms with detail. I read 220 pages and then skimmed. It's true historians by profession should get more out of THROUGH A FIERY TRIAL, but for the average reader and lover of history which I am, this book is not for you.