This can be considered something of a classic of history and political science. Written in 1965, it was still a basic text assigned to me for a college political science course in the late 1990s. The lesson my professor emphasized was how the anti-power sentiments of the founding and early republic shaped the Washington community and the early federal government.

There were interesting tidbits throughout that gave me insight into everything from the Founders intentions to the fractures that would result in the Civil War a few decades after the focus of this book. For instance, it was particularly interesting to me that the constitutional separation of powers was literally built into the capital:

There is no single center in the ground plan of the governmental community no one focus of activity, no central place for the assembly of all members. What catches the eye instead is a system of lager and lesser centers widely dispersed over the terrain, "seemingly connected," as L'Enfant put it, by shared routes of communication. It is clear that the planners intended a community whose members were to work or live not together but apart from each other, segregated into distinct units. Among these units three major centers vie for dominance. They are separated by a considerable distance, and situated so as to command different aspects, avoiding mutual confrontation. One is assigned to the Congress, one to the President, and one to the Court.

Other aspects of interest was how low in prestige and importance the federal government was early in the republic. Office holders tended not to stay long in office but were transients and the capital didn't attract much wealth or culture to it. And there were tensions apparent from the first in gathering together representatives from New England, the Slave-holding South and the Frontier. I can certainly understand why my professor assigned it, and even think it might have some general, not just academic interest--at least for those interested in American history and government. ( )