"Admittedly written as the text for a course on the nation's capital, this book provides a sprightly, informative, and often illuminating portrait of Washington, D.C. Although aimed at D.C. college students, it could also act as a travel guide...the audience could be wide...the book's ten chapters eloquently and adroitly explore such subjects as Washington's heritage of design (the L'Enfant Plan ... Read moreand the McMillan Commission), its memorials and monumentality, its host of museums, its politics, its economy, and its society, rich and poor. The authors especially focus on the city's unique and constraining geographic and political boundaries and Washington's long, rich, but troubled racial history. Unlike a travel guide, all of these discussions are finely nuanced." - J. F. Bauman, University of Southern Maine, Choice January 2015 52:52-2735 Show Less