The Capitol
About This Book
Most people know the United States Capitol as a dome on a hill and a backdrop for the news. Brian Jay Jones treats it as something closer to a character: a building with a long, tangled biography that runs through architecture, politics, popular culture and the country's struggles over race. The book spans three centuries and follows the people who designed, built, occupied and fought over the place. Famous figures such as George Washington, Davy Crockett and Ronald Reagan appear alongside many lesser-known characters whose names have mostly dropped out of the story. Jones gives particular attention to the enslaved people who labored on the Capitol, working to restore their narratives and acknowledge what they contributed. The history is not dry. It includes political intrigue, assassination attempts, thwarted bombings and gunmen on the run, along with odder details like ghostly cat prints, mysteriously bloodstained steps and tiny "fairy doors" that have charmed visitors for generations. Jones argues that the Capitol's story is the story of America itself. Told as a sweeping biography of the building at the center of the American experiment, it shows what the place has meant to generations of Americans and how it has endured.
ISBN: 9780593185001
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