Product Description
Discover Washington DC

Toss a Frisbee in the shadows of the founding fathers on America's front lawn
View cutting-edge art in a former munitions factory
Drink beers while practicing your putt in a bar that doubles as a mini-golf course
Chow down on curry served from a van full of would-be circus ringleaders

In This Guide:

Two authors, 50 days of in-city research, 15 detailed maps, innumberable half-smokes eaten
Dedicated Politics chapter reveals what makes the capital city tick
Expanded Eating chapter lets you taste everything from Chesapeake Bay crabs to Salvadoran pupusas
... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Great guide for a first-time visitor
I bought Lonely Planet's Washington DC's City Guide for my first visit to DC two weeks ago. It was an excellent guide. The little map enclosed is also very useful to make your way through the Metro system. All the recommended places to eat are really what they advertise and I especially appreciated the variety of recommendations they give for places to eat within different price ranges. The book is written in a fun language anyone can understand. I also think that they give great suggestions for tours you can do on your own, etc.
Great for both people traveling to DC and someone moving to DC.

Lonely Planet books
I love the Lonely Planet Books.I buy them whenever I am traveling to a place I have never been before.They are very comprehensive and include so many catagories that the normal travel book would not.Get them for every place you are traveling!

Pretty decent guide despite in-your-face left-wing slant
This LP guide to Washington DC is a comprehensive guide to the awesomely bustling metropolis of America's capital. It starts with an introduction to the history, the culture and the people of DC that is very readable and a good length to read on your plane/train/bus ride there. However, I can't help but notice the left-slanted politics of the author that is quite unnecessary.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed using the book during my trip to DC. The guide to the sights/monuments in the different neighbourhoods is very useful. The restaurant section of the book is not comprehensive but feature some great highlights of the DC foodie scene. Most of the good restaurants I ate at were featured in this compact book.

The recommended walking trails were awesome and featured different distances and sights. Although the monument tours section is quite sparse, it's a good place to start to pick a bike/Segway monument tour that you might want to go for. It's cool that there is also a small section on visiting the outskirts of DC, e.g. Bethesda, but since I didn't go there, I can't comment of how good the guide is for the area.

Overall, a good, compact, useful guide to Washington DC. The maps in the book were very well-organized and easy to read. I would definitely recommend this guide for anyone visiting America's capital!

Trying too hard
The author tries way too hard to make this into a romance novel.The various descriptions of DC being a woman in high heels and yet in a business suit, and riding in limos and also sleeping on the streets, etc. were hyper annoying.I enjoy good prose, this was not it.And it's a travel book, not a harlequin novel.Aside from the tone, I found the information offered was often lacking.There was nothing about the numerous options for paid tours of the city's historic sites.There was very little useful in the dining section if you wanted something more than cafe fare.
I usually love books in the Lonely Planet series, but this one didn't measure up.

A great travel companion
Being a travel junky I found this guidebook very valuable. Some points:

1. It has color maps all located in the same place (back of the book). On the backside of each map is an index with a page reference! So you see the map, you flip and find the attraction/restaurant/whatever, and you go to the referenced page for more info. This is invaluable since the last thing I like doing is flipping through maps embedded throughout a book only to not get any information on what's around me.

2. Did I mention the maps? There is also a subway map overlay on each map so you can plan getting there and getting back. There's also a complete map at the very back.

3. It's a compact book. This is a BIG deal. Lug around a monstrous book for a day and you'll be ripping out unneeded pages later that night (which is a good idea anyway, really). This guide was slim and fit nicely in an outside pocket. Just enough history to occupy the time on the subway, not so much as to displace Washington's biography.

4. It's a well built book. Bend it, fold it, get it wet. It's going to stay together and readable. While weathered guide books held together with rubber bands show some flair, it's no good when you're standing there on a corner with pages falling all over.

Overall a highly recommended guide book. I try and find the best overall guide book for whatever my destination and keep coming back to the Lonely Planet. ... Read more

Product Description
The first guidebook you write yourself.

Whether you're planning a day of museums or a night of dancingWashington D.C. has plenty of choices. Record your favorites in the Moleskine City Notebook Washington D.C. The Key Map summarizes the overall city layout showing the sequence and location of the 18 zone maps. Map of the metro system and list of stationsplus the alphabetical street index of the zone maps. Blank pages for jotting down notes and recording your thoughtsstories and memories. 32 removable sheets for loose notes and exchanging messages. 12 translucent sticky sheets for tracing your routes and sharing itineraries. A 96-page tabbed archive for collecting everything that matters most and keeping it at your fingertips. The first 6 tabs are printed; the others await your personalization with the enclosed adhesive labels.

Each pocket sized Moleskine City Notebook is thread bound and has a cardboard bound cover with rounded cornersacid free paperthree bookmarksan elastic closure and an expandable inner pocket that contains the Moleskine history.Amazon.com Review

California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.

Customer Reviews (5)

I wish they had these for every city!
I've long been a Moleskine fan, so when I had the chance to spend a week in DC, I jumped at the idea of getting the DC Moleskine, thinking it'd be nice to have a city-specific book to journal in about my trip.

Well, I did keep my travelogue in the blank journal pages, but I found the other sections of the book invaluable as well--pages for addresses of people I wanted to send postcards to, pages for itineraries, pages for information of places I wanted to visit, and the ever butt-saving Metro map... it's nice to not have to worry about refolding the map and knowing I always have it there, and it's a little more low-profile than pulling out a full map.The maps of the city were also nice for navigation and for tracing out where I went and when--I geotag photos that I take, so this helped with remembering where I took certain pictures.

I'm planning a week-long trip to London this summer and a week-long trip to Rome in the fall, and I'm already looking forward to getting the city notebooks for those places. Overall, it's a small, convenient, and very well-made product, and in my opinion, was the best $15 I spent on anything for the trip.

neat-o
This is a really neat little notebook: with surprisingly in-depth maps and a street index, blank space for notes, tabbed sections to organize restaurants or museums or whatever you'd like...you can keep track of everything you've done and everywhere you've been in the city. The maps are especially convenient and subtle, too, if you're a little self-conscious about needing directions.

I'd only recommend one if you're going to be in the city for awhile, or plan on coming back. I got the NYC notebook but was only there for a week; the maps were really helpful.

perfect "little black book"
I'm addicted to moleskine books. This one is no different. High quality product with oodles of room for customization. It's the perfect self created travel guide. A MUST for all major cities!

A classic with a bonus
As ever, I love my moleskines! A new and creative twist on the traditional notebooks. I bought mine to encourage myself to journal more about the city I live in.Carry my Moleskine with me everywhere (perfect size for a purse or bag) and each new restaurant or event I attend I make a quick note of it to help me remember for a more detailed journal later on.Also great for referring back to when friends ask for a recommendation or visitors tire of the usual travel guidebooks.I highly recommend for locals as well as visitors who want to jot a few notes.

A Do-It-Yourself Travel Notebook
This is a very unusual product and I would strongly encourage anyone considering getting one to be completely aware of what it is before they purchase it.First, if you are looking for a single travel guide to prepare you for your trip to New York (or anywhere else there is a guide for), this is very close to worthless, if not entirely worthless.I would call one's attention to the title of the product.It is a "Notebook."That means that most of the pages are blank.This literally is a book for taking notes in.

So what do you get when you buy this?Every book in the series follows the same format.First there is a personal information page with address, phone, allergies, family doctor, passport number, then map information with public transportation maps. Then follows information on the various forms of transportation with phone numbers and websites, including cabs, buses, other forms of public transportation, and airports.There are some blank itinerary pages, measurement and speed conversion charts, size conversion charts (for shoppers), then a long series of neighborhood maps, including an index.And that's it.The final two-thirds of the notebook are blank.The next 20 or so pages are completely blank and unlined for whatever use you want to put them to.Next come several pages intended for writing down names of restaurants, bars, museums, historical sites, hotels, or whatever.The book also comes with unlabeled tabs with stickers to use as desired (for theaters, concert halls, or whatever you desire) as well as tracing paper for, as the label says, "Itineraries or Whatever."Finally, there is the usual pocket at the back that is found in all Moleskine products.

For some people this is going to be an absolutely useless product.But for many this will be remarkably useful.In fact, I can envision two uses for this notebook.First, those who are planning a trip to one of the places for which Moleskine has produced a book.Let's say one has consulted the Blue guide, the Eyewitness Guide (by DK), a Rough Guide, the Michelin guide, and the Let's Go guide.Maybe you've bought all of these, making for five guides.No way do you want to drag all of these on your trip or more than one on your flight.So what might you do?You might take the Moleskin Notebook, record into it all the places you want to see, restaurants you want to dine at, museums you want to stroll through, and anything else you want to do while in your destination of choice, and record it there.So the Moleskine City Notebook can serve as a distillation of all the various travel guides, web sites, and other resources you have consulted.And instead of hauling about a large Fodor's guide, you can carry about this small Notebook that can easily fit into a backpack, purse, should bag, or even pocket.

The only downside is that the Moleskine City Notebook is only as good as you make it.If you do a good job of planning your trip, it will be filled to the brim with useful and helpful information.If not, it will be as unhelpful as you have made it.

There is a second use to which the City Notebook can be put to use, though it is not one for which it was primarily designed.You could use it for the city in which you live, should you live in one of the cities for which one is made.I live, for instance, in Chicago.I have bought one of these so that I can over time use it to record every bit of helpful information that I might find useful or helpful.I can record what hours the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore (the real one, not the trade version on 57th Street) is open.The hours for the Chicago Public Library and the Newberry Library.Phone numbers of restaurants and addresses of bars.And so on and so forth.Granted, these books will only benefit those who live in one of those cities, but for the U.S. New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are pretty populated areas.

So this is a very well conceived product though it absolutely has to be stressed that it is a specialized one.Please note:THIS ISN'T FOR EVERYONE.If you don't want to use the Notebook to plan your trip it is going to be very close to worthless.I'll emphasize again:this is only as good a product as you make it.But if you use it to help you plan your trip, it could be the single item you would most loathe to be without after your notebook. ... Read more

Product Description

When Thomas Jefferson moved his victorious Republican administration into the new capital city in 1801, one of his first acts was to abolish any formal receptions, except on New Year's Day and the Fourth of July. His successful campaign for the presidency had been partially founded on the idea that his Federalist enemies had assumed dangerously aristocratic trappings--a sword for George Washington and a raised dais for Martha when she received people at social occasions--in the first capital cities of New York and Philadelphia. When the ladies of Washington City, determined to have their own salon, arrived en masse at the president's house, Jefferson met them in riding clothes, expressing surprise at their presence. His deep suspicion of any occasion that resembled a European court caused a major problem, however: without the face-to-face relationships and networks of interest created in society, the American experiment in government could not function.

Into this conundrum, writes Catherine Allgor, stepped women like Dolley Madison and Louisa Catherine Adams, women of political families who used the unofficial, social sphere to cement the relationships that politics needed to work. Not only did they create a space in which politics was effectively conducted; their efforts legitimated the new republic and the new capital in the eyes of European nations, whose representatives scoffed at the city's few amenities and desolate setting. Covered by the prescriptions of their gender, Washington women engaged in the dirty business of politics, which allowed their husbands to retain their republican purity.

Constrained by the cultural taboos on "petticoat politicking," women rarely wrote forthrightly about their ambitions and plans, preferring to cast their political work as an extension of virtuous family roles. But by analyzing their correspondence, gossip events, "etiquette wars," and the material culture that surrounded them, Allgor finds that these women acted with conscious political intent. In the days before organized political parties, the social machine built by these early federal women helped to ease the transition from a failed republican experiment to a burgeoning democracy.

Customer Reviews (2)

well done and worth a read
I was lucky enough to be student of Dr. Allgor's for three years and the book was everything I would expect from her.She is at times funny and serious, and capable of explaining history in academic terms that aren't so esoteric as to be incomprehensible to the non-historian while giving a fresh spin on a well documented time period.

In Parlor Politics, Allgor documents the vital role that women played in the creation of a society during (arguably) the most fragile period in our history.One wrong move and the whole deomcracy concept could've gone out the window.Women were able to step in and do things that men couldn't, and under the guise of furthering their family became real movers and shakers in the early washington scene.Allgor documents the time of Jefferson through the Jackson presidency and does so with a style that is often missing in academic texts.It is easy to see why this book is quickly becoming an influential work in the history of Washington and the construction of america.

If you enjoy this book, you may want to also read "good wives" by laurel thatcher ulrich...more dry, but also interesting.

A fascinating view of Washington political and social life
In the early 19th century, Washington City was a new political frontier by the time Thomas Jefferson was elected to the President's House. The new political and social elites were both taken aback by Washington's crude facilities and (at first) socially barren lifestyle yet were somewhat anxious to create a new political and social capital. The male politicians who came to Washington City were accompanied by their wives, sisters, and other female relatives and counterparts who saw enormous opportunity for not only social gain but political influence as well.Catherine Allgor's book, "Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Build a City and Government", convincingly portrays women as important movers and shakers in both Jeffersonian and Jacksonian society. The increasing influence that women were making in social life was beginning to play an important role in politics as well. The republican ideals of womanhood brought increasing responsibility to mothers and wives to train younger generations in civic duties. Women then used this domestic role to effectively make their presence known in the male-dominated milieu of politics.Allgor uses the examples of Dolley Payne Todd Madison, Elizabeth Cortwright Monroe, and Catherine Adams (all First Ladies) to brilliantly point out that women could make or break a person's reputation in Washington. Women were ardent lobbyists; busily preparing and grooming their husbands' careers and making sure that they were introduced to the proper people in Washington. The practice of "calling", for example, on the city's social elite illustrates a complicated network of contacts which was a way of life in the social circles of the nation's capital. While it is easy for upper-class women to busy themselves with politics and social matters (they did have servants to perform most domestic chores) they nevertheless were provided more opportunities for political advancement.Allgor's analyses of the various levees and "drawing rooms" that were held in Washington City illustrate complex social situations in which women played a vital part. Dolley Madison, for example, realized how even the most intricate of details like the color of curtains, for example, could determine if a levee would be successful or not.Allgor's monograph is short yet detailed look at social life in early Washington. So much can be gleaned from this book that can be pertained to modern times (the Jackson scandals, for example). Overall, an interesting behind-the-scenes look at Washington political and social life. ... Read more

Product Description
Skip the tour bus and experience Washington, D.C.—on foot! City Walks: Washington, D.C. provides an insider's view of the nation’s capital. Each card in this deck outlines a self-guided walking adventure, complete with detailed map and local secrets. Discover the best places to eat, drink, stop, shop, rest, walk, and play: Pick any card and start exploring Washington, D.C.! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Love these!!
We bought the LA ones for us when we moved here and I just bought the Washington DC ones for a friend that is being transferred there this summer! She has already gone through them with her family and can't wait to use them. They are fun and easy to use. I would definately use other ones as well!

Excellent, Convenient, & Smart.
We just returned from Washington, D.C.. This is the first time I've used these cards. What a smart idea! We loved the card system. Making them spill resistant was also a very smart idea (I spilled coffee on them once - no damage!) It sure was convenient to grab just the few cards we needed for a particular area we wanted to explore. Having info on one side and maps on the other really worked for us. Granted, the cards cannot be as comprehensive as other guide books, but if your inention is just to see the major sights on foot, then this is the best few bucks you can spend! I only wish they had more cities available. Thankfully they do have our next destination for sale; Paris, France.

These are a great way to get to know Washington, DC.
These cards provide an excellent way to get out and explore the nation's capital city.Having studied DC's architecture and as a resident of DC (going on my fifth year in the city), I must say these cards are a great way to learn more about the city and its neighborhoods.I have used these cards to take students on a architectural tour of the capital and found them to be well-done, convenient and pretty comprehensive.Definitely a way to make a tourist's self-guided tour more interesting (and prevent them from getting lost, too).

Just What I Wanted
These were perfect in every way for touring Wash DC.Gave all info for everything & how to get there anyway ... Read more

Product Description
Drawing on literature, the law, and popular media--and "taking her (counter)cue from that celebrated sitcom of American life, 'The Reagan Years'" (Homi K. Bhabha)--Berlant presents a stunning and major statement about the nation and its citizens in an age of mass mediation. Her intriguing narratives and gallery of images will challenge readers to rethink what it means to be an American and seek salvation in its promise. 57 photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Do TV shows define your life?
While Berlant is quite definatly a good cultural theorist, the type of work she does is problematic. This book regularly tries to define a national mindset in relation to the productions of a small number of people. While one might be able to analyze any number of the texts mentioned in this book, Berlant insists on saying that these texts relate to a particular way of thinking that are shared by at least a majority of our population (enough to elect republicans to the presidency). She repeatedly uses really loaded/offensive terms, which can be fun if you politically agree with her (for instance patriotism=infantile citizenship, heterosexuality=dead sexuality), but if you disagree even slightly with her they seem mostly like bullying. While I'm rather left leaning, the core of her arguement, that right leaning people vote more based on emotions rather than well thought out ideas, I find to be mostly baseless (I think a misunderstanding of economics and international politics are the reason people vote republican... or immense wealth). Since most of the textual examples she uses I don't think can ever adequatly stand for the majority of the people she claims they represent, and are more caricatures of poltical discourse (which of course most political discourse is) rather than actual personal poltics, her work comes across as being based on a confusion of aggressiveness and refrences to Lacan with strong theorizing.

Unless you want to get into arguements with friends who really like this book, I'd pass it up if I were you.

One of the best Cultural Studies books I've read
It needs to be acknowledged that this underrated book will not please the reader who has done no serious engagement with the scholarship on a) popular culture, or b) sexuality and gender. It is evocative and deeply insightful, but precisely because it is methodologically sound it is not really as accessible to the casual reader as popular "non-fiction". I hope this - rather than knee-jerk cultural conservatism - accounts for the negative reviews on the site.

As an investigation of the complex dynamics of culture and citizenship, this is might be the best going. Even as a non-American, and noting the "dated" nature of the sources, I still gained many insights into contemporary nationalism from this book. It's also very funny in parts.

Other reviews have gone into more detail about how useful the book is. I'll just say that if you compare the arguments of the negative reviews against the arguments of the positive reviews, it will be clear to you that this book generates a polarised response of extreme satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and you should be able to work out which camp you fall in. I bought it second-hand, but would have felt that it was a bargain at the new cost. A tremendous piece of scholarship.

No evidence? Maybe you should learn to read.
If you want a better critique of the kind of anxiety this book can inspire in its critics, then read the book itself which of course fully anticipates and explains overly negative panic responses to its arguments and its extensive archive.

Not only is Berlant's Queen stuffed full of evidence, it considers the question of evidence at great length; indeed, EVIDENCE is one of the most important topics this brilliant book carefully considers. Additionally, the included gallery of images, like the photograph mentioned in the review below, provide a rich graphic museum of evidence of the type Berlant considers closely throughout this book. Have you ever read a closer, more evidentiary, or more thorough reading of The Simpsons in relation to what it means to be "an American" than this book provides? Or what of the numerous, numerous, fascinating moments from every American citizen's life that serve as evidence here? The close readings of American literature? The salient keen interpretations of the speech of politicians, news articles, television images and more? If this book lacks evidence, then cats lack fur and whiskers.

The negative reviews I've read here of Queen accuse the book of many flaws (including no evidence) and yet, ironically, offer absolutely ZERO evidence from Berlant's writing to back up their baseless criticisms which exemplify most of all a profound failure of intellectual engagement. Beyond this, I would suggest that when allowing one's own artwork to appear in a publication, one should try to understand the CONTEXT in which one's image will appear. The image in question, rather than appearing "out of context," is given a deep and fascinating context provided by Berlant's analysis. But you have to read the book to understand that context. Duh.

Finally, as to Berlant's style of writing, there is no contemporary author I have read who can take such complex ideas and then translate them into effective, meaningful problems familiar to us all in such direct, intelligent, thoughtful words. If you've ever had a thought that you felt was too complicated to write out in a clear fashion, read this book as much for its argument as for its example of courageous, articulate, living prose. You'll be inspired to write your thoughts too.

In the present politically disastrous, difficult moment in this country, when clear-thinking people fill their heads with fantasies of how to leave rather than remain implicated daily in its murderous, imperialistic, cynical policies, this book reminds us all of the outright power of clear political and social thinking. If there is a way back to an America with which progressives might identify, or about which progressives might again feel some political optimism, then Berlant's work is the vehicle which can move us in a hopeful direction: a direction that requires us to honor and use our intellects just at the moment when we are threatened by drowning inside a spiral of political depression created by a Conservative Ideology which hates individual thinkers just as much as it hates thought itself. I keep Berlant's work close at hand along with my passport, but if she's not willing to defect just yet than neither am I as long as I can be led in part by her thinking.

Editor, Please!
The author needs someone to explain to her that arguments develop not simply by stringing one sentence after another and expecting that with a little tape, good cheer, and hope, a coherent line of thought will emerge.Rather, arguments develop by actually rereading what you have written, revising it so as to clarify the connecting ideas, and making assertions that require some kind of evidence to defend them.A little reseach along the way wouldn't be a bad idea either.While the topics being discussed are certainly interesting, the result of this porridge-like prose (it's not at all clear that book represents sustained meditation), is a kind of mush capable of taking any of a number of shapes.

forget the cranks:this book is subtle and brilliant!!!
On the face of it, the Queen of America is a book about family values and the fetish of innocence in the conservative citizenship ideology of the last few decades.But it is so much more than that.It is a brilliant work of cultural theory, but in the language of story telling.It considers why people have feelings about nationality and how they get that way, which couldn't be more important now.It challenges all sorts of norms about proper sexuality, knowledge, and politics, without being condescending.A slow, careful reading is powerfully well-rewarded. ... Read more

Product Description
Streetwise Washington, DC Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of Washington, DC - Folding pocket size travel map with integrated mall map & metrorail map featuring lines & transfer stations

This map covers the following areas:
Main Washington DC Map 1:31,000
Washington DC Mall Map 1:19,000
Washington DC Area Map 1:450,000
Washington DC map Metrorail

Yes, Washington D.C. is home to streets and avenues of Greco-Roman inspired architecture, unrivaled (and free) museums and, of course, unique monuments, but it is the political presence you feel the most.

This is the Superbowl stadium for every past or present player in the game of politics. The Mall serves as center field, with Lincoln, Jefferson, the WWII and Vietnam Memorials on one end, reminding us of the past battles this city has seen, and Congress, confronting current issues, looming at the other end. In between, the White House stands ready to take the field while the Supreme Court sits back waiting to settle the inevitable skirmishes that arise. Surrounding them are the supporting players, the Treasury, The Library of Congress and all the various Departments that run every feasible aspect of public life. Meanwhile, Washington Cathedral stands ready to console the battered and bereaved.

All of this is clearly laid out for you on our STREETWISE® Washington DC Street Map. Sites, whether political or not, are listed as well as hotels, transportation and parks. A separate inset of the Mall details each site. You can find relief from the political playoffs by getting outside of the city and into the bucolic region of the Mid-Atlantic, as seen on the Washington DC Area map.

Our pocket size map of Washington D.C. is laminated for durability and accordion folding for effortless use. The STREETWISE® Washington D.C. map is one of many detailed and easy-to-read city street maps designed and published by STREETWISE®. Buy your STREETWISE® Washington D.C. map today and you too can navigate DC like a native. For a larger selection of our detailed travel maps simply type STREETWISE MAPS into the Amazon search bar. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (28)

Very Small Print
I currently do not wear glasses but I may need them after reading this map a few times. We will use it for reference in regards to the Metro but otherwise it is very difficult to see anything.Very detailed however.

Handy Washington DC Map
This map was great to have on our trip.It showed much of the Washington DC area including Georgetown.It also showed all of the subway stops on the street map which helped us to decide which stop to use many times.The lamination made the map very durable and in good shape even when it got wet.

As an Amazon Prime member I was able to get free 2 day shipping on this.

Perfect, Laminated Map
We took this 2 weeks ago when we went to DC and would have been lost without it. The maps they give you for free don't include everything around. Would buy 100 of these if needed. Side note- Make sure to visit the crime and punishment museum. It was fabulous and worth every penny of the cost!

Streetwise Washington DC Map - laminated City Center Street map
As I am very familiar with Streetwise Maps, I got what I expected in quick time.

map of DC
Great map!Very easy to carry around - doesn't get torn, bent or messed up in any way.These are great maps to use when visiting places such as DC, Philadelphia, etc.Good price - I highly recommend! ... Read more

Product Description
Arguing that citizens of Washington, D.C., live without basic American rights, two respected Washington journalists show how the country's capital contains huge and often vicious contradictions and devastating race, class, and power problems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A Must Read for Anyone who Wants to Know the True History of DC
This is a must read for anyone who is interested in the recent history of DC and how people like Marion Barry managed to get to the top of the city's political food chain (and stay there even after being convicted for smoking crack with a prostitute and serving time in jail).This book does an excellend job of describing Barry's rise to the top as well as the other unique characteristics of DC during Barry's rise to power.While Barry is the focus of this book, the authors put Barry's rise in context with other things occurring in DC at the time.I am sorry to see that this book is out of print.Copies are hard to find and I really think the publishers should reprint this book!

Dream City
This book is an excellent overview of recent Washngton, D.C. history.It helps explain much ofcurrent events and illuminates the personalities involved.

Great writing: Moving story
As someone interested in marriage equality in Washington DC, I wanted to learn more about Marion Barry and found this book. Wow. Read it cover to cover in a weekend. Yes it's a book about Barry's politics as a "situationist" politician and his substance abuse challenges; but more amazing is how the book explores the psyche of a city. Would love to read the authors' text on the fifteen years since the book ends.

One of the best intros to DC politics and Marion Barry
The Barry era was more than just the grainy footage in the hotel room, and Jaffe does an excellent job of recounting the hope and promise that many Washingtonians held when Barry was first elected Mayor as part of an grassroots coalition of low-income blacks, liberal whites and a growing gay and lesbian community and how badly that promise was betrayed.

There is no doubt the 80's were an awful time for DC. Crack, violence and economic abandonment by the middle class, nearly killed DC. Most major urban centers faced similar problems in the 80's thanks to Reaganism and white flight but Jaffe clearly documents Barry's inability to anything besides compound the problems faced by DC through financial irresponsibility(largely due to patronage) incompetent and criminal staff and Barry's growing personal addictions to drug and sex. He documents Barry's failings without demonizing him or resorting to the disguised racism of many of Barry's detractors.

It should be added that Barry was recently elected back onto City Council, representing the nearly all black and poverty stricken Ward 8. Many outside DC couldn't believe that DC residents would want this guy back on the City Council, but those folks don't know Ward 8 or Barry's appeal. While DC is booming economically, Ward 8 continued to be ignored by the rest of the city and the Mayor. By voting for Barry against a Mayoral ally, Ward 8 was warning the rest of the city that they will not be ignored.

Good look at a complicated city
The urban problems of Washington D.C. are laid bare with some wonderful historical perspective.This is a city where the normal municipal politics (race, poverty, patronage) are complicated by the national politics that weild a veto power over this city.

This book easily could have been an unreadable tome, but the authors did a great job of keeping the book moving and putting the charachters in proper perspective. ... Read more

Product Description

Washington, D.C., boasts more than three hundred species of trees from America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and City of Trees has been the authoritative guide for locating, identifying, and learning about them for more than twenty-five years. The third edition is fully revised, updated, and expanded and includes an eloquent new foreword by theWashington Post's garden editor, Adrian Higgins.

In the introduction, Choukas-Bradley describes the efforts of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other prominent Washingtonians who helped the nation's capital evolve into the "City of Trees," a moniker regaining popularity thanks to present-day efforts encouraging citizen participation in tree planting and maintenance.

Part 1 gives the reader a guided tour of the nation's capital, highlighting historic and rare trees of the urban canopy. Part 2 is a comprehensive, simply worded, and fully illustrated botanical guide to the magnificent trees of the nation's capital and surroundings. The guide also includes botanical keys, an illustrated glossary, exquisite pen-and-ink drawings by Polly Alexander, and color close-up photographs of flowering trees, many by the nationally acclaimed photographer Susan A. Roth.

What to look for in the new edition:

* Added locations: the FDR Memorial; the Smithsonian Institution gardens;the Tudor Place grounds; the Bishop's Garden of the Washington National Cathedral; Audubon Naturalist Society sanctuaries; and much more.

* "City of Trees" history from 1987 to 2007, including the establishment ofCasey Trees and the importance of the urban canopy in the twenty-firstcentury.

* Twice as many pages of color photographs, new species descriptions andillustrations, and added habitat information.

Published in association with the Center for American Places

Customer Reviews (4)

Indispensable Guide for DC Tree Lovers
If you live in DC, or visit regularly, you've probably wondered, what are those lovely trees in that park I always walk past? If you tried to identify them with one of the usual field guides, such as Peterson, you probably didn't get far because so many of DC's trees are Asian and European species. 'City of Trees' is almost guaranteed to solve the mystery. I also enjoy taking the book along on visits to the DC area's many beautiful outdoor monuments and parks. It's much more than a guide to trees. For example, the section on Mount Vernon gives us a nutshell history, with emphasis on George Washington's interest in trees, noting a number of trees dating to his lifetime that still stand on the grounds. This book is a worthwhile addition to your tote bag whenever you're doing the tourist thing in DC.

A tree-lover's delight
Having worn out my copy of the second edition, I put this edition on my Christmas list. It does not disappoint. A cross between a tour guide and a field guide, it's just the right size for carrying around on your expeditions. You'll learn about the capital's history as well as its magnificent trees.

Beautiful photography and engaging text
I originally bought Melanie Choukas-Bradley's CITY OF TREES in its hardcover coffee-table edition and have followed its evolution since. As a Washingtonian of some thirty years' standing, I was originally unaware that this beautiful city was ever known as the City of Trees, but now that I've read Melanie's book, I've looked at the city through different eyes. Though the cherry blossoms are the best-known trees of the city, there's so much more, from the sights in every neighborhood through the rich diversity of our parks. DC is a beautiful city, and there's not nearly enough in print to show and share that beauty. Get this book.

A Field Guide Like No Other
This is a very readable and extensively researched look at the trees of Washington D.C.It's an excellent field guide for identifying trees, but the thing I like most about it is that it tells the fascinating storiesbehind so many of the trees planted in D.C. If you live near D.C. and haveeven a mild interest in its history, I strongly recommend this book! ... Read more

Product Description
Lonely Planet’s city maps present the travelers’ city in one easy view

• Complete street and sight index makes navigating the city a breeze for walkers and drivers alike

• All new, improved mapping styles and fully updated

• Sturdy, laminated, easy-fold format

• Quick-find highlights and reviews of the top city sights

• Includes up-to-date transit maps and essential practical information

• Full color throughout with gorgeous photographs ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Too hard to read
This is my second water-resistant Lonely Planet map, and I'm very disappointed with it.The color contrast is too pale, and the printing is too small.I won't use it for my trip, opting instead for a free map from AAA which is very good.Don't waste your money on this one.

This was the only map I needed
This was the only map I took on my last trip to Washington, and it was all I needed. It was most helpful simply because it showed where all of the major sites are, and it had a separate map which focused on and around theMall. Unlike most maps this one is durable and waterproof (luckily becauseit happened to rain one of the days I was there). This map was extremelyhelpful in every way. All I can possibly tell any prospective buyers is BUYIT! (And it's so inexpensive, too!) ... Read more

Product Description
"Wallpaper City Guides" not only suggest where to stay, eat, and drink, but what the tourist passionate about design might want to see, whether he/she has a week or 24 hours in the city. Featured are up and coming areas, landmark buildings in an 'Architour', design centers, and the best shops to buy items unique to that city. "Wallpaper City Guides" present travelers with a fast-track ticket to the chosen location. The edited guides offer the best, most exciting, and the most beautiful of that particular city. As well as looking beautiful, the guides are expertly designed with function as a priority, and have tabbed sections so that the tourist can easily find what they are looking for. There are maps, rate and currency cards, color-coded parts of the city, and an easy navigational tool. They are the ultimate combination of form and function. ... Read more

Product Description
Author/photographer Gottlieb turns his lens to the nation's capital--perhaps the most photographed city on earth. Through Gottlieb's remarkable eye, Washington, D.C. is portrayed in all seasons, at all times of day, and in every subtle variation of light. These photographs provide an interpretation of our nation's capital that is both stirring and joyful, reverent yet luminous. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Beautiful photographs, but....
This book contains some wonderfully "art-y" photographs, but it's more about the photographer than about the District of Columbia.If you are already familiar with the capital, you will probably enjoy the photographs, but it's not the book for you if you want a sort of tourist-oriented collection of prominent landmarks and vistas. Instead, the photos tend to be close-ups of a tiny corner of a building or monument; unless you read the photographer's notes, you will often not be able to identify what you are looking at.That being said, some of the photos are rather beautiful - this is a book for people interested in photography, not in tourism or reference.For the latter folks, I recommend Robert Cameron's "Above Washington" although it needs to be updated.

AL GORE IN THE WHITE HOUSE, BILLY WANNYN
This is something you should really take a look at it may happen before we know it.....GORE in The White House as our Leader

A Love Song
Mr. Gottlieb is one of the finest photographers our country has to offer!His portrait of Washington is a love song to our nation's capitol. The photographs are spectacular, accompanied by a personal, touching and sometimes humorous text.If one thinks they know Washington, this book is a must see through this photographer's eyes.If one has never visited our nation's capitol, this will be a personal journey through a beautiful city. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

This book was very intersting!
The book has much history which children can enjoy to learn about. It talks about runaway slaves in the early 1800. I realy loved it!

Washington City is Burning
I would give this book a low rating because it was really predictable and easy to read.When I first got it I thought it would be a challenge, and it wasn't.I didn't really like the book just because it had to do with older times, nothing new or at least recent.Another reason is it reallydidn't have as much war in it as I was hoping for.This book is kind oflike Robot Raiders except no scientific stuff, and a much later year, plusthis book was really easy.While Robot Raiders was kind of a challenge. If the book as a little more challenging then it could have probably gottena higher rating.If some one were to use this for ideas for a historyproject it would be really good, because I believe the British did in factactually invade and take over Washington city.That was the only time apresident was forced to leave the White House.

I would probablyrecommend this book to a fifth grader or an advanced fourth grade reader. This book can actually be interesting at some points but when it reallycomes down to every thing, you'll probably know what is going to happennext. ... Read more

Product Description
Though it is today the hub of international affairs and government, Washington, D.C. was once little more than a small Southern town that happened to host our nationally elected officials. Award-winning journalist David Brinkley remembers what it was like--how Washington awoke from its slumber and found itself with a war on its hands. Washington had to print the paper, alphabetize the bureaucracies, host the parties, pitch the propaganda, write the laws, launch the drives, draft the boys, hire the "government girls," and engage in an often hilarious administrative war of words, wit, and even wisdom.


From the Paperback edition.Amazon.com Review
This book of the just-retired newsman's reminiscences ofWashington at the dawn of America's involvement in World War II is nomere historical curiosity shop. It's very instructive about the wayWashington still works. For instance, Brinkley tells us that inSeptember 1941, while FDR was still wavering about where to put themilitary's new headquarters building, an Army general told thecontractor to get started. By the time Roosevelt found out about thisa month later, the foundations for the Pentagon had already been putin place. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

David brinkley walks back in time
The author states that this is more of a memoir than anything else, but the end note to this book states that "after his army service in World War ll" the author "worked for United Press and then joined NBC News, becoming White House correspondent before the end of the war." So how long was the author actually in Washington during the war?Of course, that's a question that hasn't much relevance UNLESS you state that what you are writing "is less a work of history than of personal reminiscence and reflection."Moreover, he laments how "pathetically and sometimes hilariously unprepared" Washington was for anything concerning gearing up for the war or leading it, yet has not a word of criticism for pretty much anybody, and certainly not Franklin Roosevelt.And this despite the fact that the author relates many examples of FDR setting organizations up only to ignore them or the people running them or in putting off decisions for so long on many issues that little was getting done because FDR couldn't fire a friend or tell anyone that they were not up to the job.

The book, in short, is little more than, in effect, a couple of dozen snapshots of happenings that took place in Washington during the war with but cursory captions to flesh said visuals out.One of the blurbs within this book praising it states how "objectively" David Brinkley writes, but that's only because the author says almost nothing about himself during this time, says almost nothing about why things happened they way they did nor does he offer an opinion or comment on almost anything within his 283 pages.Get a load of this paragraph: "At almost the same time, however, officials in the War Department were making other plans for the Pentagon---plans that would, like Roosevelt's, never be implemented, but plans that more accurately predicted the shape of the postwar city and the postwar world. In February 1945, reports were leaked to the press of the military's proposal not to vacate but to expand the world's largest building.A new (and ugly) 24 story office tower would rise out of the Pentagon's six-acre interior courtyard.It would house some (but not all) of the workers who would be needed to maintain the nation's peacetime forces.On top of the building would be an eternal flame: a symbol of the nation's great victory and of the new American imperium over which Washington would preside."

That's it, that is the last paragraph of this "memoir" of sorts.The author states in a postscript on sources that "Washington at War," a 1970 work by Scott Hart "is a lively narrative that covers some of the same events I have discussed here."I wish I would have stumbled over that book instead of this one, but unfortunately that book is out of print. Cheers

Spectacular Memoirs!
David Brinkley's well known dry wit here mixes with his delight in all things human to produce one of the finest books on wartime life 'back home'. Moreover, with the possible exception of Gore Vidal, few writers have given us a sharper look in any age at the doings within and around our nation's capital.

Brinkley was there when Washington left behind forever its previous role as a quiet government town living at a Southern pace, and morphed suddenly into a bustling wartime metropolis. Washington suddenly was engulfed in hundreds of thousands of new workers, all desperately seeking housing that simply didn't exist. This population explosion ceated a crazy shortage, where tens of thousands of newly hired government workers slept in different shifts in the same constantly used beds, inside row upon row of uncomfortable temporary thrown-up quarters.

Here is Brinkley on the fundamental changes air conditioning wrought;

"...by the late 1930's some members (of Congress) had discovered the comforts of the air conditioning in the Fox, the Capitol, the Earle and the RKO Keith movie theaters downtown. They asked to have cool air pumped into the House and Senate chambers and into their office buildings across the street. And so, in 1938, the United States Congress made a fateful decision that a few of the more canterkerous members said foretold the collapse of the Republic. It installed air conditioning. With its chambers and offices cool and pleasant, some predicted, Congress would stay in session all year and pass the additional time making even longer and more tiresome speeches, enacting more laws, spending more money and running the national debt still higher. Longer sessions, they said, would mean more government and more taxes, more forms for the people to fill out and more bureaucrats hired to read and file them...(the Senate) was a gentleman's club with but one woman senator, Hattie Caraway of Arkansas, who sat in the chamber every day, knitting, listening and saying nothing."

Or this line, presaging today's, "A Crisis is a terrible thing to waste."

Quotes Brinkley of Senator Vandenberg in his diary, "The worst of it (The usurption of Congressional authority by FDR's endless wartime agencies) is that there is still a substantial New Deal sector in high places which will constantly think of the war in terms of new opportunites for further New Deal experiments."

Brinkley writes with a fine journalist's sharp eye for concrete details - names, places and dates all mix together the anecdotal and the factual in a swirling tempo of good writing and delightfully engaging story-telling. He manages the remarkable feat of making something interesting out of the drab universe of Washington's Alphabet agencies, endless bureaus, and engulfing confusion of regulations and petty political interests.

Most impressive of all is Brinkley's unflinching writing on the conditions faced by Washington's largest citizen group - the thousands of poor blacks struggling to survive in ghettos all but under the shadow of the Capitol dome.

One of the best American memoirs I've ever read.

Highest recommendation!

For a humorous take on the Washington wartime housing shortage, consider watching George Stevens film, "The More the Merrier" with Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea and an Oscar-winning supporting performance by Charles Coburn as industrialist matchmaker "Mr. Dingle". The More the Merrier There is also a hilarious play from the period on the housing shortage, "The Doughgirls", made into an farcical film (1944) starring Ann Sheridan, Alexis Smith and featuring a wildly zanic performance by Eve Arden as a Russian woman sniper who takes midnight strolls back and forth with rifle between Washington and Baltimore!

Cultural History 1941-1945
David Brinkley was born in 1920 Wilmington NC and wrote for his hometown newspaper while still in high school. After Army service he joined NBC News and became famous on television, winning many awards. This book is journalism, not history, in covering the many colorful characters that flourished in what was a sleepy provincial town. This helps to understand life in those days. The 'Acknowledgments' mentions the many who helped; Charles Curtis and Clifford Sloan began gathering this material. There is no 'Index'. 'A Note on Sources' mentions the others who contributed to this book. If "history books" tend to concentrate on names, dates, and battles this is an addition or correction. It is interesting and worth reading even if it is necessarily incomplete ("my own observations and experiences").

In 1941 an ordinary citizen could walk into the White House grounds (p.84). The story on page 43 about the Enigma coding machine differs from other published accounts and seems improbable but colorful. Before the war Washington shut down for summer (p.194). Air-conditioning later allowed year-round operations. Commuting to work was difficult for many. The local Washington newspapers were mostly against Roosevelt and the New Deal. Housing was difficult given the expansion of the population (p.231). Tires were scarce, gasoline, food, and clothing were rationed. Congress had (and still has) its perquisites (p.195). The President and the military got all the money and power they asked for (p.196). What was the average Congressman like (p.206)? [Shouldn't that date be "February 1942" (p.211)?] Brinkley describes the older system of paying income taxes (pp.216-217). The Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank proposed paying taxes by payroll deductions (p.217). [Today the FED still gets this cash.]

The story on pages 233-235 seems like a personal experience. Chapter IX has some details of the housing shortages. [If peasants had pictures of Woodrow Wilson (p.255) it was because their countries gained independence after WW I.] The last chapter tells about FDR's final months. This memoir is a good addition to any history of the 1940s and is worth reading by itself. I suspect a lot was omitted to limit the pages.

Brinkley's "Washington Goes to War" a Winner
Fascinating account of life in Washington, DC during WWII.

Great Book!!
This is a great book.......I see the there can be humor in all things...even World War II. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Out-of-towners can travel with confidence when using Slicker maps. Easy to handle and easy to read, Slickers fold and unfold in a flash. Slickers are laminated which makes them markable and very durable, withstanding everyday usage during any travel itinerary you plan. This city slicker contains an index to streets, and shows highways, major roads and streets, libraries, cemeteries, post offices, parks, airports, hospitals, colleges & universities, marinas, shopping centers, points of interest and much more. It also contains a map of metropolitan Washington, DC roads and a Metro Rail System map. ... Read more

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The TravelVision line of state road and city maps covers America like nothing else. We employ a large scale that permits us to include more information, yet keep the maps uncluttered and easy-to -read. The maps feature points of interest, airports, camping facilities, parks, selected local attractions and more. State maps feature insets of major cities. Our city map offers additional ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Metro lines and stations not clearly marked.
The bright side is the durable material this map is made from, which guarantees no wrinkles and easy folding.
However, when it comes to the information presented, then I was disapointed. After my visit to DC it was obvious to me that the Metro stations and Metro lines are not clearly shown. Also,the map does not show the route and stops of threCirculator bus, which is a rather new and usefull mean of transporation for visitors.
Finaly, I ended up using the free tourist map that I took from the hotel lobby.
... Read more

Product Description
Order your own softcover black & white reprint of a previously owned high school yearbook. Whether you no longer have your own copy or want to surprise someone with a unique gift, the memories in this yearbook are sure to make someone smile! All the pages and images are reproduced as-is, which means your copy may show handwriting or effects of aging, and that certain pages, images, or other content may be omitted, missing, or obscured. Because this is a black & white print, any color images (excluding the cover) will print as gray. You can preview the color pages before you buy at www.classmates.com/yearbooks.Don't miss out! Bring home a piece of your history. ... Read more