WASHINGTON CAVALCADE

by Charles Hurd ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 12, 1947

Second in Dutton's American Society Series, this by no means equals the first title, The Proper Bostonians, in sharpness of place portraiture, and is rather an account of the social life of the capitol city through the years than an interpretation of its characters. Opening in 1800, when the capitol was moved to Washington, this traces the opening of a new century, the setting of new styles with Dolly Madison, the first show places, balls, scandals; the stress on eating -- the ""primary social activity"". Changing regimes and salons, the new buildings, the booms and panics, cliques and castes, clubs and embassies, wars and social feuds, through the years down to the New Deal which first made Washington a cosmopolitan capitol and the war when it became the command city... The life of the city -- a city perhaps too much in flux to achieve an identity its own -- in terms of its superficial activities and achievements.

Pub Date: Jan. 12, 1947

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1947

Categories: NONFICTION