Washington Schlepped Here: Walking in the Nation's Capital (Crown Journeys)
by Christopher Buckley

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Book Reviews of Washington Schlepped Here: Walking in the Nation's Capital (Crown Journeys)

Book Review: The Same Old Same Old...
Summary: 2 Stars

His walks are littered with cribbed historical anecdotes and tales of his glory days in the corridors of power. Buckley came to Washington to join the Reagan administration, and he's not shy about name dropping and telling you all the neato-torpedo insider stuff he saw and did. All which could be overlooked if he actually went anywhere off the beaten track, or acknowledged in the remotest way that D.C. is a large city with actual neighborhoods where people are born, live, and die. Sadly, he takes the opposite route, and chooses to disparage that large swath of people (the vast majority of whom are black) who live in DC and have always done so. In the opening pages, he quotes Joseph Alsop's self-description as "That sad and rootless thing, a Washingtonian" and then goes on to say that DC natives "would probably sniff at that, but then they sniff at pretty much everything." Well, what DC natives sniff at is not being allowed to vote in presidential elections until the mid-60s, and to this day having to pay federal taxes without having a vote in Congress (that's why DC license plates bear the "Taxation Without Representation" tagline). Buckley is emblematic of a whole cadre of people who move to DC-usually to get involved in politics-and never engage with it, never commit to it, and love being there for all the wrong reasons.

To be sure, the book tells plenty of interesting stories about the formation of the city, and especially its chief designer, Pierre L'Enfant. However, the city Buckley details is one of monuments and ghosts, not people and neighborhoods. It's an annoying approach, because there is so much more to the city that the casual tourist would benefit from hearing about. How about the historic U Street area, which has boatloads of black history? How about the The Awakening statue at Hains Point? How about historic Georgetown? How about the Canal? How about the largest urban park in American, Rock Creek Park? How about the amazing National Cathedral or the equally amazing Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception? How about the most underrated museum, The Building Museum? How about Dupont Circle, the center of gay culture in the city. How about cool walkable neighborhoods like Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant, Brookland, and Takoma Park? Nope, instead, we hear about a invitation only party hosted by the Cheney's in the Museum of American History and Arlington Cemetery (which is an amazing place, but ISN'T IN DC!).

For the monuments and all that, this book isn't a bad supplement to a good guidebook. However, if you really want to learn about the city and the regular people who live there, check out Edward Jones' wonderful collection of short stories, Lost In the City, or pretty much any George Pelecanos' crime novels, or the 1994 book Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.

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