The Washington Century: Three Families and the Shaping of the Nation's Capital

The Washington Century chronicles the hundred-year rise of the nation's capital as it grew to become the most powerful city in the world - a story made vivid through the history of three very different families, each representing an essential aspect of Washington: the Cafritzes, headed by a real estate mogul and his consummate hostess wife; the Boggs family, a political force in the ultimate political town; and the Hobsons, lead by a prominent black activist and civic leader in the first black-majority American city. Veteran journalist Burt Solomon uses these families to explore everything from the customs of Washington's elite society to the expansion of the federal bureaucracy, the District's own struggle for self-governance, and the influential role that politics and, increasingly, lobbying have played in the city.

Biographies & Memoirs

Solomon, Burt

Historical

Harper-perennial

An epic work of history ... the story of the American capital told through the lives of three families that each symbolize a different aspect of the city and the nation it embodies
The Washington Century tells the captivating history of the nation's capital during the last century, made vivid through the struggles of three very different families, each representing an essential aspect of Washington. Veteran journalist Burt Solomon uses these families to explore everything from the customs of Washington's grand hostesses to the surge in the federal bureaucracy to the critical roles that politicking and lobbying have played as the capital has grown more truly democratic.
<ul>
<li>The Boggs family came to Washington during the age of political giants. Hale Boggs, a prominent congressman from Louisiana, was the protégé of Sam Rayburn and close friends with John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. When Boggs died in a plane crash, he was succeeded by his widow, Lindy, a political power in her own right. Their son, Tommy Boggs, is one of the capital's most influential lobbyists, and their daughter, Cokie Roberts, is a distinguished member of the Washington press corps.</li>
 <li>Real-estate developer Morris Cafritz changed the physical face of the city, giving form to Washington's new downtown, centered along K Street, which would become the center of activity for lobbyists and power brokers. His wife, Gwen, a legendary socialite, hosted the city's most exclusive parties, bringing together eminent politicians, jurists, and diplomats into a self-conscious elite.</li>
 <li>Julius Hobson Sr. was a leading black activist in the first black-majority city in America. A brilliant and imaginative militant during the civil rights era, he served on D.C.'s first elected city council and fought for the capital's autonomy from the federal government before his death in 1977. His son, Julius Hobson Jr., became a political figure of a contrasting sort, an insider instead of an agitator, who worked for Mayor Marion Barry and went on to become the top lobbyist at the American Medical Association.</li>
</ul>
Each family's story forms a strand of the city's single history. Their lives were entwined with those of other Washington notables -- from Eleanor Roosevelt to Lady Bird Johnson, Perle Mesta, Stokely Carmichael, J. Edgar Hoover, Tip O'Neill, Jesse Jackson, John F. Kennedy, and even a twenty-six-year-old Bill Clinton. 
The Washington Century is also the behind-the-scenes biography of an intricate and ever-changing city, once a gracious capital that has become a money-driven and partisan place. Solomon's ingenious narrative, written with the pace and sense of a novel, is full of quirky moments and unforgettable characters, both familiar and unfamiliar to the American public, who made a sleepy, southern town into the soul of a nation. Compulsively readable, as enlightening as it is entertaining, here is a fascinating chapter of living history.

History

Americas

William Morrow

Provides statistics, records, anecdotes, and re-creations of baseball's historic players, games, and events, from the first baseball uniform of 1849 to Cal Ripkin's record-making achievements of 1995

The Baseball Timeline: The Day-By-Day History of Baseball, from Valley Forge to the Present Day

Sports & Outdoors

Baseball

Avon/Books

In the 1890s, the legendary Baltimore Orioles of the National League [sic] under the tutelage of manager Ned Hanlon, perfected a style of play known as "scientific baseball," featuring such innovations as the sacrifice bunt, the hit- and-run, the squeeze play, and the infamous Baltimore chop. Its best hitter, Wee Willie Keeler, had the motto "keep your eye clear and hit 'em where they ain't"--which he did. He and his colorful teammates, fierce third-baseman John McGraw, avuncular catcher Wibert Robinson, and heartthrob center fielder Joe Kelly, won three straight pennants from 1894 to 1896. But the Orioles were swept up and ultimately destroyed in a business intrigue involving the political machines of three large cities and collusion with the ambitious men who ran the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers. Burt Solomon narrates the rise and fall of this colorful franchise as a cautionary tale of greed and overreaching that speaks volumes as well about the enterprise of baseball a century later.

Where They Ain't: The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth to Modern Baseball

Crown

A colorful and sometimes unforgiving portrait of America's greatest pastime at the turn of the century focuses on the trials and tribulations of that era's best team, its owner, and its top hitter Wee Willie Keeler. 25,000 first printing.

Free Press

The Murder of Willie Lincoln is an exciting historical fiction debut by award-winning political journalist Burt Solomon.
Washington City, 1862: The United States lies in tatters, and there seems no end to the war. Abraham Lincoln, the legitimate President of the United States, is using all his will to keep his beloved land together. But Lincoln’s will and soul are tested when tragedy strikes the White House as Willie Lincoln, the love and shining light in the president’s heart, is taken by typhoid fever.
But was this really the cause of his death? A message arrives, suggesting otherwise. Lincoln asks John Hay, his trusted aide―and almost a son―to investigate Willie’s death. Some see Hay as a gadfly--adventurous, incisive, lusty, reflective, skeptical, even cynical―but he loves the president and so seeks the truth behind the boy’s death. 
And so, as we follow Hay in his investigation, we are shown the loftiest and lowest corners of Washington City, from the president’s office and the gentleman’s dining room at Willard’s Hotel to the alley hovels, wartime hospitals, and the dome-less Capitol’s vermin-infested subbasement. We see the unfamiliar sides of a grief-stricken president, his hellcat of a wife, and their two surviving and suffering sons, and Hay matches wits with such luminaries as General McClellan, William Seward, and the indomitable detective Allan Pinkerton.
What Hay discovers has the potential of not only destroying Lincoln, but a nation.

The Murder of Willie Lincoln: A Novel (The John Hay Mysteries, 1)

Literature & Fiction

United States

Forge Books

The Murder of Willie Lincoln is an exciting historical fiction debut by award-winning journalist and Washington insider Burt Solomon.Washington City, 1862: The United States lies in tatters, and the Civil War seems without end, despite Abraham Lincoln’s determination to keep his beloved country united. Lincoln’s soul is tested when tragedy strikes the White House: Willie, Lincoln’s eleven-year-old son, the shining light in the president’s life, dies―of typhoid fever, the doctors say.Then a message arrives, suggesting that murder, not illness, caused Willie’s death. Lincoln asks John Hay, his trusted aide, to investigate. Hay, a boxer and a poet, is an adventurous, irreverent, skeptical, even cynical young man who is as close to Lincoln as a son.The more Hay unearths, the more daunting his task seems. Suspicions of a secessionist conspiracy within the Executive Mansion itself. A threat to Lincoln’s surviving sons. An extortion attempt against the president’s hellcat of a wife. As the war rages on, John Hay chases the truth of Willie’s murder through the loftiest and lowest corners of Washington City.As he closes in, he discovers just how far Lincoln’s enemies will go to keep him silent.

Genre Fiction

The Attempted Murder of Teddy Roosevelt is a historical thriller from award-winning political journalist Burt Solomon, featuring Teddy Roosevelt's near death...accident or assassination attempt?
Theodore Roosevelt had been president for less than a year when on a tour in New England his horse-drawn carriage was broadsided by an electric trolley. TR was thrown clear but his Secret Service bodyguard was killed instantly. The trolley’s motorman pleaded guilty to manslaughter and the matter was quietly put to rest.
But was it an accident or an assassination attempt…and would there be another “accident” soon?
The Attempted Murder of Teddy Roosevelt casts this event in a darker light. John Hay, the Secretary of State, finds himself in pursuit of a would-be assassin, investigating the motives of TR’s many enemies, including political rivals and the industrial trusts. He crosses paths with luminaries of the day, such as best-pal Henry Adams, Emma Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Mark Hanna, and (as an investigatory sidekick) the infamous Nellie Bly, who will help Hay protect the man who wants to transform a nation.

The Attempted Murder of Teddy Roosevelt (The John Hay Mysteries, 2)

About the Author\nBurt Solomon is a contributing editor for The Atlantic and National Journal, where he has covered the White House and many other aspects of Washington life. In 1991 he won the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. He is also the author of the acclaimed Where They Ain't, a history of baseball in the 1890s. Solomon, his wife, and their two children live inside the Beltway. The Murder of Willie Lincoln is his first novel.\nThe Attempted Murder of Teddy Roosevelt is a historical thriller from award-winning political journalist Burt Solomon, featuring Teddy Roosevelt's near death...\nSeptember 3, 1902. Pittsfield, Massachusetts.\nTheodore Roosevelt has been president for less than a year when his horse-drawn carriage is broadsided by an electric trolley. Roosevelt is thrown clear but his Secret Service bodyguard is killed instantly.\nAccident? Or assassination gone awry?\nRoosevelt has earned enemies galore and is convinced of foul play. He sets John Hay, the secretary of state, to investigate. Hay will cross paths with Emma Goldman and J.P. Morgan to discover the truth… and along the way he will pick up a sidekick, the crusading journalist Nellie Bly.\nBlending real events and novelistic logic, Hay uncovers a shocking solution that may protect the man who wants to transform the nation, but at the cost of upending the compass of his own life.

Attempted Murder of Teddy Roosevelt (The John Hay Mysteries, 2)

Forge Trade

The next John Hay historical thriller from award-winning political journalist Burt Solomon, this time focused on one of America's most controversial presidents: Andrew Johnson. Andrew Johnson was called The Great Commoner, appealing to the masses, loathing the establishment and anyone he deemed elitist. Once Johnson made an enemy, you became his enemy for life. He saw insults where none were intended and personal loyalty meant everything...and his devoted fans would follow him into the depths of Hell. He was also the first U.S. president to be impeached. Time however waits for no man and even the Famous (or Infamous) must leave this world eventually. But when a man has as many enemies as the Devil, what death could really be a natural one? From political opponents to most of his own family, the suspects are endless, and the truth not really wanted. John Hay, lawyer, sometimes governmental bureaucrat, and now journeyman investigative reporter, is set on finding that truth. And it may wind up killing him.

The Murder of Andrew Johnson: A Novel (The John Hay Mysteries, 3)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Solomon, Burt. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Solomon, Burt

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Solomon, Burt. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Washington Century: Three Families and the Shaping of the Nation's Capital

The Washington Century: Three Families and the Shaping of the Nation's Capital

The Baseball Timeline: The Day-By-Day History of Baseball, from Valley Forge to the Present Day

Where They Ain't: The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth to Modern Baseball

Where They Ain't: The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth to Modern Baseball

The Murder of Willie Lincoln: A Novel (The John Hay Mysteries, 1)

The Murder of Willie Lincoln: A Novel (The John Hay Mysteries, 1)

The Attempted Murder of Teddy Roosevelt (The John Hay Mysteries, 2)

Attempted Murder of Teddy Roosevelt (The John Hay Mysteries, 2)

The Murder of Andrew Johnson: A Novel (The John Hay Mysteries, 3)