Christopher Buckley has adopted the city of Washington, DC as his home for over twenty years and shows his love for it in this travelogue. He has proposed four easy-to-accomplish walking tours of the city each maximizing the grand testaments to America's founders, fallen heroes, and accomplishments. With every step along the way he explains historical information, little known facts, odd trivia, and related anecdotes of his own brush with the political powers that were his one-time employers. He gives nice attention to the big, famous monuments and memorials that dominate the Capital city: The FDR Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Union Station, Korean and Vietnam War Memorials, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Ford's Theater, White House, US Capitol, Jefferson Memorial, the city's odd layout of traffic squares and circles courtesy of L'Enfant, and the Washington Monument.
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It is as funny as a semi-serious tour book can get, but it may scare off non-conservative readers due to his background as a conservative speechwriter for then Vice President Bush in the early 1980's. He keeps most of his political leanings to himself, although his humor revolves around the GOP leaders he worked under and he unleashes an occasional barb at recent Democratic politicians. The book is a positive look at the world's most powerful city and the glory of its tributes in stone, bronze, and glass to the people, places, events, and ideals that shaped the nation.
The review of this Book prepared by David Fletcher
