The Washington Century: Three Families and the Shaping of the Nation's Capital – A History of Political Power, Elite Society, and Self-Governance

by Burt Solomon

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, American History

528 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2004

About the author

I was born and raised around Baltimore, educated at Harvard College, and became a journalist in Boston and Washington, D.C. I was a prize-winning White House correspondent for National Journal and am currently a contributing editor at The Atlantic.
I've written three nonfiction books that read like fiction, and now three novels that stay close to nonfiction. My trilogy of John Hay mysteries showcases my detective at different stages of his life--the latest, "The Murder of Andrew Johnson," has Hay at age 36, recently a husband and newly a father, getting used to both.
I live in Arlington, Virginia, with my loving wife. I'm a proud father of two children who live nearby (lucky us!) and grandfather to three little guys (and a fourth on the way). I've started playing the violin of late, with more enthusiasm than talent.

Reviews

[Paul Haspel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Washington, D.C., changed during the 20th century, in ways that the city’s original founders might have found difficult to imagine. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt lived in a relatively small city of 278,000 people that was often derided as a “sleepy Southern town” and still felt unfinished and incomplete. In the year 2000, by contrast, President Bill Clinton lived in a cultured, confident world capital of 572,000 people, a city at the center of a metropolitan area almost 4 million strong. The city’s importance and influence – within the United States of America, and around the world – have increased in proportion with its population, and Burt Solomon traces that historical process through the experiences of three D.C. families in his 2004 book The Washington Century.

Solomon, a contributing editor for National Journal, has spent decades chronicling White House politics and Washington life generally, and he applies all that experience to this study of Three Families and the Shaping of the Nation’s Capital (the book’s subtitle). The three families, who represent well different aspects of D.C. life, are, as the blurb on the back cover states, “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, led by a prominent black activist and civic leader in the first black-majority American city.” Moving back and forth among the experiences of the Boggs, Cafritz, and Hobson families, Solomon conveys how the stories of these three families reflect changes in the civic and cultural life of Washington, D.C.

The Boggs family – Hale Boggs, his wife Lindy, and their children, including future journalist Cokie Roberts – came to D.C. from Louisiana. Hale Boggs, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, rose within the ranks to become House Majority Leader, and served on the Warren Commission. His career and his family life reflected the changing times in which he lived and worked; when he joined with other Southern members of Congress in signing the pro-segregation “Southern Manifesto” in 1956, his family had a surprise for him when he got home that night:

When Hale arrived home that night, his children locked all the doors and refused to let him in. Lindy could have intervened but refrained. Her devout Catholicism had made her an advocate of civil rights, and besides, Cokie said later, “What would be the mileage in stopping us? We were going to express these views, and it was important for him to know how passionate we felt.” (p. 101)

Hale Boggs later explained to his family that his signing of the document was meant to keep the Democratic Party from fracturing through a Southern “Dixiecrat” walkout, and to keep his seat in Congress from being taken by an arch-segregationist. You can decide for yourself how you feel regarding that particular rationale, or rationalization.

Boggs’s son Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., or Tommy Boggs, practiced law and became a lobbyist with the powerful Patton Boggs law firm. In his story, we see the increasing power and influence of lobbyists in modern Washington, as well as the way in which ties to powerful people, on Capitol Hill and in the White House, can make all the difference for a lobbyist: “Tommy found his first real lobbying client through a staff member he knew on the House Merchant Marine committee who recommended him to someone at the trade association for yacht manufacturers. The government played an ever-nosier role in telling businesses how to behave” (pp. 208-09). Washington has always been a city where knowing the right people can be helpful.

The story of Patton Boggs also conveys well how dramatically different parts of Washington have changed over the years. Tommy’s law partner, Jim Patton, wanted a convenient commute from his home in Great Falls, Virginia, and therefore sought out a new home for Patton Boggs in Washington’s West End – “a dreary and decayed neighborhood, just east of Georgetown, home to garages, a printing plant, a Chinese laundry, an ancient warehouse, an ironworks, an abandoned Sealtest dairy, and the last row houses at low rents within walking distance of the new downtown.” When “a handsome, irregularly shaped office building of ten floors” (p. 308) rose where the old dairy had been, it prefigured the West End’s eventual transformation into one of contemporary Washington’s most elegant and fashionable neighborhoods.

More familiar, to modern readers, than other members of the Boggs family may be Hale and Lindy Boggs’s daughter Cokie Roberts; and some of the most engaging passages of The Washington Century detail Cokie Roberts’s successful rise to prominence in a journalistic field that was male-dominated and often downright misogynistic.

Morris Cafritz’s family emigrated from the Russian Empire, escaping the systematic and often violent discrimination that Jewish subjects of the Russian czar routinely faced, and began a new life in Washington, D.C. Cafritz’s success in D.C. real estate development reflected the growth of the city, and he was among the first developers to begin establishing projects outside the city, in now-thriving suburbs like my hometown of Bethesda, Maryland.

As the Cafritz family became socially prominent, Gwen Cafritz looked with concern at what passed for high-society get-togethers in Washington – dinner and a movie, or perhaps square dancing (!) – and undertook “to foster a feeling of community in the impersonal capital” by making social gatherings centers of thoughtful conversation regarding the issues of the day. And Gwen Cafritz had serious reasons for doing so; as she told the viewers of a popular CBS television program in 1955, “I think the thought in the back of everybody’s mind is preserving civilization. It always has been. Before the last war, during the war, afterwards – I mean, that is the underlying thought” (p. 105).

The Cafritzes rose to the top of Washington high society, and their philanthropic enterprises were among the most prominent in the city’s history. But changing times, and a changing economy in the Washington area, affected the Cafritz family as well: “One sad morning in 1970, in a vacant lot near the Pentagon, Calvin Cafritz watched his father’s primal legacy auctioned off. On the block stood the bulldozers and equipment – the guts and gall – of the Cafritz Construction Company, incorporated in 1922….The reason was the philanthropic foundation, which Gwen had made the focus of the family enterprise” (p. 212).

Changes in the Cafritzes’ world continued to reflect changes in Washington life, as Morris and Gwen’s son Conrad Cafritz married Peggy Cooper in 1981. The marriage was interfaith and interracial, and the way in which Washington society media focused on the couple’s years living together shows how strongly the moralism of Washington’s “sleepy Southern town” days still affected D.C. life, even in the 1980’s:

The gossip columnists had trumpeted the couple’s enduringly unmarried status. It was rare for people in the public eye in Washington to flout convention so, to live together openly without the benefit of clergy. This was not Hollywood or New York. Washington was for grown-ups, the place where young people went to end their adolescence. Anyone who chose to live or work – or remain – in Washington could be fairly assumed to play by the rules, to accept the principles and practices of the world as it is. (p. 313)

The patriarch of the Hobson family, Julius Hobson, was originally from Birmingham, Alabama, but his wish to pursue graduate study at Howard University brought him to Washington, the city that he and his family would call home. It seems noteworthy, in that regard, that all three of the families whose stories are told by Solomon in The Washington Century came to Washington from elsewhere. Stereotypes of the city notwithstanding, Washington is not a “city of transients,” but it is a city where many people have come from other places, made a home, and thrived.

Julius Hobson’s career took shape against the backdrop of an historic change in the demographics of Washington, D.C., as the city became, in 1957, the first major U.S. city with an African American majority. As Solomon puts it, “This made Julius part of a powerless majority in a city that could not rule itself” (p. 108), as Washington was still administered directly by the U.S. Congress, and did not yet have home rule. Yet Julius Hobson resisted the racial norms of the time, buying “a sturdy brick colonial, on a corner in the predominantly white neighborhood of Brookland”, and built a life there in spite of hostility and even acts of vandalism from white neighbors.

Julius Hobson, throughout his life in Washington, advocated for respect and equity for the city’s African American community. At meetings of the D.C. school board, he responded to inequities in the schools’ disciplinary policies (black students were receiving school suspensions much more often than white students) by making an ultimately successful proposal “to stop suspending students until the disciplinary procedures were consistent and fair” (p. 200). At Georgetown University’s first Black Awareness Week, he declared fearlessly that “D.C. students have nothing to lose by raising hell….They have nothing to lose but their ignorance” (p. 201). Having once picketed the D.C.-based Woodward & Lothrop department-store chain for its racially inequitable hiring practices, he was invited to the Woodies flagship store on F Street, Northwest, to autograph copies of his book Black Pride – A People’s Struggle, and “was now a welcomed guest in the store he had picketed not many years before” (p. 202).

Investigated by the FBI at various times as an “agitator” and “security risk,” Julius Hobson came to be respected, after his early death at the age of 54, as an elder statesman for civil rights and civic self-determination in the city of Washington:

Julius’s stature had grown since his death. No longer was he remembered only as a rabble-rouser. When the city government and a band of banks rehabilitated 82 boarded-up apartments at New York Avenue and First Street N.E., lending down payments to needy buyers, the complex was named the Julius Hobson Condominiums. A middle school in Southeast was named for him in 1982. Mayor Barry spoke at the dedication…. (p. 313)

And Hobson’s son, Julius Hobson Jr. or “Hobby,” found success as a lobbyist for Howard University, and eventually as a leader within the D.C. government.

Over the course of The Washington Century, the theme of people who had been outsiders – whether because of socioeconomic status, gender, religion, or race – making their way into the power structure of Washington, D.C., is emphasized. Solomon concludes this fine study by stating that

When the twentieth century dawned, Washington had been the provincial capital of a newly imperial power. In the course of what Henry Luce called the American Century, the capital lost much of whatever local character it had. As the twenty-first century arrived, Washington was no longer sleepy or southern. It had become a compendium of the American character, the nation’s true capital. (pp. 400-01)

While I disagree with Solomon regarding Washington’s loss of local character – I feel that the city has a rich regional character of its own, one that has been deepened and enriched as the city has become a more just, democratic, diverse, and inclusive community – I agree with him regarding the way Washington, D.C., has become a particularly vital and important center of the nation for which Washington serves as capital. Any student of Washington, D.C., history and culture will benefit from reading The Washington Century.

[Britta · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a DC local looking to learn more about the history of my adopted city, I found this book to be fascinating. Watching Washington transform from the earliest days of the twentieth century, when the National Mall was still covered in trees and shrubbery, to the end of the millennium was incredible. The Washington Century is not an amazing piece of writing. I found Solomon's overzealous use of uncommon and overly fanciful language to be aggravating (in the 21st century, who the heck uses the word "august" to talk about anything other than the month?!). Many people characterized throughout the book seem to drop in and out of the interweaving stories with little context, which was somewhat jarring. Often, it was hard to keep track of the changes happening in the city itself, given the over-arching focus on the three families. That said, the families themselves are often beacons of change for the city, which was clearly Solomon’s intention in using them as the focus of the book. Additionally, I would have liked to have heard more about the immigrant communities that arrived in DC throughout the course of the twentieth century (for instance, present-day Washington has a huge Hispanic population). That said, Solomon already had a huge task upon himself in documenting the lives of the three families he chose to focus on. The Washington Century is not a perfect book on Washington's history--though I can't imagine what a perfect book would look like. This city's history is too complex for perfection.

The Washington Century is, however, a satisfying book. Washington locals will especially appreciate this, as well as anyone interested in the history of the U.S. capital city.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Washington Century tells the story of two generations of three families living in Washington, DC over the course of the 20th Century. Their stories illuminate the changes to the capital city – not only the political shifts, but also the cultural, racial, and architectural evolutions that accompanied the city in its transformation from a provincial town into a world power.

The first of these families is the Cafritzes, whose progenitor built himself up from an impoverished newspaper boy into the premier real estate magnate of the city. His story is the classic story of an immigrant rising, and his wife’s remolding into the doyenne of the Washington social scene both breaks cultural barriers (as a Jewish family crashes into territory formerly occupied only by the protestant elite) and demonstrates how power in the city spread from a tight-knit group of power players into a democratized diversity of factions. This narrative follows the local power players and how they interact with the national ones, and explains why there are so many plaques to the Cafritzes’ generosity across the city, from museums to social services.

The second of these families is the Boggs. Hale Boggs arrives in Washington as a fresh-faced representative from Louisiana, and rises to become the House majority leader. All of his family enter the power set of DC, as his wife assumes the same House seat, his daughter becomes an influential journalist, and his son becomes the city’s preeminent lobbyist. This narrative explores how the national government has changed, and crosses paths with many of the most powerful political figures of the 20th Century.

The third family is the Hobsons, an African-American family who struggle against the institutional racism of the city in very different ways. The father of the family becomes a major rabble-rouser and educational equality advocate who refuses to compromise his principles. In contrast, the scion of the family chooses a more conservative path of reconciliation to cut his own path of power in a world dominated by whites. This narrative demonstrates the very different lives and challenges of African-Americans in DC as they navigate a complex web of racism, protest, and setbacks.

At the same time, the book follows the structural upheavals of the city itself. As the book opens, Pennsylvania Avenue is a boulevard of seedy saloons and fish markets, Georgetown is an industrial morass, the National Mall is a wilderness populated by thieves, and K Street is a stately avenue of mansions. By the book’s close, Pennsylvania Avenue has become the national government’s main thoroughfare, Georgetown a wealthy residential neighborhood of posh shops, the National Mall a grand park surrounded by world-class museums, and K Street a lobbyist and lawyers’ haven of office buildings. Anyone even passingly familiar with the city today should find this evolution fascinating.

A book like this is obviously destined to be highly detailed, and occasionally plods, getting slower as it proceeds. But it’s well-constructed, well-researched, and clearly a labor of love. The key players are well-fleshed out and the themes well-explored. Anyone interested in the history of Washington from a human point of view will find much to enjoy.

[Paul Haspel · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "The Washington Century," Burt Solomon (an editor for National Journal) uses the histories of three Washington, D.C., families to tell the story of how Washington grew and changed over the course of the 20th century. The Boggses of Louisiana included two members of Congress, a Washington lawyer and lobbyist, and a TV news commentator; in their family story, we see people who move into D.C. from out of town but come to think of the Washington area as home. The Cafritzes overcame anti-Semitism among Washington's old-guard "cave dwellers" to gain prominence in real estate and in D.C. high society. And the story of the Hobson family not only shows how Washington's African American community fought back against and defeated the entrenched segregation that characterized D.C. life, but also dramatizes Washington's development as the first large city in the United States to have an African American majority. Solomon interweaves the families' stories skillfully, and captures well Washington's movement from the "sleepy Southern town" of earlier times to the modern, vibrant, multicultural world capital of today.

[Jim Blessing · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up on a cruise. It was a long read, but I really enjoyed it.

[Kate Childs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was assigned reading in 2006 when I was moving down to DC for an academic semester and internship. I loved how Burt Solomon intertwined the three families and their experiences. It made me appreciate my own story that I was creating in DC, and I think anyone who is new to the city or thinking of moving there would enjoy this great narrative non-fiction.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you live in or love D.C. you should read this book. I found it absolutely fascinating, and learned so much about my hometown. :)

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting look at one of my favorite cities through the lens of three different families.