shortages and abuse. The commissioners used an enslaved workforce drawn from local plantations for much of the arduous early work but looked farther afield for skilled free workers. When craftsmen arrived at the worksite, they found limited supplies, inept managers, and absentee commissioners who periodically failed to meet payroll. These conditions led to serious labor disputes and ultimately left the city in an unfinished state in 1800 when the federal government moved in. The commissioners took revenge on their disgruntled workmen by imposing wage cuts and summary dismissals. Professional designers and architects such as Pierre L’Enfant and Benjamin H. Latrobe fared little better, struggling to realize their visions in the face of the commissioners’ contempt and elected officials’ unrealistic expectations. Building Washington unfolds these stories across ten chapters in which Kapsch documents seemingly every controversy and mishap that befell the construction process. Yet this exhaustive attention to detail makes the book’s biggest lacuna—slavery—all the more surprising. Kapsch recognizes the presence of forced labor at Washington worksites, but he does not delve into its practice or implications. Readers are left to wonder how the work of enslaved people shaped the capital and how their role in construction changed over time. The book also does not address how the politics of slavery influenced Washington’s early development. The new city’s location between two slave states is attributed euphemistically to George Washington’s desire to “provide balance between northern and southern interests,” and the commissioners are termed “large-scale landowners of the region,” without acknowledging their commitments to slavery (pp. 1, 9). The public buildings of the new capital may have been designed to “reflect the uniqueness and greatness of the American democratic ideal,” but their creation was marred by incompetence and exploitation (p. 258).

中文翻译：

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伯尔阴谋：揭开美国早期危机的故事，詹姆斯 E. 刘易斯

短缺和滥用。委员们使用来自当地种植园的奴役劳动力进行大部分艰巨的早期工作，但寻找更远的地方寻找熟练的自由工人。当工匠到达工地时，他们发现供应有限、管理人员无能，以及定期无法支付工资的缺勤专员。这些情况导致了严重的劳资纠纷，并最终在 1800 年联邦政府搬入时使这座城市处于未完成状态。委员们通过削减工资和立即解雇来报复心怀不满的工人。Pierre L'Enfant 和 Benjamin H. Latrobe 等专业设计师和建筑师的表现也好不到哪里去，面对委员们的蔑视和民选官员不切实际的期望，他们努力实现自己的愿景。建设华盛顿通过十个章节展开这些故事，其中 Kapsch 记录了似乎发生在建设过程中的每一个争议和事故。然而，这种对细节的详尽关注使得这本书最大的漏洞——奴隶制——更加令人惊讶。Kapsch 承认华盛顿工作场所存在强迫劳动，但他没有深入研究其实践或影响。读者不禁想知道被奴役者的工作如何塑造了首都，以及他们在建筑中的角色如何随着时间的推移而发生变化。这本书也没有讨论奴隶制政治如何影响华盛顿的早期发展。新城市位于两个蓄奴州之间，委婉地归因于乔治华盛顿希望“在南北利益之间提供平衡，”而委员们被称为“该地区的大型土地所有者”，但并未承认他们对奴隶制的承诺（第 1、9 页）。新首都的公共建筑可能旨在“反映美国民主理想的独特性和伟大性”，但它们的创造因无能和剥削而受损（第 258 页）。