Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here is one such title, suggested by Laura Brower Hagood, executive director of the DC History Center:

Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital by Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove (University of North Carolina Press). “Having lived in Washington since 2001, I knew the city’s history — and the importance of its Black history — in bits and pieces when I read Chocolate City,” says Hagood. “But I had not fully understood the extent to which the District’s trajectory is intertwined with issues of race and equity, making the quest for a just democracy an essential theme in understanding our nation’s capital. In chapter after chapter, Asch and Musgrove explore the many ways in which Washington residents have fought tenaciously for justice generation after generation. As I closed the book, having read a solid 600 pages, I realized that I wanted to do my part, too. And that’s what led me to the DC History Center.”

Patriotic Picks is a monthly feature in partnership with the Washington Independent Review of Books.