The Fabulous History of the Dismal Swamp Company A Story of George Washington's Times by Charles Royster 1999 Knopf Publishing history books

This is a near fine (almost like new) hardcover with dust jacket. 1999 Knopf Publishing. This copy is still crisp and clean inside and out. The inside pages are crisp and clean. The binding is tight and straight. Maroon hardcover boards under jacket are also near fine with barely a hint of shelf wear. The accompanying dust jacket is almost like new with only very light shelf wear to back cover. Medium octavo book size or 6.5" x 9.5" with 622 pages including index.

The Fabulous History of the Dismal Swamp Company A Story of George Washington's Times by Charles Royster is an absorbing narrative that traces the rise and fall of the eighteenth-century transatlantic culture that was built on the insatiable demand in Europe for Virginia tobacco and the equally insatiable American demand for European manufactured goods.

Moving from the plantations of Virginia and Antigua to the warehouses of London and Glasgow, from the Gold Coast of Africa to the valleys of the Allegheny Mountains, from the iron furnaces of southern Wales to the subscribers' room of Lloyd's of London, Professor Royster gives us the story of the Dismal Swamp Company, a fantastically delusional enterprise that proposed draining and developing a vast morass along the Virginia-North Carolina border.
Schemers and dreamers in the narrative include George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Morris and others who failed to amass their desired fortunes. Other realists such as Samuel Gist, Dr. Thomas Walker, and Anthony Bacon succeeded but at the expense of others. We then see a breakdown of this culture and eventual transition to a more democratic system after the Revolution.

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