The Fabulous History of the Dismal Swamp Company: A Story of George Washington's Times
by Charles Royster
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Description
From historian Charles Royster--winner of the Francis Parkman, Bancroft, and Lincoln prizes--comes the history of one of eighteenth-century America's most fantastic land speculation deals: William Byrd's scheme to develop 900 square miles of swamp on the Virginia-North Carolina border and create fabulous wealth for himself and other shareholders, including George Washington. Royster scrupulously follows the paper trail through the byways of transatlantic deal-cutting, providing a rare view show more of early American economic culture.nbsp;nbsp;Elegantly written and impressively researched, The Fabulous History of the Dismal Swamp Company is an eye-opening account of greed, folly, and venture capitalism in the revolutionary era. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I started this book expecting to learn some fascinating information about the founding fathers and their business dealings, but I could slog through much more than the first 100 pages of the book. Maybe the book got much much better later on but "so many books, so little time!" syndrome just made me finally give it up as a lost cause. Maybe some day I will pick it up and try starting in the middle to see if it is any better.
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Best U.S. History Books (1754-1828)
363 works; 17 members
Author Information
4+ Works 903 Members
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1999
- Important places
- Great Dismal Swamp, USA
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 245
- Popularity
- 132,092
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (2.81)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 2
