As she walks the length of the Potomac River, clambering up its banks and sounding its depths, Charlotte Taylor Fryar examines the geography and ecology of Washington, DC, with all manner of flora and fauna as her witness. The ecological traces of human inhabitancy provide her with imaginative access into America’s past, for her true subject is the origin of our splintered nation and racially divided capital.

From the gentrified neighborhood of Shaw to George Washington’s slave labor camp at Mount Vernon, Potomac Fever maps the troubled histories of the United States by leading us along the less-trafficked trails and side streets of our capital city, steeped in the legacy of white supremacy and colonialism. In the end, Fryar offers hope for how “we might grow a society guided by the ethics and values of the places we live.”

A compelling synthesis of historical, environmental, and personal narrative, Potomac Fever exposes the roots of our national myths, awash in the waters of America’s renowned river.

Charlotte Taylor Fryar is a writer, historian, educator, and herbalist. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lives in Glen Echo, Maryland, less than 700 feet from the banks of the Potomac River. Potomac Fever: Reflections on the Nation’s River is her first book.

Fryar will be joined in conversation by Sonia Rao, a reporter for the Washington Post.

Accessibility note: This event is up two flights of stairs, and Lost City Books does not have an elevator. Please contact [email protected] with questions.

Hosted by Lost City Books, 2467 18th Street Northwest Washington, DC. Learn more here.