When Worthy of the Nation first appeared in 1977, it won much acclaim for its comprehensive treatment of Washington's design and urban development. Now the story has been brought up to the present, tracing the first thirty years of home rule for the District through the completion of the National Museum of the American Indian and the World War II Memorial in the early twenty-first century.

Frederick Gutheim and Antoinette J. Lee begin with L'Enfant's survey of 1791, the uneven growth of Washington City as an early port, its rapid expansion during the Civil War, and the...