Potomac Fever

Reed Environmental Writing Award Finalist
Reading Group Choices “Editors’ Picks” selection
Shelf Unbound “Recommended Reading” selection
Kirkus Reviews “Exploring Water Worlds Booklist” selection

“Both a love letter to the Potomac and a sharp critique of American myths, Potomac Fever is a lyrical and thought-provoking debut.” —Arlington Magazine

“Powerful… . Potomac Fever strikes a wonderful balance. In some parts, it is a pastoral, wherein Fryar depicts the wonders of nature found along the banks of our region’s preeminent river. In others, it’s a hard-hitting critique of our racist past and present.” —Washington Independent Review of Books

“While her examination of social history is that of a well-trained academic, Fryar’s deep attention to the natural world is that of a poet. Potomac Fever will delight readers.” —DC Trending

“Written with verve and a profound understanding of the contradictions of American democracy… . Readers might curl up with [Fryar’s] book in the comfort of home or, after visiting the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, take it with them on a stroll along [the Potomac]… . A lovely ode to an oft-neglected river.” —Kirkus Reviews

“For readers looking for a different lens through which to view the U.S. capital and to see both the ugly impacts of racism and the beauty of nature.” —Library Journal

“Fryar seamlessly weaves a fascinating history of racial, class, and gendered divisions that exist in and outside of Washington, D.C.’s quintessential worlds of interrelated nature and American (in)humanity.” —Marcie Cohen Ferris, coeditor of Southern Cultures journal and author of The Edible South

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

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