"The Potomac", one of the most celebrated volumes in the Rivers of America series, returns to print in a new paperback edition. Frederick Gutheim follows the Potomac from its source in West Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay. Along the way, he brings to life the planters and presidents, frontiersmen and industrialists who have shaped the region's history. From Captain John Smith's 1609 expedition upriver to John Adam's doubting view of the still undeveloped federal city, from the insurrection at Harper's Ferry to the rapid transformation of twentieth-century Washington into a living-- and at times unruly-- metropolis, "The Potomac" traces the life of a great river and of the people who have lived along its banks.