Places with important lessons for our next commender in chief Whatever the outcome on Tuesday, the 45th President will begin their administration in the Capitol with extensive challenges. As the history of the republic and D.C. suggest, they won?t be the first to govern through an era of deep partisan divide. With the hope that lessons from the past can help prepare leaders for the present, we asked scholars to help assemble a list of helpful sites for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump to visit to gain some perspective on politics and power in the nation?s capital.
Doubtless the two candidates have plenty of familiarity with Washington, D.C. and the popular landmarks; Hillary spent quite a considerable time living and working here, and Trump owns a prominent hotel downtown. This tour offers something different: sites with instructive lessons for an incoming head of state, as well as brief sketches of the under-appreciated history of their new hometown. With suggestions from professor and historian Tom Lewis, who teaches at Skidmore and wrote Washington: A History of Our National City, and J.D. Dickey, journalist and author of Empire of Mud: The Secret History of Washington, D.C., we assembled this unique tour of D.C. history.
Library of Congress
The Washington Monument under construction

Washington Monument (2 15th Street NW)
Yes, the obelisk is a tourist cliche, but the memorial to our first President also represents an object lesson in gov...