Fergus M. Bordewich

FERGUS M. BORDEWICH is the author of eight non-fiction books, The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government (Simon & Schuster, 2016), America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise that Preserved the Union (Simon & Schuster, 2012); Washington: The Making of the American Capital (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2008); Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2005); My Mother's Ghost, a memoir (Doubleday, 2001); Killing the White Man's Indian: Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century (Doubleday, 1996); and Cathay: A Journey in Search of Old China (Prentice Hall Press, 1991).

He lives in San Francisco, CA with his wife, Jean Parvin Bordewich.

Articles by this Author

Massacre at Fort Pillow, November/December 2021 | Vol. 66, No. 7

The brutal murder of hundreds of African-American soldiers at Fort Pillow had a profound effect on Northern sentiment during and after the Civil War.

Congress Fights the Civil War, Spring 2020 | Vol. 65, No. 2

Histories written about the nation's greatest crisis focus on Lincoln and the military campaigns. But an intriguing group of characters in Congress also played a major role, advising and prodding the president.

Madison and the Invention of Congress, Winter 2020 | Vol. 64, No. 1

Members of the first federal Congress had to create a new government almost from scratch.

Revolution in Indian Country, July/August 1996 | Vol. 47, No. 4

AFTER CENTURIES OF CONFLICT OVER THEIR RIGHTS AND POWERS, Indian tribes now increasingly make and enforce their own laws, often answerable to no one in the United States government. Is this the rebirth of their ancient independence or a new kind of legalized segregation?

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