On a hill overlooking downtown Washington, D.C., stands Arlington National Cemetery, the last resting place of more than 300,000 Americans who have served their country. Among its rolling, wooded acres lies soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen, many of whom gave their lives in defense of our nation, alongside presidents, judges, scientists, explorers, sportsmen, and other prominent Americans. Arlington's grounds are a carefully tended oasis of reverence and calm, and its routines and rituals—from daily chores to the solemn honor guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns—are all precisely ordered to honor those buried there.

Arlington recounts the complicated, sometimes troubled history of our national cemetery and portrays its fascinating daily life. It is a story that connects the families of two of America's most famous military men, George Washington and Robert E. Lee, and spans the history of the nation, from the Revolutionary War to the present. And at a time when the nation is at war and service men and women are putting their lives at risk on active duty, it is a story and a place that speaks as loudly to the present as it does to the past.

From the dust jacket