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Brian Jay Jones has had two responses to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

One response was immediate and gut-wrenching.

鈥淥h, God, I was in a RAGE when they cut to the cameras in the Senate chamber and there was someone sitting in the presiding officer鈥檚 (the vice president鈥檚) chair. I literally stood up and screamed at the TV 鈥� 鈥榊ou have no right!鈥欌�� Jones said in an email.

Jones is familiar with Senate rules.

For most of the 1990s, Jones had been a staff member for U.S. Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico and later served on the staff of U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont.

鈥淵ou have to understand 鈥� especially as a staffer 鈥� what a big deal it is to even be on that (Senate) floor,鈥� he said.

Jones鈥� other response to the riot was thoughtful. He wanted to do right by the Capitol and that meant writing a biography of the building.

He has done that and the result is Jones鈥� informed and informative history book titled 鈥淭he Capitol: The Surprising Biography of an American Building.鈥�

The book is replete with fascinating, detailed stories 鈥� true stories 鈥� about the famous domed Capitol鈥檚 design, its construction, restoration and public financing, as well as debates on and off the Senate and House floors about poor ventilation, inadequate acoustics, dim lighting, cramped quarters, the size, the number and the placement of paintings and statues, and the building materials (e.g. sandstone vs. marble).

Entwined with those stories are profiles of the people (the elected officials, the appointed officials and the hired hands) who served, and who argued, sometimes violently, over issues.

One such violent episode recounted in the book is when two members of Congress came to blows over slavery in 1856.

Using his gold-handled cane, pro-slavery U.S. Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat fiery antislavery Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on the Senate floor.

The violence occurred after Sumner had spoken on the floor for five hours arguing for Kansas to enter the Union as a free state.

After the Senate had adjourned, Brooks, believing Sumner had dishonored him and his family name, crossed through the Rotunda and, as he later recalled, struck Sumner at least 30 times. The bloodied Sumner lost consciousness. Brooks was unrepentant.

Though they didn鈥檛 come to blows, army engineer Montgomery C. Meigs and Thomas U. Walter frequently argued over issues of the Capitol鈥檚 design. Meigs worked for Walter, who was appointed Architect of the Capitol in 1851, though Meigs鈥� ego frequently got in the way of their long-running relationship.

What was probably the most notorious Capitol fire was the one the British had set during the War of 1812.

U.S. forces in April 1813 had sneaked into Canada and occupied York 鈥� now Toronto 鈥� Canada, setting fire to the legislative hall and governor鈥檚 house.

In his book, Jones called them 鈥渄eliberate acts of arson that humiliated and outraged the British.鈥�

It wasn鈥檛 until August 1814 that the British took revenge.

Its troops marched from Benedict, Maryland, into Washington, D.C., where American soldiers were in disarray and then in retreat. American troops fled the city, leaving the Capitol 鈥渦ndefended and dark.鈥�

Jones describes what the British saw 鈥� 鈥渟till just two elegant, slightly rectangular buildings connected by a covered wooden walkway where the domed center section was supposed to be.鈥�

In less than 24 hours, he writes, 鈥渢wenty-one years of work at the Capitol 鈥� overseen by four architects and costing more than half a million dollars 鈥� had been gutted by flames of British invaders.鈥�

The Brits weren鈥檛 done. Later the same evening, they set fire to the President鈥檚 House and buildings housing the Treasury Department and the Department of War.

A story of special mention is that of Phillip Reid, an enslaved worker at a Washington, D.C., foundry. Jones writes that the foundry owner relied heavily on Reid in casting, moving and assembling the equestrian statue of President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square. It still sits at the center of the square, across the street from the White House.

The foundry also relied on Reid to come up with a cost-saving method to disassemble Thomas Crawford鈥檚 鈥淪tatue of Freedom鈥� in five sections.

Reid was also given the responsibility of supervising the casting of each section into bronze.

鈥淚ronically,鈥� Jones writes, 鈥溾�楩reedom鈥檚 fate had been put in the highly skilled hands of the enslaved and oppressed.鈥�

The 鈥淪tatue of Freedom鈥� has stood atop the dome of the Capitol Rotunda since 1863; the statue underwent major restoration in 1993.

Also of note are Jones鈥� vivid descriptions of the Capitol serving as a Union army barracks and then as a hospital for the war wounded during the Civil War.

Below the makeshift hospital, the Capitol鈥檚 basement was converted into a kitchen, including some 20 brick ovens to bake bread and prepare other provisions for the thousands of troops in the city.

鈥淚 hope the book helps readers to understand why the building is important symbolically, politically and culturally,鈥� Jones said.

鈥淭he Capitol鈥� is Jones鈥� fifth biography.

The previous four were on individuals 鈥� author-historian-diplomat Washington Irving, Muppets creator Jim Henson, filmmaker George Lucas and Theodor Geisel, children鈥檚 book author-illustrator better known as Dr. Seuss.

Jones, who is 58, attended Eldorado High School and graduated from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

An sa国际传媒官网网页入口 resident, he has been working as the executive communications manager for University of New Mexico President Garnett S. Stokes since early 2019.