# Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington - Hardcover

by **James Kirchick** (Author)

**The _New York Times_ Bestseller**  
**A _New York Times_ Notable Book of 2022**  
**Named one of _Vanity Fair_'s "Best Books of 2022**"  
**  
"Not since Robert Caro's _Years of Lyndon Johnson_ have I been so riveted by a work of history. _Secret City_ is not gay history. It is American history."**  
**\--****George Stephanopoulos  
****  
Washington, D.C., has always been a city of secrets. Few have been more dramatic than the ones revealed in James Kirchick's _Secret City_.**

For decades, the specter of homosexuality haunted Washington. The mere suggestion that a person might be gay destroyed reputations, ended careers, and ruined lives. At the height of the Cold War, fear of homosexuality became intertwined with the growing threat of international communism, leading to a purge of gay men and lesbians from the federal government. In the fevered atmosphere of political Washington, the secret "too loathsome to mention" held enormous, terrifying power.

Utilizing thousands of pages of declassified documents, interviews with over one hundred people, and material unearthed from presidential libraries and archives around the country, _Secret City_ is a chronicle of American politics like no other. Beginning with the tragic story of Sumner Welles, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's brilliant diplomatic advisor and the man at the center of "the greatest national scandal since the existence of the United States," James Kirchick illuminates how homosexuality shaped each successive presidential administration through the end of the twentieth century.

Cultural and political anxiety over gay people sparked a decades-long witch hunt, impacting everything from the rivalry between the CIA and the FBI to the ascent of Joseph McCarthy, the struggle for Black civil rights, and the rise of the conservative movement. Among other revelations, Kirchick tells of the World War II-era gay spymaster who pioneered seduction as a tool of American espionage, the devoted aide whom Lyndon Johnson treated as a son yet abandoned once his homosexuality was discovered, and how allegations of a "homosexual ring" controlling Ronald Reagan nearly derailed his 1980 election victory.

Magisterial in scope and intimate in detail, _Secret City_ will forever transform our understanding of American history.

### Author Biography

**James Kirchick** has written about human rights, politics, and culture from around the world. A columnist for _Tablet_ magazine, a writer at large for _Air Mail_, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, he is the author of _The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age_. Kirchick's work has appeared in the _New York Times_, the _Washington Post_, the _Wall Street Journal_, the _Atlantic_, the _New York Review of Books_, and the _Times Literary Supplement_. A graduate of Yale with degrees in history and political science, he resides in Washington, DC.

**Number of Pages:** 848

**Dimensions:** 1.8 x 9.4 x 6.2 IN

**Publication Date:** May 31, 2022

## Details

- **Price:** 38.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 38.00 USD | In stock |

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- Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington - Hardcover

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