{"product_id":"secret-city-the-hidden-history-of-gay-washington-9781627792325","title":"Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe New York Times Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book of 2022 Named one of Vanity Fairs Best Books of 2022  Not since Robert Caros 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 Kirchicks 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 Roosevelts 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 IIera 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67598878736437,"sku":"ByrdShop_1627792325","price":38.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781627792325.jpg?v=1790936759","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/secret-city-the-hidden-history-of-gay-washington-9781627792325","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}