Americas
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Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington
The New York Times Bestseller
"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.
"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.
Editorial Reviews
"Secret City by James Kirchick, is a sprawling and enthralling history of how the gay subculture in Washington, D.C., long in shadow, emerged into the klieg lights...A luxurious, slow-rolling Cadillac of a book, not to be mastered in one sitting. As an epic of a dark age, complex and shaded, Secret City is rewarding in the extreme."
―The New York Times
"The truth most clearly revealed by Kirchick's focus on Washington is one that queer historians have emphasized for years: that change was prompted not by those in the halls of power but by activists working well outside of them...So many of those whom Kirchick chronicles seem more compromised by their proximity to power than emboldened by it. That is also a part of the story of gay life in the United States, and Kirchick tells it well."
―The New Yorker
"A robust and meaningful history...Smartly written with a flexible aperture for capturing the big picture of a moment and narrowing in on the tiniest of details."
―TIME
"The existence and influence of LGBTQ people in our nation's capital is as long as it is invisible. [Secret City] examines the unknown or barely known lives of gay people working and living in our nation's capital, a city known for its mix of power and secrets...An example of the triumph of LGBTQ people in America."
―NBC News
"With Secret City…Kirchick will be catapulted into the ranks of those journalists whose work will be read for generations."
―New York Sun
"Kirchick's Secret City researches and illuminates just how homosexuality shaped presidential administrations in the 20th century."
―Parade
"There's never been a book like Secret City which documents over a half-century of the gay political and social scenes of the U.S. capital city...A sweeping, epic history of Gay D.C."
―The New York Times
"The truth most clearly revealed by Kirchick's focus on Washington is one that queer historians have emphasized for years: that change was prompted not by those in the halls of power but by activists working well outside of them...So many of those whom Kirchick chronicles seem more compromised by their proximity to power than emboldened by it. That is also a part of the story of gay life in the United States, and Kirchick tells it well."
―The New Yorker
"A robust and meaningful history...Smartly written with a flexible aperture for capturing the big picture of a moment and narrowing in on the tiniest of details."
―TIME
"The existence and influence of LGBTQ people in our nation's capital is as long as it is invisible. [Secret City] examines the unknown or barely known lives of gay people working and living in our nation's capital, a city known for its mix of power and secrets...An example of the triumph of LGBTQ people in America."
―NBC News
"With Secret City…Kirchick will be catapulted into the ranks of those journalists whose work will be read for generations."
―New York Sun
"Kirchick's Secret City researches and illuminates just how homosexuality shaped presidential administrations in the 20th century."
―Parade
"There's never been a book like Secret City which documents over a half-century of the gay political and social scenes of the U.S. capital city...A sweeping, epic history of Gay D.C."
Readers Top Reviews
JehoshephatRobert P.
I could only read the first 50 pages or so, and leafed through the rest. The material may be "secret" or "hidden," as per the title and subtitle, for the general reader, but I didn't find anything that I didn't know already, at least in a general sense. It seemed to be mostly a chronicle of who was doing what with whom, rather than exploring or thinking about larger themes, or placing the DC situation in the context of the general situation in the US (at least in the larger cities). Maybe it gets better later on, but I couldn't get that far -- the first 50 pages were too much like high school tittle-tattle for me.
Margaret Decker
Secret City is a massive (800 pages) book about the persecution of gay men and women in the American government from the FDR administration through the Bill Clinton presidency. It is wonderfully written with details that are shocking, fascinating, and funny in turns. This book is overflowing with stories of compelling individuals on all sides of the "question" of homosexuality. I have a few quibbles: I wish the book were shorter and released, as was Robert Caro's masterpiece biography of LBJ, in separate volumes. It was also painful to read of the suffering endured by so many gifted people in public service who lived in justified fear of their private lives being exposed. These stories are important, and our compassion for the people presented is well-deserved, but it is terribly sad and upsetting as are books about the persecution and even genocide of ethnic groups in this country. These emotional responses are a testament to James Kirchick's vivid, you-are-there writing. The sun breaks through somewhat during the Clinton administration as gay people are given some protections, but there was still "don't ask, don't tell" and the denial of many civil rights (such as marriage) to remind us of how far we still had/have to go. My third quibble is about the narrator of the audiobook. He has a wonderful voice that does not get tiresome to listen to for hours...but he mispronounces so many words and names of people and places! Andre Gide's name is pronounces "Jeed" with as much French spin as you can come up with on the G. Proust is mispronounced at least once as "Prowst". Aaarrrgggh. And ordinary words, usually of three syllables, like "concomitant" do not fare well. I can never understand book narrators not taking the time to check a dictionary. BUT this is a book that is well worth the reader's time...even if you need to take regular breaks!
Ron In Palm Springs
Well written and informative about secret Washington!
Daniel R. Layman
What Randy Shilts’ And The Band Played On did to shine a laser on the dark and scandalous crevices of our nation’s criminal inaction in the early days of the AIDS crisis, James Kirchick’s Secret City has done to tell the secret truth of how gay men and women have been essential to Washington, DC politics over the last 75 years - particularly, ironically, and sadly, on the Republican side of the aisle. Secret City is encyclopedic in its scope and research – as comprehensive as an Almanac of American (gay) Politics. That Secret City is also a page-turner is a testament to James Kirchick’s writing, research and intellectual skills. A few names are missing, or at least hidden between the lines or in the endnotes (Charlie Black comes foremost to mind), but for those of us that lived and worked in national politics, this book is the essential diary of our times and lives.
Sean J. Malloy
Well written missing history of the nation’s Capitol. Illustrates how Republican tactics haven’t changed in 80 years. A must read for anyone interested in 20th century American history.
