... a sprawling and enthralling history of how the gay subculture in Washington, D.C., long in shadow, emerged into the klieg lights. But it’s also a whodunit to rival anything by Agatha Christie.

... engrossing, important.

Kirchick chronicles these and other panics over gay influence, sometimes with a knowing wink.

Kirchick tries to retrofit the trope to a very specific subset of the District’s famously diverse LGBTQ community, ultimately covering a bewildering amount of old ground without offering the reader much that can be called new.

It is, broadly, a familiar story of the closet. But by focusing on gay men and lesbians who worked in and around the federal government, partook of Washington high society, and largely remained closeted, Kirchick offers a very different take on American LGBTQ history. Whereas many books emphasize the work of pathbreaking activists who came out of the closet and took aim at society’s homophobic norms, Secret City emphasizes those who worked inside the system—many of them Republicans who were forced to balance their hidden sexuality and their public conservatism. It is thus a history of slow assimilation, a fundamentally conservative account that endeavors to write gay men and lesbians into a triumphant story of American democracy.

Kirchick has spent a decade uncovering long-hidden stories that have been lost from history. At 800 pages, including well over 100 just for notes and sources, the scope of Secret City feels momentous.

... a lengthy, detailed, riveting history of the way in which homosexuality was perceived and treated in our government from the tenure of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the end of the 20th century.

Densely detailed, panoramic, and eye-opening.

Fascinating.

[A] sweeping history.

Incredibly rich and impressively thorough.

The gays and lesbians in Kirchick's book form a rotating cast of Forrest Gumps, appearing at the center of every major political event of the latter half of the 20th century. This allows the book to serve well as a general history of the country, no small feat in a subject area where too often, major events merely serve as scene-setting and background noise. Kirchick refreshingly portrays the gay Washington underground as a parallel and central world to the seat of American power.

This astonishing history, based on thousands of recently declassified documents, tells a bold story of how gay Americans, against great odds, made a lasting impact on the U.S. government.

Prolific journalist Kirchick chronicles the decades-long evolution of the LGBTQ administrative community, from subversive political extortion during the FDR years to groundbreaking if inadequate same-sex legislation under Bill Clinton. What emerges is a web of informants and blackmailers, often abetted by political operatives at the highest levels, all determined to expose what was considered 'deviant' behavior that could topple administrations. While Kirchick’s analysis of political skulduggery throughout earlier presidencies is microscopic and keenly researched, the proffering of positive changes beginning with George H. W. Bush’s term is insubstantial by comparison. Still, Kirchick’s history is an inspiring and overdue tribute to the brave individuals who fought for acceptance in a city and government long pitted against them..

In this absorbing and well-documented book, Kirchick engagingly draws attention to a variety of gay histories that have been largely lost to mainstream history. At the same time, he shows how Americans’ deep-seated fear of homosexuality was often amplified by political leaders.

Despite losing momentum and depth in its coverage of the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations, this is a valuable and often fascinating revision of U.S. political history..