Washington D C

Beginning in 1937, the novel follows the families of conservative senator James Burden Day and newspaper publisher Blaise Sanford as Washington adjusts to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the growing possibility of another world war. Day’s ambitious aide Clay Overbury understands that political advancement depends on personal loyalty, useful secrets and control of public appearances. His ascent draws the Day and Sanford households into a network of alliances, affairs and betrayals that mirrors the transactions of Congress and the executive branch.

The story continues through the Second World War and into the Cold War, when Harry S. Truman’s presidency, anti-communist investigations and Joseph McCarthy’s influence reshape the capital. Vidal is less concerned with battlefield action than with the permanent political class created by war, mass media and federal power. Private lives are repeatedly sacrificed to careers, and ideological conviction becomes difficult to distinguish from calculation, resentment and the desire to remain close to authority.