The Golden Age

The Golden Age, a historical novel published in 2000 by Gore Vidal, is the seventh and allegedly final novel in his "Narratives of Empire" series. The story begins in 1939 and features many of the characters and events that Gore Vidal introduced in his earlier novel, Washington, D.C. (novel). This includes the families of conservative Democratic Senator James Burden Day, and powerful newspaper publisher Blaise Sanford. The book inserts the charac... more

The Golden Age, a historical novel published in 2000 by Gore Vidal, is the seventh and allegedly final novel in his "Narratives of Empire" series. The story begins in 1939 and features many of the characters and events that Gore Vidal introduced in his earlier novel, Washington, D.C. (novel). This includes the families of conservative Democratic Senator James Burden Day, and powerful newspaper publisher Blaise Sanford. The book inserts the character of Caroline Sanford, Blaise's half-sister and publishing partner, who was introduced in the prequels to Washington, D.C. It covers America's entry into World War II and the national politics of that time in some detail, and highlights of the post-war years, and then closes with a year-2000 retrospective. The title is more ironic than ambivalent, referring principally to hopes expressed by young Americans shortly after winning WWII. The action centers around President Roosevelt's maneuvers to get the United States into World War II while... less