The Georgetown Set cover art

The Georgetown Set

Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Georgetown Set

By: Gregg Herken
Narrated by: Lloyd James
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

This fascinating, behind-the-scenes history of postwar Washington is a rich and colorful portrait of the close-knit group of journalists, spies, and government officials who waged the Cold War over cocktails and dinner.

In the years after World War II, Georgetown's leafy streets were home to an unlikely group of cold warriors: a coterie of affluent, well-educated, and well-connected civilians who helped steer American strategy from the Marshall Plan through McCarthyism, Vietnam, and the endgame of Watergate. This Georgetown set included Phil and Kay Graham, husband-and-wife publishers of the Washington Post; Joe and Stewart Also, odd-couple brothers who were among the country's premier political pundits; Frank Wisner, a driven, manic-depressive lawyer in charge of CIA covert operations; and a host of diplomats, spies, and scholars. It was a time when presidents made foreign policy in consultation with reporters and professors - often over martinis and hors d'oeuvres - and columnists like the Alsops promoted those policies in the next day's newspapers.

Gregg Herken illuminates the drama of these years and brings this remarkable roster of men and women and their world not only out into the open but vividly to life.

©2014 Gregg Herken (P)2014 Blackstone Audio
Americas Military Political Science Politics & Government State & Local United States Marriage Military Policy Cold War Dwight Eisenhower Espionage Vietnam War War Soviet Union Black Ops Imperial Japan Socialism Russia Imperialism Franklin D Roosevelt
All stars
Most relevant
So glaringly is the book devoid of Kay Graham that I would go as far as suggesting it has been sloppily researched. Out of all the books I’ve read on the topic, this one felt anaemic on new facts and on occasion reeked of third-hand gossip.

One word: reductive

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.