THE GOLDEN AGE: A NOVEL

THE GOLDEN AGE concludes Vidal's seven-volume series of American historical novels with a tale set between 1939 and 1954--the World War II era and the Cold War years. A movie actress turned journalist and her nephew, a newspaper publisher, provide the vision through which Vidal examines America's evolution into a powerful global empire. The book aroused controversy because of Vidal's assertion that FDR was responsible for the Pearl Harbor attack, as a way of getting Americans to support a US entrance into the war. In THE GOLDEN AGE, Vidal is writing about his own times, and even gives himself a cameo appearance. A New York Times Notable Book for 2000.