Since America’s founding, the nation’s capital has experienced more than its share of scandals; thankfully, Washington Babylon explores some of the dirtiest secrets that have occurred throughout US history. Some are from the earliest days of America’s founding and include the most famous people in history, like George Washington. Others are still fresh in our minds, as the dust has not even settled. In between, US history is littered with scandals from nearly all walks of life that were the most talked-about stories at the time. Many past scandals remain infamous, such as Watergate, Chappaquiddick, and Abscam. Other scandals that were once the biggest stories of the day have faded into obscurity. Washington Babylon reveals new details in some scandals that were not known when the story first broke, offering a whole new perspective for discussion. This is the most comprehensive collection of American scandals that will educate, entertain, shock, and perhaps, even titillate the reader.

Paying open tribute to the tone and illustrative style of Kenneth Anger's classic Hollywood Babylon, the authors provide, in words and pictures, the scoop on the nefarious goings on in the capital city, the out of town arrivistes in the White House and on Capitol Hill, and the corrupt stew of permanent officials and hangers-on which surround them.

Babylon is a surprisingly multivalent symbol in U.S. culture and politics. Political citations of Babylon range widely, from torture at Abu Ghraib to depictions of Hollywood glamour and decadence. In political discourse, Babylon appears in conservative ruminations on democratic law, liberal appeals to unity, Tea Party warnings about equality, and religious advocacy for family values. A composite biblical figure, Babylon is used to celebrate diversity and also to condemn it, to sell sexuality and to regulate it, to galvanize war and to worry about imperialism. Erin Runions explores the significance of these shifts and contradictions, arguing that together they reveal a theopolitics that tries to balance the drive for U.S. dominance with the countervailing ideals and subjectivities of economic globalization. Examining the confluence of cultural formations, biblical interpretations, and (bio)political philosophies, The Babylon Complex shows how theopolitical arguments for war, sexual regulation, and political control both assuage and contribute to anxieties about waning national sovereignty. Theoretically sophisticated and engaging, this remarkable book complicates our understanding of how the Bible affects U.S political ideals and subjectivities.

A FINALIST FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022 – Boston Globe, BuzzFeed, LitHub, Electric Literature, LGBTQ Reads, Latinx in Publishing *Recommended by The New York Times* In this contemporary debut novel—an intimate portrait of queer, racial, and class identity —Andrés, a gay Latinx professor, returns to his suburban hometown in the wake of his husband’s infidelity. There he finds himself with no excuse not to attend his twenty-year high school reunion, and hesitantly begins to reconnect with people he used to call friends. Over the next few weeks, while caring for his aging parents and navigating the neighborhood where he grew up, Andrés falls into old habits with friends he thought he’d left behind. Before long, he unexpectedly becomes entangled with his first love and is forced to tend to past wounds. Captivating and poignant; a modern coming-of-age story about the essential nature of community, The Town of Babylon is a page-turning novel about young love and a close examination of our social systems and the toll they take when they fail us.

"In this tongue-in-cheek guide to the left's intersectional insanity, the writers of the satirical social media site The Babylon Bee teach examine: how to choose pronouns; how to blame everyone else for your problems; how to show the world how wonderful you are; the art of virtue-signaling; the basics of race, gender, and intersectionality; the truth about American history; problematic books and movies; how to tell if a baby is racist; and more."--Publisher's description.