Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0517561093, Hardcover)

Here is the first ever book-length account of one of Americas most powerful and mysterious institutions: the National Geographic Society, which for nearly a century has been America's lens on the world.

Behind the Society's success is the story of the Grosvenor clan, which dominates the society to this day. Millions of Americans have grown up with its stunningly successful magazine.

Organized by Alexander Graham Bell and other Washington socialites, the National Geographic Society blossomed under the long reign of Gilbert H. Grosvenor, who transformed it into an immensely profitable, secretive, influential, and world-renowned organization.