Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline by James Perloff

Who really shapes American foreign policy? In this new 2025 edition of The Shadows of Power by James Perloff, the trail leads again and again to the Council on Foreign Relations. Founded in 1921 by financiers tied to J. P. Morgan, the Council quickly grew into Washington’s most reliable recruiting ground. By World War II it was already supplying secretaries of state, defense, and treasury, and it has never stopped. Democrat or Republican, decade after decade, the faces change but the affiliations remain.

Perloff does not lean on rumor. He follows rosters, speeches, memoirs, and issues of the Council’s own journal, Foreign Affairs. He documents how members entered each administration since Franklin Roosevelt, how their study groups produced books that turned into policy, and how even the most controversial wars — from Vietnam to the Middle East — trace back to Council circles. The record demonstrates a consistent drift away from national independence and toward managed globalism.

Because narrative control is part of power, one chapter details the media blackout. Major publishers, editors, and television figures have carried Council memberships, shaping what Americans hear — and what they do not. Another chapter lays out how businessmen are briefed inside Pratt House behind closed doors, with the assurance of “non-attribution.” Thus information that affects citizens’ futures circulates freely among elites while remaining hidden from the public.

The book closes by shifting from problem to possibility. Perloff includes a primer on the Council itself, solutions that stress education and civic vigilance, and a reminder that free men are not helpless before private clubs. For students, journalists, researchers, and ordinary citizens, the evidence here is laid out to be checked, not taken on trust.

This 2025 edition features a new foreword by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D., which frames the Council’s influence for today’s readers and underscores why transparency still matters. For anyone seeking to understand the Establishment’s reach — and how to respond — The Shadows of Power remains a starting point. (2025ed, 273pp, pb)