Peril
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4.2 • 52 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
The transition from President Donald J. Trump to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stands as one of the most dangerous periods in American history.
But as #1 internationally bestselling author Bob Woodward and acclaimed reporter Robert Costa reveal for the first time, it was far more than just a domestic political crisis. Woodward and Costa interviewed more than 200 people at the center of the turmoil, resulting in more than 6,000 pages of transcripts—and a spellbinding and definitive portrait of a nation on the brink.
This classic study of Washington takes readers deep inside the Trump White House, the Biden White House, the 2020 campaign, and the Pentagon and Congress, with eyewitness accounts of what really happened. Intimate scenes are supplemented with never-before-seen material from secret orders, transcripts of confidential calls, diaries, emails, meeting notes and other personal and government records, making Peril an unparalleled history. It is also the first inside look at Biden’s presidency as he began his presidency facing the challenges of a lifetime: the continuing deadly pandemic and millions of Americans facing soul-crushing economic pain, all the while navigating a bitter and disabling partisan divide, a world rife with threats, and the hovering, dark shadow of the former president.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his third book about the Trump presidency (following Fear and Rage), Woodward joins forces with his Washington Post colleague Costa to offer a harrowing if familiar chronicle of the lead-up to and fallout from the 2020 election. The authors open with the dramatic revelation that Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, twice reassured his Chinese counterparts that President Trump wouldn't launch a surprise attack to improve his chances of staying in office, and that if Trump tried to do so, the Chinese would be warned. According to the authors, Milley also limited Trump's ability to launch nuclear weapons. Drawing on anonymous interviews with "more than 200 firsthand participants and witnesses," Woodward and Costa also document how Trump's remarks about the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville motivated Biden to run for president, and offer fly-on-the-wall accounts of Republican in-fighting over claims that the election was rigged, Vice President Mike Pence's waffling over whether he should overturn the electoral results, and negotiations over President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Unfortunately, none of these reveals match the drama of those pertaining to Milley, and readers hoping for new insights into the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol will be disappointed. This well-sourced recap feels more rote than revelatory.
Customer Reviews
About Bob Woodward
I was born in 1961, too young to have experienced in real time the tragic events of November 22nd 1963, but I have later in life read many books of this tragic day and believe that it was the most significant event in the entire history of the US. I learned everything about JFK, his life his presidency and his untimely death. I was just a teenager when the watergate scandal happened and was too young still to understand any of it. Later in life I read and still own All the president's men, The final days as well as John Dean's and Bob Halderman's book. In more recent times I had the pleasure of reading Bob Woodward's Fear and now Peril and must say that I am now a big fan of his writings. Rage is next on my list. I think that Bob's writing style is very concise and made to please any reader, to the point and very accurate. I will simply add that I'm not American, I'm Canadian and have always been interested in American politics and feel very strongly that unfortunately America "the good" died on that fateful day in Dallas in 1963 and that it now has descended into an abyss in which I'm not sure if it can crawl itself out of with the Trump presidency. I doubt very much that Joe Biden is capable and up to the task of helping America come out of this abyss. I would love for Bob to write something about JFK and make this a final legacy of his life's remarkable literary work. I would be the first one to eagerly purchase such a book. Very well done Bob Woodward, congratulations for everything and I wish him all the best.