The Last Politician
Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future
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- USD 6.99
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- USD 6.99
Descripción editorial
The New York Times bestseller
Franklin Foer tells the definitive insider story of the first two years of the Biden presidency, with exclusive access to Biden’s longtime team of advisers, and presents a gripping portrait of a president during this momentous time in our nation’s history.
"You might love Biden or you might hate Biden, but either way, if you want to understand him, you will want to buy this book." —Politico
“A triumph of reporting.” — Geoff Bennett, PBS NewsHour
“Deeply reported . . . a terrific read.” —Chuck Todd, Meet the Press
“Fantastic . . . The first real insider account of the Biden White House and a fascinating read about Biden himself.” —Jon Favreau, Pod Save America
On January 20, 2021, standing where only two weeks earlier police officers had battled with right-wing paramilitaries, Joe Biden took his oath of office. The American people were still sick with COVID-19, his economists were already warning him of an imminent financial crisis, and his party, the Democrats, had the barest of majorities in the Senate. Yet, faced with an unprecedented set of crises, Joe Biden decided he would not play defense. Instead, he set out to transform the nation.
With unparalleled access to the tight inner circle of advisers who have surrounded Biden for decades, Franklin Foer dramatizes in forensic detail the first two years of the Biden presidency, concluding with the historic midterm elections. The result is a gripping and high-definition portrait of a major president at a time when democracy itself seems imperiled.
The Last Politician is a landmark work of political reporting—which includes thrilling, blow-by-blow insider reports of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the White House’s swift response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine—that is destined to shape history’s view of a president in the eye of the storm.
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President Biden is a master of the kind of practical politicking that yields transformational results, according to this effusive rundown of his first two years in office. Atlantic journalist Foer (World Without Mind) credits Biden with "the most fertile legislative season in memory," including the passage of the American Rescue Plan stimulus bill; a huge infrastructure bill; the CHIPS Act, which aims to reboot semiconductor manufacturing; and the Inflation Reduction Act, a clean energy milestone. Drawing on interviews with policymakers and writing in whip-smart, evocative prose, Foer presents a canny insider's account of Washington, full of backroom wrangling and posturing. Biden presides in grand fashion, "nose-counting, horse-trading, and spreading a thick layer of flattery" to clinch deals, especially with his great antagonist, Sen. Joe Manchin, whom he handles with a mixture of jawboning—"Joe, if you don't come along, you're really fucking me," growled Biden when Manchin balked at the American Rescue Plan—and incentives (after Manchin voted for the ARP, Foer reports, Biden appointed his wife to a paid post on the Appalachian Regional Commission). Foer sometimes lapses into hero worship, calling Biden "the West's father figure" and "a man for his age." Still, his portrait of "the old hack who could" enacting a vigorous and far-reaching agenda is a stimulating corrective to right-wing caricatures of Biden as an inert near-invalid.
