Ben Jacobs

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The shocking, definitive account of the 2020 election and the first year of the Biden presidency by two New York Times reporters, exposing the deep fissures within both parties as the country approaches a political breaking point. This is the authoritative account of an eighteen-month crisis in American democracy that will be seared into the country’s political memory for decades to come. With stunning, in-the-room detail, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns show how both our political parties confronted a series of national traumas, including the coronavirus pandemic, the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and the political brinksmanship of President Biden’s first year in the White House. From Donald Trump’s assault on the 2020 election and his ongoing campaign of vengeance against his fellow Republicans, to the behind-the-scenes story of Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate and his bitter struggles to unite the Democratic Party, this book exposes the degree to which the two-party system has been strained to the point of disintegration. More than at any time in recent history, the long-established traditions and institutions of American politics are under siege as a set of aging political leaders struggle to hold together a changing country. Martin and Burns break news on most every page, drawing on hundreds of interviews and never-before-seen documents and recordings from the highest levels of government. The book asks the vitally important (and disturbing) question: can American democracy, as we know it, ever work again?

The untold story of the unlikely heroes, the cutthroat politics, and the cultural forces that turned a Deep South state purple—by a top reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Flipped is the definitive account of how the election of Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff transformed Georgia from one of the staunchest Republican strongholds to the nation’s most watched battleground state—and ground zero for the disinformation wars certain to plague statewide and national elections in the future. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein charts how progressive activists and organizers worked to mobilize hundreds of thousands of new voters and how Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia may shape Democratic strategy for years to come. He also chronicles how Georgia’s Republicans countered with a move to the far right that culminated in state leaders defying Donald Trump’s demands to overturn his defeat. Bluestein tells the story of all the key figures in this election, including Stacey Abrams, Brian Kemp, David Perdue, Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock, and Kelly Loeffler, through hundreds of interviews with the people closest to the election. Flipped also features such fascinating characters as political activist turned U.S. congresswoman Nikema Williams; perma-tanned baseball star turned lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan; and the volunteers and voters who laid the groundwork for Biden’s triumphant Georgia campaign. Flipped tells a story that will resonate through the rest of the decade and beyond, as most political experts see Georgia headed toward years of close elections, and Democrats have developed a deep bench of strong candidates to challenge a still deeply entrenched GOP. Interest in the state only figures to increase if and when Stacey Abrams mounts a rematch against Governor Brian Kemp in the fall of 2022 and Trump promotes his own slate of candidates against Republicans who stood against his efforts to overturn Georgia’s election.