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Peril

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Peril

By: Bob Woodward, Robert Costa
Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
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About this listen

 THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
THE NEW YORK TIMES NO 1 BESTSELLER
The storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021 revealed the transition from President Trump to President Biden to be one of the most dangerous periods in American history, with the result of the election called into question by the sitting president.

But, as 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. At the highest level of the US military, secret action was taken to prevent Trump from possibly starting a war.

Woodward and Costa interviewed more than 200 people at the centre of the turmoil, resulting in a spellbinding and definitive portrait of a nation on the brink. They take readers deep inside the Trump White House, the Biden White House, the 2020 campaign, and the Pentagon and Congress, with vivid, eyewitness accounts of what really happened. Peril is supplemented throughout with never-before-seen material from secret orders, transcripts of confidential calls, diaries, emails, meeting notes and other personal and government records, making for an unparalleled history.

It is also the first inside look at Biden’s presidency, revealing the background to his controversial decision to leave Afghanistan. He took office faced with the challenges of a lifetime: dealing with the continuing deadly pandemic and its crushing economic impact, all the while navigating a bitter and disabling partisan divide, and the hovering, dark shadow of the former president. ‘We have much to do in this winter of peril,’ Biden declared at his inauguration.

Peril is the extraordinary story of the end of one presidency and the beginning of another. The culmination of Bob Woodward’s bestselling trilogy on the Trump presidency, along with Fear and Rage, it is an essential read for anyone wanting to understand this tumultuous period.
 Americas Political Science Politics & Government United States World American History War

Critic reviews

'The thing that is so bracing and nerve-wracking and important about this new book is what it reveals about how much worse it was than we knew, how much closer we came to real disaster than we have known before now.' (Rachel Maddow)
'Excerpts of the Woodward/Costa book in the Washington Post and CNN make the Trump administration’s operations in January 2021 sound like a bewildering blend of King Lear, The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire, Dr Strangelove and Veep.' (Olivier Knox)
'A cliffhanger... Like an instalment of a deathless Marvel franchise, for all its spectacle Peril ends with a dismaying sense of prologue.' (John Williams)
'We know that the period between the election and the inauguration was a time of great domestic turmoil. And what Peril does is it shows that this was also a grave national security crisis.' (Isaac Stanley-Becker)
'Explosive new details about former President Donald Trump's actions around last year's election and the January insurrection.'
'Woodward and Costa got an exclusive transcript of the call. Pelosi has the same concerns that Milley does. The phone call is dramatic. It's blunt. And Pelosi wants Milley to reassure her that the nuclear weapons are safe.' (Jamie Gangel)
'The book details how Mr Trump's presidency essentially collapsed in his final months in office, particularly after his election loss and the start of his campaign to deny the results.' (Michael S. Schmidt)
All stars
Most relevant
I thoroughly enjoyed the first two Woodward books on Trump. This book returns to some of the themes included there - for example unelected officials seeking to thwart the will of the elected President. In the first book it was Gary Cohn ducking and diving to avoid withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In this, the equivalent is General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. His conversation with Nancy Pelosi are the big revelation, at least for those of us outside the USA.

Beyond the role of the military - and no one does a character study the way Woodward does - the events of 6th January have been covered repeatedly in many other books and there’s little new that this study adds. The way Trump treats his subordinates, the way he demeans, insults, seeks to bully, praise and wheedle all as methods of control, are very firmly on record.

After January 20th the book turns to the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (the coverage here could have been taken wholesale from the New Yorker; conservative Democrats from West Virginia are conservative, Republicans are prepared to hold the government hostage, shocker) and the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The latter was looked at superficially, in my view. It relives media coverage and comments made publicly at the time, with only sporadic insights into the private conversations of President Biden and the other key players - which is something Woodward usually excels at.

I enjoyed it, for sure, but Woodward has done much, much better work.

Entertaining but not as thorough as usual

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This narrative has an amazing fly-on-the wall character, you are really there with all the different personalities including their typical expletives!
The best book on Trump, Biden and the transition and a serious warning for the future.

As if you were there

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how could an electorate vote in someone so obviously incompetent into the highest office in the world? how was he not impeached for the insurrection of Jan 6th? this book shows the hastened decline of America as a superpower, led by a coterie of predominantly very old, very white men. at least Biden seems like a human being with feelings but he's way too old to be leader. there should be an upper age limit and whilst the checks and balances worked to keep Trumps attempt at stealing the election, he nearly orchestrated a coup . just shocking and the bloated old member of the 1% is going to run again in 2024.

shocking

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This is a shocking book. More shocking than the disgraceful narrative is that a very substantial minority of the American people applaud this monster and would welcome an authoritarian anti-democratic regime firmly under his iron grip.
This book and its earlier volumes needs to be read and its warning heeded.

Dangerous Foreboding

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I have been waiting for this book to come out with great anticipation, and I wasn’t disappointed. Yes It did cover the things I though it would but also some very interesting extras-like withdrawing from Afghanistan and the backstory to it started by Trump. I’ve read many books by Bob Woodward and they’ve always been well researched and spot on in any Analysis of a subject. I was peeved when I finished it as it was so good. If you are interested in American politics like I am it’s a must read

Very good listen

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