Robert Draper

Showing how a new breed of Republicans have brought American democracy to the edge, a chronicler of the American political scene for over 25 years tells the story of a fearful test of our ability, as a country, to hold together a system of government grounded in truth and the rule of law.

Even after more than fifteen years it is hard to see the invasion of Iraq through the cool, considered gaze of history. Draper paints a vivid and indelible picture of a decision-making process that was fatally compromised, by a combination of post-9/11 fear and paranoia, rank naïveté, craven groupthink, and participants who gamed the process relentlessly. The intelligence failure was comprehensive. The result is a definitive account of a collective...