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53 reviews for:
This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future
Alexander Burns, Jonathan Martin, Jonathan Martin
3.89 AVERAGE
53 reviews for:
This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future
Alexander Burns, Jonathan Martin, Jonathan Martin
3.89 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
My short comments: I have seen Jonathan Martin on news shows, and always found him interesting. This book is an eye-opening look into not only the disaster the US experienced in January, but the political intrigues that lead to some deplorable behavior on the part of some politicians who are not helping us move away from a very dark period. Simply trying to ignore the former president will not make it all go away.
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I've been reading a lot of recent political science lately, and a lot of it tends to end with Trump and (because I've been focusing on this) really zero in on changes in the Republican Party. While, obviously, the stuff going on over there is pretty seismic, we are now two years into Biden's term and things have not gone to either party's full plan. I really appreciated that this book took the end of Trump's presidency as the center of a ripple, but one that has had major effects on both parties that didn't just stop when Biden got elected. It not only showed how events have caused schisms within the Republican Party but also among the Democrats as well. It also was very frank about how these schisms and other things have caused trouble and even failure within the Democratic Party, which isn't something I've seen touched on as yet in my more recent reading. The authors interviewed numerous people for this book on both sides, as high up as party leaders and even Trump. There are changes afoot in both parties as generations change and politics become increasingly combative, and this book gives you a decent snapshot of what that means and looks like in today's politics. On the writing side, it was just superbly written (and sourced!) and flowed incredibly well--not something you can say for all nonfiction, but a definite plus here.
Why did I read this? I guess journalism is the first draft of history...books by journalists are the second draft of history? But some of this stuff really just happened a year ago. In a way this is the equivalent of me reading a romance novel -- predictable characters, plots I already know, the thing to pick up and read because it passes the time. As politics/history books go, this wasn't particularly revelatory. In fact I kept thinking about how cherry picked it ultimately was. The broad strokes are probably all good and correct but each page is so source-driven and specific. It's a book comprised of the people who decided to talk to them. It feels incomplete. But also is it really necessary to get any more detailed or "true" accounting of, say, the 2021 infrastructure bill negotiations? I don't think so.
On the other hand, I appreciated how clear-eyed and blunt they were about Jan 6 and the threat Donald J. Trump represents to democracy and the USA. Often times those sections pierced my self-imposed "try to forget about it" armor. So thanks a lot, Alex and J-Mart!
On the other hand, I appreciated how clear-eyed and blunt they were about Jan 6 and the threat Donald J. Trump represents to democracy and the USA. Often times those sections pierced my self-imposed "try to forget about it" armor. So thanks a lot, Alex and J-Mart!
fast-paced
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
I’m glad I read it but more so just glad I listened and didn’t physically read it. It was a great deep dive into things I already knew so I didn’t feel like I learned too much from it but ain’t that the nature of current affairs books. Well researched, felt quite anti trump in the beginning but that leveled out a tad about halfway through. Crazy accounts of the Capitol insurrection and amazing to hear the events unfold, that day and all those before and after. Would recommend for the really news savvy current affairs obsessed pundits who want to get more info on what happened in those four or five years. Otherwise, very dry and not super entertaining, as you’d expect.
challenging
informative
tense
slow-paced
informative