A review by balberry
Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

The biggest yikes for this one. It should have stood as a sobering historical account and a call to action for holding individuals accountable, politically and criminally. Unfortunately, I’m writing this just two days before Trump’s second inauguration, making the warnings in this book feel like a chilling prophecy instead. This memoir is incredibly well done, packed with personal and professional insights that left me in awe of Liz Cheney’s courage and fortitude. She details the events leading up to January 6, 2021, and the fallout that followed with clarity and urgency. I strongly recommend experiencing this as an audiobook, as it includes crucial, terrifying audio clips from January 6 alongside damning testimony from the investigation. The epilogue devastatingly lays out how freedom erodes under unchecked authoritarianism heading into the 2024 election. Listening to it now, it’s not a warning, it’s reality. As a Canadian, I feel a degree of removal, but it’s impossible to ignore how deeply America’s political actions impact the world, including us. This book is damning and upsetting. It’s motivating, but it also left me in a bit of despair knowing that the people who need its message most aren’t interested in hearing it. It’s a tough but crucial listen.