The "blockbuster" (The Guardian) New York Times bestseller, a shocking, definitive account of the 2020 election and the first year of the Biden presidency by two New York Times reporters, exposes the deep fissures within both parties as the country approaches a political breaking point.

This is the authoritative, "deeply reported" (The Wall Street Journal) 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 the 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. This "masterful" (George Stephanopoulos) book asks the vitally important (and disturbing) question: can American democracy, as we know it, ever work again?

Author Biography

Jonathan Martin is a senior political writer for The New York Times, a political analyst for CNN and the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America's Future. He joined the Times in 2013 after working as a senior political writer for POLITICO. His work has been featured in The New Republic, National Review, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. A native of Arlington, Virginia, Martin is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College. He and his wife, Betsy, live in Washington and New Orleans.

Alexander Burns is a national correspondent for The New York Times and a political analyst for CNN. He has covered politics at the Times since 2015, including as a national political correspondent in the 2020 campaign. Prior to joining the Times, he was a reporter and editor at POLITICO. Born and raised in New York City, he is a graduate of Harvard College, where he edited the Harvard Political Review. He and his wife, MJ Lee, live in Washington, DC, with their daughter, Penelope, and their dog, Bandit.