Praise for The Steal

"A gripping ground-level narrative of the weeks after Donald Trump lost the popular vote...The Steal is a marvel of reporting: tightly wound...but also panoramic - a kaleidoscope of stories about how officials and activists in pivotal states like Arizona and Georgia responded to Trump's false claims of election fraud...The result is a narrative that mirrors the way elections are actually run in the United States: state by state, county by county, precinct by precinct."--Washington Post

"The unheralded and mostly unknown Republicans active in local politics who refused to go along with Trump's lies--and played a key role in preserving American democracy--are the main subject of The Steal by the journalists Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague. At 230 pages of text, their book is a lean, fast-paced and important account of the chaotic final weeks of the Trump administration."--New York Times

"Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague have produced an indispensable and alarming ground-level record of how Donald Trump's attempt to steal the 2020 election played out in precincts and ballot-counting centers in key states...In their terrific new book...the authors have used a stethoscope to examine the minutia of the American election process. The result is a thrilling and suspenseful celebration of the survival of democracy...Bowden and Teague have performed a singular service."--The Guardian

"The strength of The Steal, Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague's meticulous micro-narrative published on the one-year anniversary of the attacks, is that it zooms in through the forest and down to the grassroots, where a deluded assortment of self-styled patriots sought to subvert democracy in the name of saving it, and a brave band of state and local officials--most of them Trump-supporting Republicans, in fact--actually did save it."--Air Mail

"The Steal is a terrifying picture of the civil war that began on Election Day 2020. Here is the rancor, distrust, and deception that spun into the conspiracies and rabbit holes that Donald Trump has used to undermine truth, logic, and common sense. This is the behind-the-scenes world of the Big Lie. The Steal reads like an edge-of-your-seat political thriller--one without a happy ending." --Michael Wolff, New York Times bestselling author of Landslide

"The Steal is brilliant, an incredibly important document reported without bile or self-righteousness. A book every conservative should read."--P. J. O'Rourke, New York Times bestselling author of How the Hell Did This Happen

"It's impossible to think of a better combination of writing and reporting talent to cover an historic assault on democracy than Mark Bowden and Matt Teague. That combination has produced a book that must be read now and will be read for many years to come. I made the mistake of starting The Steal in the evening and did not sleep until completed. It is incredibly informative, terrifying and a screeching klaxon of alarm for our democracy. Imagine A.J. Liebling and William Shirer combing to write about the Reichstag fire of 1933 and that's the sort of gift we--and history--have been given with The Steal."--Stuart Stevens, New York Times bestselling author of It Was All a Lie

both the valiant overseers of the voting process and the passionate Trump supporters fomenting dissent. Rousing, infuriating, sobering, and instructive, this page-turning account of the election debacle exposes the legal, political, and, sadly, even physical attacks on those civic-minded individuals trusted with upholding democracy's foundations and those committed to destroying that