The Unraveling: Reflections on Politics Without Ethics and Democracy in Crisis
Essential reading for anyone interested in modern American politics, get the book that former President Barack Obama on X calls "a deeply thoughtful book" and says, "couldn't be a more timely read."
Part memoir, part rumination on the declining moral compass of the American political class, The Unraveling is the first book to place restoring political ethics at the center of the renewal of American democracy. Politics is a brutal game, but Bauer asks where does the line fall between the "hardball" of politics and attacks on the very foundation of democracy? Looking back on 46 years in the political arena, Bauer tries to better grasp what has gone wrong and to understand what shaped his own decisions and actions. He offers anecdotes, perspectives, and insights that are vitally relevant in our world today, including efforts in 2020 (and 2024) to defend our democratic system of elections from attack and distrust, and the struggles with social media, such as Meta, to combat disinformation in a post-truth politics. He writes about the various personal experiences along the way--the highs, the lows, and the absurd. Bauer presents a smart and serious look at our political culture and the role that he has played in shaping it. The Unraveling will be essential reading for anyone interested in American politics of the last 50 years--and the next.Earn by promoting books
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Bob Bauer has been involved in many of the biggest political struggles in the five decades since the post-Watergate 1970s. He has been a leading legal adviser to the national Democratic Party and to its candidates on strategies for winning elections and protecting voting rights, and he has represented the party in national political conflicts and controversies. He was the chief counsel to both of President Obama's presidential campaigns and was the President's White House counsel. He was counsel to the Democratic Senate leader during Bill Clinton's impeachment trial. He was a senior adviser to the Biden presidential campaign on voting rights and election protection, and on vice presidential selection, and his responsibilities included playing the role of Donald Trump in preparation for the general election debates. Bauer is also now on the faculty of the New York University School of Law, teaching political reform and the ethical challenges facing lawyers in public life. He coauthored with Jack Goldsmith After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency.
There may be no lawyer in America today who has been more deeply involved than Bob Bauer in the major political controversies over many years. In this important memoir, Bauer takes us behind the scenes and into the rooms where some of the most consequential political battles played out. For that reason alone, his book makes for riveting reading. But more than that, Bauer takes a hard look at his own role in those events, asking whether he helped to strengthen democratic norms or whether he could have done more or better. Bauer's introspective analysis is a call to each of us to ask the same hard question about the way we involve ourselves in today's politics. Do we have the moral courage to become the type of person our politics needs at this moment of toxic polarization that threatens our democracy?
--Judge Thomas B. Griffith (ret.), U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit (2005-2020)Bob is one of the few people who has had a front seat to history through two Presidents and a first hand knowledge of the weight and responsibilities that sit on their shoulders. Through engaging storytelling and candor about his own experiences, Bob reminds us of the responsibility every public servant has to weigh ethics and morality in decision making not just in the age of Trump but well beyond.
--Jen Psaki, Former White House press secretary, Host of Inside with Jen Psaki on MSNBCA man of the arena, Bob Bauer is remarkably candid about his own role in defining and in deploying the law of politics--or, sometimes, the politics of the law--in recent decades. In these pages he takes honest account of the conflicts and compromises of an inherently complex sphere of life.
--Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning historianThe Unraveling by Bob Bauer is a deeply thoughtful book that includes reflections on his decades-long career in politics and gives insight into the ways we can work to strengthen our democracy. It couldn't be a more timely read.
-- "President Barack Obama"Too many foxholes over too many years with Bob Bauer. His good advice is only rivaled by his good collegiality. Eager to dive into the Unraveling.
-- "David Plouffe"
