to be president

As if one historic, earthshaking event wasn't enough for the week, my book about last year's election is published today. You can order a copy here.

TO BE PRESIDENT aims to be the most comprehensive, entertaining and accessible account of the astonishing 2008 election.

The story starts in the snows of Iowa, with the eight people who have a credible hope of becoming president pitching their wares to voters in the school halls, churches and living rooms of that state. Then we follow the whole crazy rollercoaster ride of a race, through Obama's early victory, Clinton's comeback, Huckabee's insurgency, McCain's return from the dead, the Clinton-Obama death-match...and then on to McCain vs Obama, Mrs Palin and the exploding economy. We end, of course, on that extraordinary night in Grant Park. So, not much to go on then...

With a few glorious exceptions, books about elections are usually a little dull - full of technical jargon or a hurriedly strung together series of reports with little sense of narrative flow. I wanted at least one about this extraordinary year to be worthy of its subject. TBP focuses on the human drama of it all - on the brilliant, flawed individuals who lay it all on the line, and inspire others to do so on their behalf, in the hope of winning the highest office in the land.

An extract can be found on the Granta website here.

Comments

[Lyle]

I agree, the new cover is better than the one I saw while ordering from Amazon (like the good little Marbury devotee that I am).

May TBP become required reading for courses on American politics in the years to come. And please keep up the blog -- Obama's administration will provide plenty of interesting fodder for writing, though fewer lampoonable "Interweb" moments!