Just out: All the Presidents’ Wars: Twenty-Five Years of America’s War on Terror by Peter Bergen.
“The resulting war on terror cost trillions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives, a series of misguided wars, and the damaged perception of American power. And yet despite its blunders, this campaign has kept America safe from large-scale foreign attack.”
Just published: The Forsaken Founder: Gouverneur Morris, the Unsung Patriot Who Wrote the Constitution, Stood Up to Slavery, and Survived the Reign of Terror by Scott S. Greenberger.
The little-known story of Gouverneur Morris, the brilliant yet overlooked Founding Father whose visionary ideas from writing key components of the U.S. Constitution to helping create America’s first bank to holding an unwavering stance against slavery shaped the nation’s future.
“It is an arresting, menacing image: the scarred face of Roy M. Cohn, the notorious New York City lawyer, fixer and master of the political dark arts, floating bodiless in a pool of black, his hooded eyes staring directly back at the viewer,” the New York Times reports.
“The photograph, taken by Robert Mapplethorpe in 1981, is an unforgettable depiction of its subject, and the celebrated author Kai Bird thought it would make the perfect cover art for his new biography of Mr. Cohn, American Scoundrel, which will be released by Scribner next week.”
“That the picture never ended up on the book’s cover is a matter of regret to Mr. Bird — and a small but telling illustration of the anxiety that has taken root in the nonprofit world because of Mr. Cohn’s most famed protégé, an ambitious real estate developer now serving his second term as president.”
Just published: Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative by Evan Barker.
“In August 2024, standing on the floor of the Democratic National Convention, Barker hit her breaking point. In that moment, she saw what no one inside the party dared admit: the Democrats had lost their way, and there was no path back.”
Just published: Poetic Justice for Donald Trump: The Only Kind We’re Going to Get by Buck Banks.
A compilation of satirical limericks ripped from the headlines during the Trump era.
Just out: Voicing Our Values: A Message Guide for Policymakers, 2026 Edition by Bernie Horn and Gloria Totten.
The book offers research-based language that addresses a wide range of domestic issues.
Coming this fall: How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents by Sen. Thom Tillis.
According to Politico, Tillis describes Donald Trump’s advisers as “MAGATS” in his book, saying they “are not giving the president honest advice and putting us in positions that we could avoid.”
Out just before the midterms: Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country by Andy Beshear.
Beshear is almost certainly ramping up for a 2028 presidential campaign.
New York Times: “More than 1,100 pages long and dating from 2019 to 2022, Dr. Fauci’s diary reads like a black comedy of manners in which a 79-year-old social-climbing scientist becomes the face of the government’s response to a pandemic and then the toast of the town — the toast of this town. As the death toll rises, so too does the doctor’s status and self-regard. He falls in with a fast crowd and becomes consumed by his own image.”
“It’s like Thackeray’s Vanity Fair crossed with The Plague by Camus.”
NPR: Rand Paul released Fauci’s pandemic-era “diary.” Now they’ll face off on Capitol Hill.
Politico: “Ben Wikler wanted to lead the Democratic Party after his party’s disastrous 2024. But Wikler, the former Wisconsin Democratic chair, may ultimately help Democrats even more with his new book: This Is the Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy.”
”Equal parts memoir, political history and how-to guide, Wikler does what Democrats desperately need — he grabs them by the proverbial lapels and demands they pay as much attention to their structural and long-term challenges as they do Donald Trump’s latest outburst. He also has some fun along the way.”
“Regime Change, the juicy exposé on President Trump’s second term by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, has passed the publishing milestone of 500,000 units sold (hardcover, audio, e-book) in just one month,” Axios reports.
”Publishing sources tell me the blockbuster is on track to be the bestselling nonfiction book of 2026.”
“A lead U.S. negotiator for the release of hundreds of people captured by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel will have a book out this fall,” the Associated Press reports.
“The Penguin Random House imprint Crown has scheduled Brett McGurk’s Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7 Hostages for Oct. 6, nearly three years to the day after the deadly Hamas siege that left more than 1,000 people dead and more than 200 taken captive.”
“Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has written a memoir that will be released two weeks after the midterm elections this fall,” the New York Times reports.
The Economist: “Pundits often say that Trump World resembles Game of Thrones because it is a place where horrid people do horrid things in pursuit of power. Fiddlesticks. The main reason why Trump World is like a dragons-and-zombies saga is that its protagonists live in a land of make-believe.”
“Especially President Donald Trump, whose understanding of reality seems to be based on snippets he once heard and wishes were true. Regime Change, an account of his second term by two New York Times journalists, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, brims with examples.”
Just published: Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff.
“Everyone’s got an Elon take. He’s a messiah. A menace; a genius; a clown. The verdicts differ, but they share one theme: they treat him as an individual.”
“Muskism argues otherwise. Elon Musk isn’t a glitch in the system—he is the system. His worldview promises sovereignty through technology: plug in, power up, and become self-reliant. But the more you connect, the more he owns you.”
New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan told Morning Joe that Elon Musk‘s stint as “co-president” last year created a level of “destabilization” from which the Trump administration has never recovered, The Wrap reports.
Said Haberman: “You had Elon Musk — and we get into this in great detail — essentially serving not as a co-president but as a co-president for parts of the first four months or so… That created so much destabilization of this government that I think they also never quite recovered.”
Financial Times: Regime change — the chaos of a court built around Donald Trump’s instinct.
Out next month: This Is The Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy by Ben Wikler.
“Wikler distills lessons from the front lines in America’s most closely divided state to map out a comprehensive plan to dictator-proof American government, defeat MAGA at every level of the ballot, and build a future of democracy, opportunity, and freedom for all.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
