The Price of Power, Michael Tackett
The Price of Power, Michael Tackett
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The Price of Power
How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America and Lost His Party

Author: Michael Tackett

Narrator: Fred Sanders

Unabridged: 12 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/29/2024


Synopsis

The first definitive biography of Mitch McConnell, revealing an intimate look at the personal and political life of one of the most powerful senators in American history.

In the long history of American government, few senators have wielded as much power as Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell. That’s no accident; he worked his entire life to cultivate his dominance.

In The Price of Power, award-winning journalist Michael Tackett pulls back the curtain on one of the most influential figures to ever set foot in the American Senate, offering you an intimate, personal view of his life and career. Drawing on thousands of pages of archival materials, letters, and more than 100 interviews with associates, colleagues, and McConnell himself, Tackett pieces together the story of McConnell’s early life, his formative battle with polio as a young child, and details his forty-plus-year career as one of the Senate’s most impactful leaders.

A lifelong Republican, McConnell was known as a pragmatic moderate legislator when he joined the Senate in 1985. Tackett traces his steady rightward drift, as McConnell’s politics evolved with his masterful ability to consolidate and wield power. But such success comes at a cost. The Trump years brought with them the rise of an almost unrecognizable Republican party, suffused with a reactive populism that even McConnell himself would struggle to control.

Featuring expert reporting, unprecedented access, and never-before-published revelations, The Price of Power is an inside portrait of exactly that—what it takes to achieve power, maintain it, deploy it, and, finally, watch it slip out of your hands.

About Michael Tackett

Michael Tackett is an award-winning journalist with more than three decades of experience covering national politics, including nine presidential elections. He is currently the Deputy Washington Bureau Chief for the Associated Press. Before that, he was an editor and reporter for The New York Times, Washington Bureau Chief for both Bloomberg News and the Chicago Tribune, and National Editor for US News & World Report. He is a recipient of the White House Correspondents Association’s Edgar A. Poe Award for National Reporting. His first book, The Baseball Whisperer, tells the story of a summer league baseball team in Clarinda, Iowa, that helped shape dozens of major league players. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Thomas on December 03, 2024

Because I was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, I am quite familiar with the name of Mitch McConnell. And to this day it baffles me how a taciturn, curmudgeon man could be so successful in politics. Since McConnell's first, successful campaign in 1977 for Jefferson County Judge Executive, he......more

Goodreads review by Drtaxsacto on November 21, 2024

This is a pretty comprehensive biography of Senator McConnell. And for the most part Tackett does not trip over his biases. But those biases come up especially in McConnell's dogged efforts to frustrate democrat aspirations where he has been very successful. I believe that McConnell's successful eff......more

Goodreads review by Sara on November 08, 2024

So when I had the crazy idea to check out this book after watching an interview with the author, I came to Goodreads and was surprised that the book had zero reviews or ratings at the time. Most books I read already have a ton of ratings on here so I figured hey, why not write the long form review f......more

Goodreads review by Emily on December 18, 2024

I learned that Mitch isn't actually a turtle. Revelatory!......more

Goodreads review by Kenny on November 16, 2024

A remarkably fair book on Mitch McConnell describing his rise to power despite adversity (polio, divorce, covering Kentucky from a blue to red state), and his fall from favor from the GOP as it moved from an establishment ruled party to the Maga faction. The detailed story arc was reminiscent on Rob......more