Review From User :
I think Bromwich is one of the best critics/public intellectuals currently working - right up there with James Grant, Nicholas Lemann, Gordon Wood, David Stockman, Louis Menand & some others.
I'm curious to know how he (or his publisher) determined which of his essays should comprise this short book, since many of his best essays published over the last decade (denoted below) are actually better, more noteworthy than those included herewith.
Chapter 1: The Cheney Co-Presidency
5400 words
New York Review, Nov. 20, 2008
Chapter 2: What Went Wrong: The Obama Legacy
7300 words
Harper's Magazine, June 2015
Chapter 3: Act One, Scene One
6300 words
London Review of Books, Feb. 16, 2017
Chapter 4: The Age of Detesting Trump
5200 words
London Review of Books, July 13, 2017
Chapter 5: American Breakdown
6400 words
London Review of Books, Aug. 9, 2018
Chapter 6: Midterm Fever
5200 words
London Review of Books, March 7, 2019
Appendix A: On the Election
1050 words
New York Review, Nov. 10, 2016
Appendix B: Bomb First
2000 words
New York Review, April 10, 2017
Appendix C: The Making of Donald Trump
1500 words
The Guardian, May 18, 2017
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These noteworthy essays, not in American Breakdown, also catalogue The Trump Years and How They Befell Us.
Obama's Delusion (great essay)
4700 words
London Review of Books, Oct. 22, 2009
Obama's Oslo Speech: A Caption-Summary With Excerpts
2000 words
Huffington Post, Dec. 12, 2009
Diary: Obama & healthcare (great essay)
4400 words
London Review of Books, May 13, 2010
The Curveball of Karl Rove
4000 words
New York Review, July 15, 2010
The Dying Art of Political Explanation
1500 words
Huffington Post, October 16, 2010
The Fastidious President (great essay)
4800 words
London Review of Books, November 18, 2010
Rush Limbaugh: The Rebel Germ
4700 words
New York Review, November 25, 2010
The Historic [Midterm] Election
800 words
New York Review, December 9, 2010
Obama's Peculiar Custom
1500 words
London Review of Books, December 10, 2010
Obama on Civility and Lincoln on the Rule of Law
2600 words
Huffington Post, January 15, 2011
Obama, Incorporated
2800 words
New York Review, January 28, 2011
Obama's Mental Bookkeeping
1700 words
London Review of Books, May 27, 2011
Obama: His Words and His Deeds
4300 words
New York Review of Books, July 14, 2011
Pity The Billionaire (a great, short essay)
1600 words
The Guardian, Jan. 13, 2012
Diary: David Maraniss's Obama biography
3200 words
London Review of Books, July 5, 2012
Short Cuts - Rep. Paul Ryan, the Tea Party, & Ayn Rand
Two of Bromwich's lines on Ryan are uncharacteristically cruel, unfair, a glimpse of his dyspepsia unbound.
1000 words
London Review of Books, August 30, 2012
Saying It Straight in October (great essay)
1000 words
The Huffington Post, October 12, 2012
The Election
1700 words
New York Review, November 8, 2012
Now the Democrats Must Lead
1500 words
Huffington Post, November 14, 2012
Torture and 'Zero Dark Thirty' (great essay)
3400 words
Huffington Post, January 19, 2013
The Crossroads on Syria
2300 words
Huffington Post, August 29, 2013
Diary: Obama & Syria
3100 words
London Review of Books, September 26, 2013
Ukraine and Iraq: A Reminder (great essay)
2400 words
Huffington Post, March 27, 2014
Obama: The World's Most Important Spectator (great essay)
4900 words
London Review of Books, June 20, 2014
Actions and Intentions in Gaza (great essay)
3300 words
Huffington Post, August 2, 2014
What Went Wrong-Assessing Obama's legacy
7300 words
Harper's Magazine, June 2015
Short Cuts - Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary vs. Trump (very good)
1700 words
London Review of Books, v38n6, March 17, 2016
The Soul of the Tea Party
3800 words
The Nation, May 17, 2016
The Roots of Hillary's Infatuation with War (great essay)
2500 words
The National Interest, June 29, 2016
Donald Trump's Ruling Passions
1200 words
The Nation, January 12, 2018
The Limited Virtues of Adam McKay's 'Vice'
2,000 words, no paywall.
New York Review, January, 5, 2019
Trump House-Cleaning
5200 words
London Review of Books, v41n5, March 7, 2019
Short Cuts: Robert Mueller's Report
1800 words
London Review of Books, April 18, 2019
What It Means to be "Great" on a Planet Going Down (great essay)
3600 words
June 24, 2019
Media Size : 353 KB
