Insurgency

How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted

By: Jeremy W. Peters

Narrated by: Jeremy W. Peters

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • How did the party of Lincoln become the party of Trump? From an acclaimed political reporter for The New York Times comes the definitive story of the mutiny that shattered American politics.

“A bracing account of how the party of Lincoln and Reagan was hijacked by gadflies and grifters who reshaped their movement into becoming an anti-democratic cancer that attacked the U.S. Capitol.”—Joe Scarborough

An epic narrative chronicling the fracturing of the Republican Party, Jeremy Peters’s Insurgency is the story of a party establishment that believed it could control the dark energy it helped foment—right up until it suddenly couldn’t. How, Peters asks, did conservative values that Republicans claimed to cherish, like small government, fiscal responsibility, and morality in public service, get completely eroded as an unshakable faith in Donald Trump grew to define the party?

The answer is a tale traced across three decades—with new reporting and firsthand accounts from the people who were there—of populist uprisings that destabilized the party. The signs of conflict were plainly evident for anyone who cared to look. After Barack Obama’s election convinced many Republicans that they faced an existential demographics crossroads, many believed the only way to save the party was to create a more inclusive and diverse coalition. But party leaders underestimated the energy and popular appeal of those who would pull the party in the opposite direction. They failed to see how the right-wing media they hailed as truth-telling was warping the reality in which their voters lived. And they did not understand the complicated moral framework by which many conservatives would view Trump, leading evangelicals and one-issue voters to shed Republican orthodoxy if it delivered a Supreme Court that would undo Roe v. Wade.

In this sweeping history, Peters details key junctures and episodes to unfurl the story of a revolution from within. Its architects had little interest in the America of the new century but a deep understanding of the iron will of a shrinking minority. With Trump as their polestar, their gamble paid greater dividends than they’d ever imagined, extending the life of far-right conservatism in United States domestic policy into the next half century.

©2021 Jeremy Peters (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“[A] spirited new history . . . The outlines of the Republicans’ hard-right turn are by now largely familiar. What distinguishes Insurgency is its blend of political acuity and behind-the-scenes intrigue. . . . Peters is a fluid and engaging writer, and as the narrative of Insurgency unfolds and Trump inevitably, irresistibly, assumes center stage, you almost can’t help admiring—as Bannon did—the candidate’s raw, demagogic genius.”—The New York Times

“Insurgency is persuasive in suggesting that the long-term transformation of the Republican Party is one in which a style of politics has overpowered, and then suffocated, any remnant of its substance.”—The Washington Post

“Highly readable . . . From 2016 to the Capitol riot, Jeremy Peters delivers a meticulously reported and extremely worrying tale of how and why the U.S. came to this. . . . Peters chronicles how the party of Lincoln and Reagan morphed into Trump’s own fiefdom. He writes with a keen eye and sharp pen. . . . His book is chilling.”—The Guardian

Definitely worth the read

I learned new things about how the GOP was so vulnerable to a take over by Trump. Now we’ll have to wait to see whether or not the American people will or will not vote for a con man a second time.

Truth is even worse than fiction.

I just finished this book after hearing Jaime on Fresh Air. It’s a remarkable book, well-written and researched as you’d expect from Peters. Still, I’m worried, angry, heart broken, and I feel sick. This book sits at the corner of “May you live in interesting times” Road & “Be careful what you wish for” Drive.

Left wanting more

I was under the impression we were going to get more of an explanation of the people who funded this insurgency but no such luck. Save a few mentions of the Kochs Mellon Scaifes and the book Dark Money it was not the explanation I had wanted. Still worth my time.

Jerk

Total reveal if the “Orange Ones” total mental insufficiency and total disregard for the Constitution.

Gripping

I listened into the night and found it difficult to stop. Sadly the Trump Cult lives on in a reality bubble they've made based on fiction they believe to be true.

Very informative.

Good book informative and a bit depressing. Crazy how we got to this point. sad

Painful

Cleat focus on the lunacy Trump has foist on the American people. It will take decades for the country to recover.'

Insurgency

This book was filled with the history of trump’s Republican Party. It is well written and the author has a good voice which makes for easy interesting listening. I enjoyed in particular his recitation of John McCain who chose Sarah Palin for a running mate because i chose to vote for Obama because of McCains’ selection. I have voted Democrat because my father said that only Democrats do things that help regular people. I did vote for George Bush the younger. After trump I shall never never vote Republican again!

Fair evaluation of 45

A fair and measured explanation of Trump's rise and fall--and how the Republican party is forever changed.

Positive PROOF of how Trump developed a strategy to change the Evangelical Right into backing him and forgetting his immortality

An excellent insight into Trumps thinking of getting his Evangelical Base and far right side of the Party into his grips! Forgetting about his immoral past and lawlessness, he herded them into his grasp and hopefully solidified his base with the lost part of the Republican Party!