Dispatches from the American Circus

Insane Clown President

'The best polemic journalist in America' on the crazy world of contemporary American politics.

One of the most important voices in contemporary American journalism - Independent 
 
Matt Taibbi is one of the few journalists in America who speaks truth to power - Bernie Sanders 
 
Matt Taibbi is the best polemic journalist in America - Felix Salmon 
 
 
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
"The thing is, when you actually think about it, it's not funny. Given what's at stake, it's more like the opposite, like the first sign of the collapse of the United States as a global superpower. Twenty years from now, when we're all living like prehistory hominids and hunting rats with sticks, we'll probably look back at this moment as the beginning of the end." 
 
 
In this groundbreaking battery of dispatches from the heartland of America, Matt Taibbi tells the full story of the Trump phenomenon, from its tragi-comic beginnings to the apocalyptic election. Full of sharp, on-the-ground reporting and gallows humour, his incisive analysis goes beyond the bizarre and disturbing election to tell a wider story of the apparent collapse of American democracy. Taibbi saw the essential themes right from the start: the power of spectacle over truth; the end of a shared reality on the left and right; the nihilistic rebellion of the white working class; the death of the political establishment; and the emergence of a new, explicit form of white nationalism. 
 
From the thwarted Bernie Sanders insurgency to the aimless Hillary Clinton campaign, across the flailing media coverage and the trampled legacy of Obama, this is the story of ordinary voters forced to bear witness to the whole charade. At the centre of it all, "a bumbling train wreck of a candidate who belched and preened his way past a historically weak field" who, improbably, has taken control of the world's most powerful nation. 
 
This is essential and hilarious reading that explores how the new America understands itself, and about the future of the world just beyond the horizon.

Taibbi, a writer of striking intelligence and bold ideas, is as hilarious as he is scathing

A lively set of dispatches [that] unfolds as a comedy [but] slowly turns into a horror movie.

Incisive and often incredibly funny . . . Matt Taibbi is the spiritual heir of legendary presidential campaign scribes Hunter S. Thompson and Tim Crouse ... Insane Clown President is a valuable work about one of the most bizarre electoral outcomes in American history

Scathing . . . What keeps the pages turning in this so freshly familiar story line is the vivid observation and original turns of phrase.

One of the most important voices in contemporary American journalism

Matt Taibbi is one of the few journalists in America who speaks truth to power

Matt Taibbi is the best polemic journalist in America

Matt Taibbi is [Hunter S.] Thompson’s heir. . . .

Taibbi may be the only political writer in America that matters.

MATT TAIBBI, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Divide, Griftopia, and The Great Derangement, is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and winner of the 2007 National Magazine Award for Columns and Commentary.

Matt Taibbi

Marries the best instincts of explanatory narrative journalism with uncompromising moral clarity ... a vital account of police violence. Taibbi, through thorough reporting and captivating writing, captures the totality of an American tragedy

Wesley Lowery, Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of THEY CAN'T KILL US ALL: THE STORY OF BLACK LIVES MATTER

[A] brilliant work of narrative nonfiction ... a necessary and riveting work

The narrative unfolds like an episode of The Wire. . . . Heartbreaking and compulsively readable

One of the most important voices in contemporary American journalism

[A] searing exposé … what emerges from the author's superb reporting and vivid writing is a tragically revealing look at a broken criminal justice system

Richly reported and evocative ... The result here is a vivid folk history that should prove useful to anyone who seeks to understand the world Eric Garner inhabited

Jill Leovy, bestselling author of GHETTOSIDE

A complex and textured examination of the complicated personalities, flawed legal system, and politics revolving around the police killing of 43-year-old Eric Garner, whose final words became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Boston Globe (listed in 'Must Read Books for the Fall')

Matt Taibbi is [Hunter S.] Thompson’s heir. . .

Taibbi may be the only political writer in America that matters

What Matt Taibbi does most beautifully, most necessarily, is he gives Eric Garner that thing the police who choked him to death that day -- and much of the media as well -- denied this man: His humanity. Through impeccable reporting, Taibbi reveals to us, finally, Eric Garner the man, the father, the lover, the friend.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, award-winning correspondent, The New York Times Magazine

An engrossing and provocative exploration of the many people, systems, and forces that helped to kill Eric Garner and all those who struggled in vain for justice to be done

Michelle Alexander, bestselling author of THE NEW JIM CROW

A must-read for anyone interested in what gets excused in the name of 'law and order' ... an insightful, important account

The Killing that Started a Movement

‘A brilliant work of narrative nonfiction’ – Booklist 
‘Matt Taibbi is one of the few journalists in America who speaks truth to power’ – Bernie Sanders 
‘A searing exposé’ – Kirkus Review 
‘Taibbi may be the only political writer in America that matters’ – Hartford Advocate 
 
 
The incredible story of the death of Eric Garner, the birth of the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement and the new fault lines of race, protest, policing and the power of the people. 
 
On July 17, 2014, a forty-three-year-old black man named Eric Garner died in New York after a police officer put him in a "chokehold" during an arrest for selling bootleg cigarettes. The final moments of his life were captured on video and seen by millions – his agonised last words, “I can’t breathe,” becoming a rallying cry for the nascent Black Lives Matter protest movement. 
 
Matt Taibbi, bestselling author and “the best polemic journalist in America”, tells the full story of the man who inspired a movement – neither villain nor victim, but a fiercely proud individual determined to do the best he could for his family. Featuring vivid vignettes of life on the street, this powerful narrative of urban America is a riveting work of literary journalism and a scathing indictment of law enforcement in the twenty-first century. I Can’t Breathe tells the story of one man to tell the story of countless others, and the power of people to rise up against injustice.

Matt Taibbi

Praise for I Can't Breathe

Marries the best instincts of explanatory narrative journalism with uncompromising moral clarity ... a vital account of police violence. Taibbi, through thorough reporting and captivating writing, captures the to ...

[A] brilliant work of narrative nonfiction ... a necessary and riveting work

**The narrative unfolds like an episode of The Wire. . . . Heartbreaking and compulsively readable**

Marries the best instincts of explanatory narrative journalism with uncompromising moral clarity ... a vital account of police violence. Taibbi, through thorough reporting and captivating writing, captures the to ...

[A] brilliant work of narrative nonfiction ... a necessary and riveting work

**The narrative unfolds like an episode of The Wire. . . . Heartbreaking and compulsively readable**

Marries the best instincts of explanatory narrative journalism with uncompromising moral clarity ... a vital account of police violence. Taibbi, through thorough reporting and captivating writing, captures the to ...

[A] brilliant work of narrative nonfiction ... a necessary and riveting work

**The narrative unfolds like an episode of The Wire. . . . Heartbreaking and compulsively readable**

Books by Matt Taibbi

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