Most Popular Books by Mark Leibovich

Author of the groundbreaking #1 New York Times bestseller This Town and Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times, Mark Leibovich returns with a masterly collection of portraits of Washington’s elite, and wannabe elites. Hailed by The Washington Post as a “master of the political profile,” Leibovich has spent his career writing memorable, buzz-worthy, and often jaw-dropping features about politicians and other notables. Currently chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, Leibovich punctures the inflated personas of the powerful, and in Citizens of the Green Room, he reveals the lives, stories, and peculiarities behind the public masks. A brilliant reporter with a talent for subversive, engaging storytelling, Leibovich maintains a refreshing conviviality with many of his subjects even as he renders incisive and unflinching assessments. His features have driven the national conversation while exposing the fallibilities of the kingmakers and media stars: consider his 2007 profile of Hillary Clinton, which unearthed a treasure trove of old letters that the then senator had written as a vulnerable young college student; or his much-talked-about 2010 portrait of Glenn Beck, which laid bare the tortured soul and precarious standing of the once invincible host and his uneasy relationship with his soon-to-be ex-employer FOX News. In the political arena, Leibovich’s portraits of John Kerry, Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, and John McCain are already classics; they invariably remind us that great journalism and stylish writing are not only essential to the Republic but necessary to maintain the citizenry’s sanity and humor in the face of made-for-TV government.

“A raucous, smash-mouth, first-person takedown of the National Football League." —Wall Street Journal The New York Times bestseller From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Town, an equally merciless probing of America''s biggest cultural force, pro football, at a moment of peak success and high anxiety Like millions of Americans, Mark Leibovich has spent more of his life tuned into pro football than he''d care to admit. Being a lifelong New England Patriots fan meant growing up on a steady diet of lovable loserdom. That is, until the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era made the Pats the most ruthlessly efficient and polarizing sports dynasty of the modern NFL, and its fans the most irritating in all of Pigskin America. Leibovich kept his obsession quiet, making a nice career for himself covering that other playground for rich and overgrown children, American politics. Still, every now and then Leibovich would reach out to Tom Brady to gauge his willingness to subject himself to a profile. He figured that the chances of Brady agreeing were a Hail Mary at best, but Brady returned Mark''s call in summer 2014 and kept on returning his calls through epic Patriots Super Bowl victory and defeat, and a scandal involving Brady--Deflategate--whose grip on sports media was as profound as its true significance was ridiculous. So began a four-year odyssey that took Mark Leibovich deeper inside the NFL than anyone has gone before. From the owners'' meeting to the draft to the sidelines of crucial games, he takes in the show at the elbow of everyone from Brady to big-name owners to the cordially despised NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell. Ultimately, BIG GAME is a chronicle of "peak football"--the high point of the sport''s economic success and cultural dominance, but also the time when the dark side began to show. It is an era of explosive revenue growth, but also one of creeping existential fear. Players have long joked that NFL stands for "not for long," but as the true impact of concussions becomes inescapable background noise, it''s increasingly difficult to enjoy the simple glory of football without the buzz-kill of its obvious consequences. And that was before Donald Trump. In 2016, Mark''s day job caught up with him, and the NFL slammed headlong into America''s culture wars. Big Game is a journey through an epic storm. Through it all, Leibovich always keeps one eye on Tom Brady and his beloved Patriots, through to the 2018 Super Bowl. Pro football, this hilarious and enthralling book proves, may not be the sport America needs, but it is most definitely the sport we deserve.

The #1 New York Times Bestseller “He’s one of the best chroniclers of politics today.” –Jake Tapper “This is a really funny book.” –Kara Swisher “His writing is so damn good.” –John Berman “Really fascinating...There are so many revelations.” –Anderson Cooper “The new must read summer book.” –Stephanie Ruhle From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller This Town, the eyewitness account of how the GOP collaborated with Donald Trump to transform Washington’s “swamp” into a gold-plated hot tub—and a onetime party of rugged individualists into a sycophantic personality cult. In the early months of Trump’s candidacy, the Republican Party’s most important figures, people such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, were united—and loud—in their scorn and contempt. Even more, in their outrage: Trump was a menace and an affront to our democracy. Then, awkwardly, Trump won. Thank You for Your Servitude is Mark Leibovich’s unflinching account of the moral rout of a major American political party, tracking the transformation of Rubio, Cruz, Graham, and their ilk into the administration’s chief enablers, and the swamp’s lesser lights into frantic chasers of the grift. What would these politicos do to preserve their place in the sun, or at least the orbit of the spray tan? What would they do to preserve their “relevance”? Almost anything, it turns out. Trump’s savage bullying of everyone in his circle, along with his singular command of his political base, created a dangerous culture of submission in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, many of the most alpha of the lapdogs happily conceded to Mark Leibovich that they were “in on the joke.” As Lindsey Graham told the author, his supporters in South Carolina generally don’t read The New York Times, and they won’t read this book, either. All that cynicism, shading into nihilism, led to a country truly unhinged from reality, and to the events of January 6, 2021. It’s a vista that makes the Washington of This Town seem like a comedy of manners in comparison. Thank You for Your Servitude isn’t another view from the Oval Office: it’s the view from the Trump Hotel. We can check out any time we want, but only time will tell if we can ever leave.

Tim Russert is Dead. But the room was alive. Big Ticket Washington Funerals can make such great networking opportunities. Power mourners keep stampeding down the red carpets of the Kennedy Center, handing out business cards, touching base. And there is not time to waste in a gold rush, even (or especially) at a solemn tribal event like this. Washington This Town might be loathed from every corner of the nation, yet these are fun and busy days at this nexus of bug politics, big money, big media, and big vanity. There are no Democrats and Republicans anymore in the nation''s capital, just millionaires. That is the grubby secret of the place in the twenty-first century. You will always have lunch in This Town again. No matter how many elections you lose, apologies you make, or make, or scandals you endure. In This Town, Mark Leibovich, chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, presents a blistering, stunning and often hysterically funny examination of our ruling class''s incestuous ''media industrial complex.'' Through his eyes, we discover how the funeral for a beloved newsman becomes the social event of the year. How political reporters are fetishized for their ability to get their names into the predawn e-mail sent out by the city''s most powerful and puzzled-over journalist. How a disgraced Hill aide can overcome ignominy and maybe emerge with a more potent ''brand'' than many elected members of Congress. And how an administration bent on ''changing Washington'' can be sucked into the ways of This Town with the same ease with which Tea Party insurgents can, once elected, settle into it like a warm bath. Outrageous, fascinating, and destined to win Leibovich a whole host of, er, new friends. This Town is must reading, whether you''re inside the Beltway or just trying to get there. ''Today''s insider Washington has become a sprawling ''conversation'' in which tens of thousands partake by tweet, blog, or whatever . . . The Washington story has become something more momentous, befitting a ''narrative'': a pumped-up word in a pumped-up place where everything is changing, maybe more than in any city in the country . . . Or maybe nothing is changing at all, and the only certainty is that the city fathers of This Town will endure like perennials in a well-tended cemetery.'' From This Town Warning: This Town does not contain an index. Those players wishing to know how they came out will need to read the book.