Synopses & Reviews
One of the remarkable books of this season a tough, plainspoken, deeply passionate narrative by one of our most important national figures.We all know them: politicians books that read as if theyve been cobbled together from old speeches. The Good Fight is as far from that as it is possible to get.
In a voice that is flinty, real, and passion-filled, Senator Harry Reid tells the tale of two places, intertwining his own story, particularly his early life of deep poverty in the tiny mining town of Searchlight, Nevadaa place that boasted of thirteen brothels and no churcheswith the cautionary tale of Washington, D.C.: If I can do nothing greater in this book than explain those two places to each other, then I will have done something important.
Reid is inspired by obstacles. Brought up in a cabin without indoor plumbing, he hitchhiked forty-five miles across open desert to high school. He worked full-time as a Capitol Hill policeman to get through law school, after the school refused him financial aid, telling him he wasnt cut out to be a lawyer. As head of the Nevada Gaming Commission, he led an unrelenting fight to clean up Las Vegas, despite four years of death threats and much worse. And in Congress, Reids spent more than twenty-five years battling those who would take the country in the wrong direction: The radical ideologues degrade our government, so much so that when they are in charge of it, they do not know how to run it.
And, always, it all comes back to Searchlight: Who I am now, and what I am doing now, began in that town, with those people, in those mines. This book is the story of a man who knows what a good fight is, because he has had to fight like hell for everything his whole life. It is populated by a rich and raucous cast of great and failed men, eccentrics, visionaries, gangsters, and presidents who make up his life and times. And it is for all those who not only like a good story, but wonder what we should do now in America.
Review
From the man who battled the Bush Administration comes "a compelling memoir...at times heartwrenching."
-Las Vegas Review-Journal
"Vividly describes his contentious relationship with President Bush."
-Esquire
"Recounts fights with everyone from classmates to the man who would eventually become his father-in-law, preparing him for a senatorial life of battling the Bush White House and Republican filibusters."
-Washington Post
Synopsis
In a voice that is real and passion-filled, Senator Reid tells the tale of two places, intertwining his own story of growing up in the tiny mining town of Searchlight, Nevada, with the cautionary tale of Washington, D.C. 8-page b&w photo insert.
Synopsis
After a childhood of shocking poverty, Harry Reid completed law school, working as a policeman to pay his way. He faced death threats as the head of the Nevada Gaming Commission trying to clean up Las Vegas. Eventually he rose to become Senate Majority Leader in Washington-without ever forgetting the mining town he came from, or the battles he fought along the way. This is that rare book by a politician that is more than a glorified press release. It is an extraordinary American story-told in a voice that is flinty, real, and filled with passion.
About the Author
Harry Reid was born in Searchlight, Nevada, in a small cabin without indoor plumbing, and attended a two-room elementary school until the eighth grade, when he started hitchhiking 45 miles across open desert to high school in Henderson, Nevada. Businessmen in Henderson helped him go on to college at Utah State University, and he went on to get a law degree from George Washington University, working full-time jobs in the House mailroom and then as a Capitol Police officer to support him and his family. After serving as Henderson’s City Attorney, at age 28 he was elected to the Nevada State Assembly, and then in 1970, at the age of 30, he became the state’s youngest Lieutenant Governor.
Runs for the U.S. Senate in 1974 and Las Vegas mayor in 1976 resulted in defeat, and Reid assumed his political career was over, until in 1977, the governor appointed him chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, where for four years he made headlines with his unrelenting fight to clean up the gaming industry. He won the first of two terms to the House of Representatives in 1982, then was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986. Currently serving his fourth term, he was unanimously elected Senate Minority Leader in 2004 and, after the Democrats captured the Senate in 2006, Senate Majority Leader.
Mark Warren is Executive Editor of Esquire magazine, where he has worked since 1988, directing much of the magazine’s political writing. He also collaborated with Thomas P.M. Barnett on The Pentagon’s New Map, which originated with a story in Esquire, as well as Barnett’s Blueprint for Action. Born, raised and educated in Texas, Warren directed or worked on several national, state and political campaigns out of Austin from 1983 to 1988, and was also a chief of staff to a senator from Houston. He lives in New York City.