Best Selling Books by Dana Milbank

The acerbic columnist for The Washington Post offers a trenchant look at the enigmatic culture of American politics, examining the often bizarre behavior, language, culture, social institutions, and taboos of Washington politicians. Reprint.

From the halls of Congress, New York Times bestselling author Dana Milbank exposes the chaotic, incompetent and dysfunctional state of the current Republican House—a confederacy of dunces, united by paranoia and conspiracy theories, blundering from one self-inflicted crisis to the next. When Republicans took control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections with a historically slim majority, mayhem began immediately. “Failed completely.” “Can’t govern.” “Broken.” “Lunatics.” “Embarrassing.” “Bunch of idiots.” And that’s how House Republicans described themselves. Take it from Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said in May 2024 that “many Americans in general are sick and tired and fed up with a feckless, useless Republican Party, a conference that does nothing.” This is the House of George Santos and Jim Jordan, of Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz. They investigated space aliens and Hunter Biden’s art dealer. They punched and they groped. They championed Confederates and insurrectionists—while disparaging the military and sabotaging the economy. They tied up the House so often with far-right fantasies that they produced what was arguably the least effective session of Congress in history. Dana Milbank, widely-read Washington Post columnist, spent a year reporting from inside the Capitol, watching the circus from the front row. The result, Fools on the Hill, is simultaneously horrifying and laugh-out-loud funny. Sadly, it is all true.

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A scalding history of twenty-five years of Republican attempts to hold on to political power by any means necessary, by a hugely popular Washington Post political columnist "A thorough and scathing account of how the Republican Party fell prey to Trumpism."—The New York Times Book Review In 1994, more than 300 Republicans under the command of obstructionist and rabble-rouser Congressman Newt Gingrich stood outside the U.S. Capitol to sign the Contract with America and put bipartisanship on notice. Twenty-five years later, on January 6, 2021, a bloodthirsty mob incited by President Trump invaded the Capitol. Dana Milbank sees a clear line from the Contract with America to the coup attempt. In the quarter century in between, Americans have witnessed the crackup of the party of Lincoln and Reagan, to its current iteration as a haven for white supremacists, political violence, conspiracy theories and authoritarianism. Following the questionable careers of party heavyweights Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, Mitch McConnell, and Rudy Giuliani, and those of many lesser known lowlights, Milbank recounts the shocking lengths the Republican Party has gone to to maintain its grip on the American people.

"Washington Post" columnist Milbank takes a fair and balanced look at the unsettling rise of the silly FOX News host Glenn Beck. Milbank describes, with lacerating wit, just how the former shock jock without a college degree has managed to become the most recognizable leader of anti-government conservatives.

F is for fun and L is for laughs in this rollicking romp through the alphabet poking good natured fun at Washington politics and politicians. The book takes unerring aim at the foibles and frailties of the political class and their inside-the-beltway blustering. With illustrations provided by award-winning artist Mark Anderson and verses and text written by "Washington Post" political writer Dana Milbank, this is political satire at its best. "O is for Obama" is a witty, non-partisan, and equal-opportunity ribbing of not just out-of-touch politicians, but also of greedy businessmen, tone-deaf bureaucrats, and ivory-tower elites that no frustrated voter fed up with Washington will want to be without.

Contrary to most media reports, negative campaigning is actually in decline, but our political system is no better off for it. Or so believes Washington Post political writer Dana Milbank, whose campaign book Smashmouth provides a witty yet ultimately very serious look at the sense and senselessness that occurred during the 2000 presidential campaign. What matters is not whether a campaign claim is positive or negative, but whether the claim is relevant," writes Milbank. "The press should police outright falsehoods, of course, but otherwise let the candidates fight it out." Traveling by bus, plane and motorcade with the candidates, Milbank provides an indelible behind-the-scenes look at the brutal skirmishes that made up this century''s first presidential campaign.