The New York Times critic won a Pulitzer for a reason – he knows better than anyone how to read the US political scene
In downtown Washington, at the house where Abraham Lincoln died, there is a three-storey tower of books. Thirty-four feet tall, 8ft round, it is made of 6,800 volumes about the 16th president. The cover of Carlos Lozada’s new book, a collection of the Pulitzer-winning critic’s work from the past 10 years or so, imagines something rather grander: a whole Washington Monument, all 555ft of it, made of books about DC.
It’s an apt image. The Washington Book, Lozada’s second (after What Were We Thinking?, his “Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era” from 2020) makes for a monumental read about a publishing glut. Books about American politics – pre-Trump, of Trump, not yet post-Trump – simply keep on coming.
“We’re going to impeach the motherf–––er” – Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, about Trump (The Challenges of Impeachment)
“I don’t f–––ing care if they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f–––ing mags away. Let my people in” – Trump, described by Cassidy Hutchinson (Mueller, Ukraine and January 6)
“What the f––– are you doing? Are you f––ing taking notes?” – Trump, described by Anonymous in A Warning (Profiles in Thinking About Courage)
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