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Synopsis

Dick Cheney was originally in charge of the selection process for Bush's vice-presidential candidate: it was only the first of many circuits he would rewire so that power flowed his way. Secretive and unaccountable with unprecedented influence, he was a whole new kind of vice president.

Barton Gellman's engrossing investigation explains how he succeeded in distorting both the US constitution and international law to his own ends, with stunning revelations of how Cheney steered the country from behind the scenes to bring war to Iraq and remove all checks on executive power.

After eight years of the Angler's shadow presidency, this is a fascinating, disturbing account of how he managed it, and the damage he left behind.

Reviews

Critic Review:

‘Excellent … Again and again, Mr Gellman shows how, through guile and sheer stubborn resolve, the vice president moved the country’
Jeremy Lott, Washington Times

‘A forceful new study of Mr Cheney’s tenure in office … What Angler does most impressively is flesh out this portrait with new details, connecting the dots to give the reader a visceral understanding of just how Mr Cheney manoeuvred within the administration’
New York Times

‘Barton Gellman’s carefully written account … is unique because the subject and his conduct in office are singular … A man who systematically sought power because he was ambitious for his ideas rather than himself’
Los Angeles Times

‘In an administration that has become famous for its incompetence, Cheney is the man who knows what he’s doing. But so does Gellman … I don’t think any journalist … has assembled so concisely and carefully the portrait of a man determined after 9/11 to use any means necessary – and some unnecessary – to go after Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaida’
Slate

‘Fascinating, appalling, compulsively readable’
New York Observer

‘An engrossing portrait of Cheney as a master political manipulator’
Editors’ Choice, New York Times Book Review

‘Gellman puts it well: “The vice-president shifted America’s course more than any terrorist could have done” ’
Guardian

‘As a meticulous, forensic account of Cheney's role in the endless turf wars within the Bush White House, this could hardly be bettered … The tragedy is that although Cheney prided himself on his administrative competence, almost everything he touched has now turned to ashes’
Literary Review

‘Engrossing and informative … Cheney doesn’t seem as bad as you might think. He’s even worse’
Jacob Heilbrunn, New York Times Book Review

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