by Jamie Raskin
First published 2022
Congressman Jamie Raskin confronts an unimaginable convergence of personal and political catastrophe during forty-five days that reshape his life forever. His son Tommy takes his own life on December 31, 2020, after battling depression. Seven days later, Raskin returns to Congress to certify election results when violent extremists storm the Capitol attempting to secure four more years for Donald Trump. The attack kills multiple people and injures over 140 police officers. Despite overwhelming grief, Raskin accepts the role of leading the impeachment prosecution against Trump for inciting the violence. He guides a nine-member team through an unprecedented Senate trial that produces the most bipartisan presidential impeachment vote in American history. Raskin reveals how he prepared for months expecting an electoral coup, but failed to anticipate mass political violence designed to block Biden's victory. He shares inside accounts of January 6 and details how close democracy came to collapse. Throughout the constitutional crisis, memories of Tommy, a Harvard Law student whose convictions inspired his father's work, fuel Raskin's determination to hold Trump accountable and defend American democracy.
Genres: history, american, political-science, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, current-affairs, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: grief, personal-political
Setting: Capitol, Congress
Period: 2020, 2021
428 pages · Hardcover · Harper
Content warnings: depression, suicide