An inside story of the Democratic Party at a moment of great peril. Even before the cataclysmic 2016 election, the Democratic Party had long been at war with itself—yet Joe Biden’s narrow victory in 2020 bridged the divide. Facing the dire threat of a second Trump administration, Democrats forged an unlikely but effective coalition that stalled Trumpism at the ballot box and enacted a raft of consequential legislation. But how long can the uneasy peace hold, and can Biden win again? The Truce is a definitive history of a half-decade of upheaval in the Democratic Party in which a new generation aggressively pursued their progressive ideals while the powerful, centrist establishment adapted to remain in command. Journalists Hunter Walker and Luppe B. Luppen illuminate this story of backroom maneuvering and political strategy with new revelations about pivotal events and exclusive, on-the-record comments from activists, campaign operatives, and members of Congress. The Truce explores the major fault lines that define Democratic politics today and asks big questions about the future of the party. Will economic or social justice hold primacy at the top of the Democratic agenda? Who will lead the major wings of the party after two defining figures, Biden and Sanders, exit the stage? The Truce surveys the major shifts underway, from the rise of the Squad and new Democratic leadership in the House to a complete overhaul of the primary process. By digging into the divide between left and center, Walker and Luppen expose the creeping generational and political tensions that Biden has—for the moment—kept at bay. An engrossing work, and a surprising page-turner, The Truce grapples with the dangers that threaten American democracy and the complicated cast of characters who are trying to save it.

The “blockbuster” (The Guardian) New York Times bestseller, a shocking, definitive account of the 2020 election and the first year of the Biden presidency by two New York Times reporters, exposes the deep fissures within both parties as the country approaches a political breaking point. This is the authoritative, “deeply reported” (The Wall Street Journal) account of an eighteen-month crisis in American democracy that will be seared into the country’s political memory for decades to come. With stunning, in-the-room detail, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns show how both our political parties confronted a series of national traumas, including the coronavirus pandemic, the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and the political brinksmanship of President Biden’s first year in the White House. From Donald Trump’s assault on the 2020 election and his ongoing campaign of vengeance against his fellow Republicans to the behind-the-scenes story of Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate and his bitter struggles to unite the Democratic Party, this book exposes the degree to which the two-party system has been strained to the point of disintegration. More than at any time in recent history, the long-established traditions and institutions of American politics are under siege as a set of aging political leaders struggle to hold together the changing country. Martin and Burns break news on most every page, drawing on hundreds of interviews and never-before-seen documents and recordings from the highest levels of government. This “masterful” (George Stephanopoulos) book asks the vitally important (and disturbing) question: can American democracy, as we know it, ever work again?

This first modern study provides an original and balanced perspective of a theorist whom Lenin referred to as both ‘master of Marxism’ and ‘renegade’. Examining Kautsky’s political thought over a period stretching from the Paris Commune to the Second World War, the author argues for the consistency with which Kautsky developed his positions on socialism, democracy, political parties and the role of the proletariat. While Salvadori’s analysis is grounded in the debates within the Communist International and the German labour movement, Kautsky emerges as a distinctly modern thinker who produced a Marxist theory of the state, and originated critique of the USSR as a ‘state capitalist’ system. At this level, it provides a serious and measured exposition of the terms on which arguments for socialist strategy currently move.