Playing with Fire - by Lawrence O'Donnell (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published in hardcover in 2017 by Penguin Press.

Book Synopsis

The New York Times bestseller!

"A thriller-like, propulsive tour through 1968, told by a man who is in love with American politics and who knows how all the dots connect. Brilliant and totally engrossing."
-Rachel Maddow

"Delightful...brings to life the most fascinating election of modern times."
-Walter Isaacson

From the celebrated host of MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, an enthralling account of the presidential election that created American politics as we know it today

Long before Lawrence O'Donnell was the anchor of his own political talk show, he was a senior adviser to Senator Patrick Moynihan, one of postwar America's wisest political minds. The 1968 U.S. presidential election--marked by RFK's assassination, massive upheaval in the Democratic Party, and the first of Richard Nixon's dirty tricks--was O'Donnell's own political coming of age. In the decades since, the election has remained one of his abiding fascinations, as it set the tone for so much of what followed in American politics, all the way through to today. Playing with Fire represents his master class in American electioneering, as well as an extraordinary human drama that captures a system, and a country, coming apart at the seams.

Review Quotes

"In this delightful combination of vivid storytelling and sharp political insight, Lawrence O'Donnell brings to life the most fascinating election of modern times. His book is filled with memorable anecdotes and colorful characters, from Roger Ailes and Richard Nixon to Bobby Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. But beneath the rollicking tale is a truly profound historical truth: how the Sixties still reverberates in our nation's soul." --Walter Isaacson

"But O'Donnell, a former aide to Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, understands politics and its impact. He writes with an assurance and steady sense of pace that makes much of this seem new." --Ray Locker, USA Today

"I love the way Lawrence thinks, I love the way he writes. Playing with Fire is him at his best -- this is a thriller-like, propulsive tour through 1968, told by a man who is in love with American politics and who knows how all the dots connect. Brilliant and totally engrossing." ―Rachel Maddow

"From the anguish of the Vietnam War to the dazzling minds and feverish ambitions of the 1968 presidential election, Playing with Fire not only tells the story of one extraordinary year in American politics, it brings back to vivid, riveting life the men and women who changed the course of history." ―Candice Millard, Author of Hero of the Empire

"A breathtaking, "buckle your seatbelt" ride through what might be the most dramatic and brutally consequential presidential election in modern U.S. history. Lawrence O'Donnell leaves no detail and no key historical player unexamined as he maps out the often treacherous route to America becoming its modern political self. Playing with Fire is a brilliant and necessary read for everyone who cares about politics, and loves history." ―Joy-Ann Reid

"If ever there was a bygone presidential campaign crying out for the Game Change treatment, it's the one that convulsed America in 1968--and Lawrence O'Donnell delivers the goods in Playing With Fire. Wars at home and abroad, secret plots and assassinations, riots in the streets and punches thrown on the convention floor, poets and protestors, movie stars and Kennedys, hippies, Yippies, and Black Panthers: 1968 had it all and then some. And now it has a chronicler in O'Donnell who brings coherence to the chaos, rendering the story with the crackle and flow of a dynamite Hollywood screenplay." ―John Heilemann

"An excellent account of the 1968 presidential race, a political season of spoilers, outsiders, and broken machines eerily like our own time . . . [A] sharp, nuanced account . . . A careful, circumstantial study that compares favorably to Theodore H. White's presidents series and that politics junkies will find irresistible." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Asmoothly written history of the 1968 campaign..., he tells the story exceedingly well. Appropriately, there is nothing dull about this book, just as there was nothing dull about this specific election or period in American history...O'Donnell writes accessibly for all readers, creating a beneficial work for anyone interested in modern political history." -- Library Journal

"O'Donnell capably sets the historical context...O'Donnell's breezy style, an outgrowth of his broadcasting persona, makes the chaos decipherable...Satisfying popular history." -- Booklist

"[An]...in-depth examination...a unique thesis on what drove the year's events...a unique thesis on what drove the year's events." -- Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Lawrence O'Donnell is the host of The Last Word on MSNBC. Formerly an Emmy Award-winning executive producer and writer for "The West Wing," O'Donnell also served as senior advisor to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), chief of staff to the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works and the Senate Finance Committee. He is the author of Deadly Force and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. Born in Boston, O'Donnell graduated from Harvard College.