Peril
by Bob Woodward
View on GoodreadsWoodward and Robert Costa's third book — covering the final months of the Trump presidency through Biden's first months — built around the constitutional crisis of the transition and the responses inside the administration and military.
Core ideas
- General Mark Milley's calls to his Chinese counterpart to reassure Beijing that no attack was coming is the book's most-publicized revelation; treated as evidence that internal actors were independently managing escalation risk.
- The reconstruction of Jan 6 is detailed and built on extensive interviews with named figures inside the White House — paired with the Karl and Cheney accounts, the cross-corroboration is thick.
- Biden's early months — Afghanistan, the COVID vaccination drive — get less attention than the title suggests; the book is really about the Trump endgame with a Biden coda.
Published2021
Pages512
ISBN9781982182939
ReadDec 2023
