
Peril
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– Unabridged
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The Sunday Times top 10 best seller
The New York Times number one best seller
The storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021 revealed the transition from President Trump to President Biden to be one of the most dangerous periods in American history, with the result of the election called into question by the sitting president.
But, as internationally best-selling author Bob Woodward and acclaimed reporter Robert Costa reveal for the first time, it was far more than just a domestic political crisis. At the highest level of the US military, secret action was taken to prevent Trump from possibly starting a war.
Woodward and Costa interviewed more than 200 people at the centre of the turmoil, resulting in a spellbinding and definitive portrait of a nation on the brink. They take listeners deep inside the Trump White House, the Biden White House, the 2020 campaign, and the Pentagon and Congress, with vivid, eyewitness accounts of what really happened. Peril is supplemented throughout with never-before-seen material from secret orders, transcripts of confidential calls, diaries, emails, meeting notes and other personal and government records, making for an unparalleled history.
It is also the first inside look at Biden’s presidency, revealing the background to his controversial decision to leave Afghanistan. He took office faced with the challenges of a lifetime: dealing with the continuing deadly pandemic and its crushing economic impact, all the while navigating a bitter and disabling partisan divide, and the hovering, dark shadow of the former president. ‘We have much to do in this winter of peril,’ Biden declared at his inauguration.
Peril is the extraordinary story of the end of one presidency and the beginning of another. The culmination of Bob Woodward’s best-selling trilogy on the Trump presidency, along with Fear and Rage, it is an essential book for anyone wanting to understand this tumultuous period.
- Listening Length13 hours and 35 minutes
- Audible release date21 September 2021
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB09DGT84MY
- VersionUnabridged
- Program TypeAudiobook
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Product details
Listening Length | 13 hours and 35 minutes |
---|---|
Author | Bob Woodward, Robert Costa |
Narrator | Robert Petkoff |
Whispersync for Voice | Ready |
Audible.com.au Release Date | 21 September 2021 |
Publisher | Simon & Schuster Audio UK |
Program Type | Audiobook |
Version | Unabridged |
Language | English |
ASIN | B09DGT84MY |
Best Sellers Rank | 10,779 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 19 in 21st Century U.S. History 27 in U.S. Government 44 in United States Politics & Government |
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And “PERIL” shows how the chaos, anger and fear came together in the final year of Trump’s presidency, placing the presidency and even democracy in danger. “Peril” begins with America in danger from Trump. It ends the same way. Trump hasn’t gone and neither is the threat he poses to democracy.
Woodward is working with Washington Post’s Robert Costa, but the style of research and writing is the same. It’s a lot of interviews –over 200—and a lot of work putting them together in a way that will hold interest. Sometimes they succeed in this and create real scenes—other times, you see the problem of having so much detail that you just –have- to include it. Storytelling sometimes takes a back seat to recounting details that aren’t always that significant.
That’s one problem. A bigger one is that Woodward has always been kind to people who are his sources. Typically, they are some of the most complicit people, but are allowed to spin themselves into heroes. Here, that’s General Milley, Bill Barr, Lindsey Graham, Kellyanne Conway, among others who need to be scrutinized in a harsher light.
“PERIL” has many unnerving descriptions of Trump’s instability and apparent unwillingness to accept the reality of losing the election. Some of the above people made some efforts to save us from disaster. But most of the staffers and Republican officials around Trump do little to protect democracy. Barr’s there, and Pence, But where’s the rest of the Cabinet? The president described here is a danger to the country. Where were the Republicanns in the Cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment? Why were McCarthy and McConnell so complacent? There are no answers here.
Pence’s decision-making process made this a worthwhile read for me. He did the right thing—in the end—including staying at the Capitol during the insurrection. But he clearly wanted to cooperate with Trump if at all possible under the Constitution. It was only after everyone he consulted – including Dan Quayle, who comes across well here – that Pence agrees to do the right thing—and do it without equivocation. (For a time, he dithered about possibly expressing sympathy with those who wanted to throw out Biden votes).
About a third of the book is about Biden—his campaign, transition, and early presidency. But, as in real life, it’s Trump who takes the air out of the room. Even ten months after losing, he is still sending letters to Georgia’s secretary of state as he did last Friday, demanding that the electors be “decertified or whatever the legal remedy is.” It would be comical. If it wasn’t so delusional and dangerous. “Peril”, indeed.


Four page chapters about anecdotes about Joe Biden deciding to run for president- that is not what i bought this book for & not what it was advertised to be about.
Dont waste your time- the four important occurrences were reported on news programs, this not what i expect from a respected journalist.
I dont think I'm even going to bother to finish it.

He, with Costa, weaves this remarkably thorough research together, to lead the reader through some of the most dangerous and uncertain times in recent American history. The result is the best blow-by-blow description of the events of the storming of the Capital that I have read. It includes eye-witness accounts of Trump’s behaviour and attitude whilst watching the storming from the Oval Office balcony and on television. Interviews with Senators, their staff and the police show in terrifying detail just how frightening this was.
Woodward explains in intricate detail why General Milley and all the Chiefs of Staff of the military became so concerned about Trump’s increasingly unstable behaviour. They and others in the government were deeply worried that the President would use his executive powers to authorise military (probably nuclear) action against another country, or against fellow Americans in direct contravention to the Constitution. And they feared he might be planning a coup, to destroy the US democracy and create a Trump dictatorship.
If you think this is far-fetched read this book and take note of the high-ranking Generals, Washington officials, and politicians from both sides of the aisle who shared these fears. And also discover so much more about the events of the transition of power, and exactly why Biden pulled out of Afghanistan the way he did.

However there are little additions and quotes from the Trump administration that make most reasonable people even more aware of just what a disaster Trump was.
Hearing how his closest team, and even his family, distanced themselves from him whilst "the crazies" like Powell and Guliani filled the gap makes astounding, and concerning read.
How people supported, and still support Trump I have no idea.