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From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

After finishing this account of the Steve Bannon-Donald Trump relationship, some readers may want to take a bath something that presidential advisor Bannon, according to at least one source, doesn't do that often. Author Green's look at how Trump and Bannon found and recognized each other, if not precisely as kindred souls, but as useful tools, makes for discouraging reading about the current state of politics. In many ways, the book is more like a long-form magazine piece than an in-depth analysis. Beginning with the surprise election-night victory (a surprise even to the Trumpites), the narrative moves briskly through the 2016 campaign, with stops to fill in Bannon's history (these are the most useful sections). Green goes beyond the bullet points of Bannon's résumé served in the U.S. Navy, worked at Goldman Sachs to explain just how those institutions shaped him. A risk taker, enamored of macho culture, Bannon saw it as a logical step during the campaign to muster an army of mostly young, mostly white male gamers and shape them into an anti-Hillary, alt-right army. Generally, rather than being thoroughly quote-sourced (though Green details in the introduction that he interviewed Bannon several times), the book has the feel of being written on the fly and it delivers a few fly-on-the-wall scoops. The last chapter, which takes a look at the current relationship between these two alpha males, is written with the realization that things in this administration change so quickly that observations become almost instantly out-of-date. A first draft of history; to be continued.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2017 Booklist

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

How a radical conservative with "cult-leader magnetism" became a powerful political force.When Green (co-author: Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, 2013) first met Steve Bannon in 2011, he "quickly sized him up as a colorful version of a recognizable Washington character type: the political grifter seeking to profit from the latest trend." An investigative reporter, former senior editor of the Atlantic, and weekly political columnist for the Boston Globe, Green spent the next several years immersed in right-wing politics, resulting in a profile of Bannon for Bloomberg Businessweek, where Green is now senior national correspondent. Drawing on his own articles, as well as interviews and abundant media coverage, the author fashions a vivid, fast-paced narrative about the people and events that culminated in "the greatest political upset in modern American history," which even the politically astute Green did not see coming. How did this happen? is the question that drives the book. A crucial piece of the puzzle, writes the author, is Bannon, "a brilliant ideologue" and "opportunistic businessman" who, before meeting Trump, had focused his "populist-nationalist ideas" on supporting Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann and on destroying Hillary Clinton. After seven years in the Navy, Bannon, "intoxicated by the go-go Reagan eighties," set his sights on Wall Street. He got into Harvard Business School, where his working-class roots set him apart from his well-heeled classmates. He excelled academically and was hired by Goldman Sachs, eventually leaving to dabble "in minor Hollywood moguldom," followed by a stint at a Hong Kong video game company. Back in Los Angeles, he met Andrew Breitbart, who became his guru. Green adroitly portrays many other players in the tumultuous 2016 campaign: Robert Mercer, who "resembled the bloodless capitalist hero in an Ayn Rand novel," and his savvy daughter Rebekah, who convinced Trump to hire Bannon and Kellyanne Conway; Paul Manafort; Chris Christie; and a cadre of people working to bring down Hillary Clinton. Behind the scenes and ripped from the headlines, Green's saga exuberantly traces Trump's wild ride to the presidency. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.