Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Politics & government

BAG MAN

Michael Yarvitz Rachel Maddow

The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House

BAG MAN is based on Rachel's Peabody Award-Nominated Podcast of the same name that has been downloaded 12.2 million times. It is the knockdown, drag-out, untold story of the "other" scandal that rocked Richard Nixon's White House, and reset the rules for crooked presidents to come.

In this blockbuster account, BAG MAN details the investigation that exposed Spiro Agnew's crimes, the attempts at a cover-up - which involved future president George H. W. Bush - and the backroom bargain that forced Agnew's resignation but also spared him years in federal prison. BAG MAN expands and deepens the story of Spiro Agnew's scandal and its lasting influence on our politics, our media, and our understanding of what it takes to confront a criminal in the White House.

Rachel Maddow is host of the Emmy Awardwinning Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, as well as the #1 New York Times bestselling author of DRIFT: The Unmooring of American Military Power; BLOWOUT: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth; Maddow received a bachelor's degree in public policy from Stanford University and earned her doctorate in political science at Oxford University. She lives in New York City and Massachusetts with her partner, artist Susan Mikula.

Michael Yarvitz is an Emmy and Peabody award-winning television producer and journalist. He was the executive producer and co-writer of the podcast series Bag Man.

Available products
Book Published 2020-12-08 by Crown

Comments

Bag Man is a super entertaining page-turner about a mostly forgotten - yet hugely important - chapter of American history that played out right in the shadow of Watergate. It's a deeply wild tale of greed, criminality, and corruption infecting the highest levels of our government. But at its heart, it's a human story, a reminder that people make up our institutions, and ultimately they have the ability to protect - and to save - our democracy when it really needs it.

Long before Donald Trump disrupted the rules of politics, Spiro Agnew cheerfully derided liberals, the establishment, ivory tower professors, and the press. In Bag Man, Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz provide rich new details about the shameless corruption and astonishing fall of Richard Nixon's Vice President... Meticulous reporting and vivid storytelling bring to life the lessons from the investigation and prosecution of a leader at the top of American government, providing useful guidance today as we navigate rhyming themes. As Maddow and Yarvitz write, 'history is here to help.'

The authors expand upon their riveting podcast to create a work both scholarly and disturbing in its parallels to current events. Their fast-paced unfurling of Vice President Agnew's almost-forgotten crimes feels all too familiar to anyone paying attention to politics lately. It offers a critical case study in the patterns of corruption that continue to plague our democracy, documenting how politicians abuse their office and how the good guys can bring them to justice. Both a thriller and a history book, Bag Man is a triumph of storytelling.

Maddow and Yarvitz have written an instruction manual for our time - a thrilling case study inside a prosecutor's office investigating corruption in the White House.

Through remarkable investigative work and engaging storytelling, Maddow and Yarvitz reveal previously unknown challenges faced by the intrepid federal prosecutors who brought Spiro Agnew to justice then waited five decades to share their candid reminiscences. Bag Man delivers a powerful and timeless lesson about America's enduring principles while demonstrating that the final verdict of history may differ from self-interested contemporary accounts and highlighting how much the rule of law depends upon the character of the people who enforce it.