The Rebels - by Joshua Green (Hardcover)

About the Book

"From the author...comes the revelatory inside story of how economic populists led by Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez transformed the Democratic Party and remade the country"--

Book Synopsis

"One of the best and most readable overviews of the Democrats' evolution on economic issues over the past half-century." -- The Wall Street Journal

"Fast-paced, sober, yet hopeful . . . Green is a first-rate journalist." -- The Atlantic

One of Politico's 10 books we're looking forward to in 2024

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Devil's Bargain comes the revelatory inside story of the uprising within the Democratic Party, of the economic populists led by Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In his classic book Devil's Bargain, Joshua Green chronicled how the forces of economic populism on the right, led by the likes of Steve Bannon, turned Donald Trump into their flawed but powerful vessel. In The Rebels, he gives an epic account of the long struggle that has played out in parallel on the left, told through an intimate reckoning with the careers of the three political figures who have led the charge most prominently. Based on remarkable inside sourcing and razor-sharp analysis, The Rebels uses the grand narrative of a political party undergoing tumult and transformation to tell an even larger story about the fate of America.

For many years, as Green recounts, the Democrats made their bed with Wall Street and big tech, relying on corporate money for electioneering and embracing the worldview that technological and financial innovation and globalization were a powerful net good, a rising tide lifting all boats. Yes, there were howls of pain, but they were written off by most of the elites as the moaning of sore losers mired in the past. There were always some Democratic politicians representing the old labor base who resisted the new dispensation, but these figures never made it very far on a national level. For one thing, they didn't have the money. But as income inequality ballooned, widening the gulf between the wealthy elite and everyone else, pressures began to build.

With the 2008 crisis, those forces finally erupted into plain sight, turning this book's protagonists into national icons. At its heart, The Rebels tells the riveting human story of the rise and fight of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from the financial crisis on, as outrage over the unfairness of the American system formed a flood tide of political revolution. That same tide that would sweep Trump into office was blunted on the left, as the Democratic party found itself riven by culture war issues between its centrists and its progressives. But the winds behind economic populism still howl at gale force. Whether the Democrats can bridge their divisions and home in on a vision that unites the party, and perhaps even the country, in the face of the most violently deranged political landscape since the Civil War will be the ultimate test of the legacies of all three characters.

A masterful account of one of the defining political stories of our age, The Rebels cements Joshua Green's stature at the first rank of American writers explaining how we've arrived at this pass and what lies ahead.

Review Quotes

"Green has an excellent eye for compelling details that accumulate into psychologically cogent portraits . . . Green's analysis is rich and lively. The result is an exciting foretaste of the tensions that Joe Biden will face among his supporters, detractors and opponents as the presidential race heads toward the fall." --The New York Times

"Mr.Green provides one of the best and most readable overviews of the Democrats' evolution on economic issues over the past half-century. If he doesn't settle the issue of whether we are headed for a 'new era' in American politics, he provides much useful material for thinking about that possibility." --Ruy Teixeira, The Wall Street Journal

"Green's work is smart, sharp and smoothly written . . . The book offers a valuable recapitulation of the crack-up of the New Deal coalition, the impact of Ronald Reagan's victories and the continued reverberations of the Great Recession of 2008." --The Guardian

"A clear and satisfying narrative of the last 15 years of Democratic politics." --The New Republic

"A zippy narrative of noble warriors taking on entrenched powers." --Washington Monthly

"Fast-paced, sober, yet hopeful . . . Green is a first-rate journalist." --George Packer, The Atlantic

"The Rebels furnishes a rich and compelling account of how leading Democrats veered away from the party's prime mandate to advocate for ordinary Americans against moneyed interests." --The Baffler

"A smooth narrative on how the Democrats eager to respond to the massive popularity of Ronald Reagan and collapse of Jimmy Carter economic policies became champions of 'capital formation' lingo and began to smooth the way for the rise of financial interests over worker interests . . . What Green outlines brilliantly is the origin story of Warren and her successors . . . What is certain is that the era of neoliberal economics has been buried in both parties, or at least pushed to deep subterranean levels -- a clear victory for the voices Green explores, Sanders and Warren and AOC." --Semafor

"A revealing history of an epochal shift in American politics." --Publishers Weekly

"The Rebels is not the first book about these three or the movements they represent, but it might be the first to consider them soberly. Green documents their undeniable impact on national politics without indulging in hagiography or overinflated rhetoric." --Bookforum

About the Author

Joshua Green is a national correspondent for Bloomberg Businessweek. He has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Vanity Fair. Green regularly appears on CNN, MSNBC, HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, and PBS's Washington Week and Frontline.