The Unraveling

Now with a new foreword by Harvard Law Professor and former Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith, and with a new concluding chapter from the author on the unprecedented ethical challenges in the first year of Trump 2.0.

Essential reading for anyone interested in modern American politics, get the book that former President Barack Obama on X calls “a deeply thoughtful book” and says, “couldn’t be a more timely read.”

Part memoir, part rumination on the declining moral compass of the American political class, The Unraveling is the first book to place restoring political ethics at the center of the renewal of American democracy. Politics is a brutal game, but Bauer asks where does the line fall between the “hardball” of politics and attacks on the very foundation of democracy? Looking back on 46 years in the political arena, Bauer tries to better grasp what has gone wrong and to understand what shaped his own decisions and actions. He offers anecdotes, perspectives, and insights that are vitally relevant in our world today, including efforts in 2020 (and 2024) to defend our democratic system of elections from attack and distrust, and the struggles with social media, such as Meta, to combat disinformation in a post-truth politics. The expanded paperback edition includes a new concluding chapter highlighting the ethical failures of public institutions under the the second Trump administration—law firms, universities, and the media, as well as the Trump administration itself—and the imperative to do better in order to preserve the consent of the governed in American democracy.

He writes about the various personal experiences along the way—the highs, the lows, and the absurd. Bauer presents a smart and serious look at our political culture and the role that he has played in shaping it. The Unraveling will be essential reading for anyone interested in American politics of the last 50 years—and the next.

Author Biography

Bob Bauer has been involved in many of the biggest political struggles in the five decades since the post-Watergate 1970s. He has been a leading legal adviser to the national Democratic Party and to its candidates on strategies for winning elections and protecting voting rights, and he has represented the party in national political conflicts and controversies. He was the chief counsel to both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns and was the President’s White House counsel. He was counsel to the Democratic Senate leader during Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. He was a senior adviser to the Biden presidential campaign on voting rights and election protection, and on vice presidential selection, and his responsibilities included playing the role of Donald Trump in preparation for the general election debates. Bauer is also now on the faculty of the New York University School of Law, teaching political reform and the ethical challenges facing lawyers in public life. He coauthored with Jack Goldsmith After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency.