Eugene McCarthy

"An interesting book, handsomely written, and closely researched." -The Weekly Standard

"Massively researched. . . . Sandbrook is effective in conveying the sense of a wasted talent." -The Nation

"Dominic Sandbrook's subtle, intelligent portrait gives us Gene McCarthy in all his enigmatic brilliance. . . . At a time when so much political history comes to us as scandal and gossip, this absorbing book reminds us where the drama of politics really begins-in the tensions between idealism and compromise, intellect and passion, knowledge and delusion." -Sam Tanenhaus, author of Whittaker Chambers

"McCarthy has lacked a full-scale biography; now, thanks to a young British historian, Dominic Sandbrook, he has a very good one. . . . Sandbrook brings both McCarthy and American liberalism alive. . . . A stunning achievement."
-History Book Club Review (Editors' choice)

"Highly readable. . . . Captures all of the drama and historical significance of both McCarthy the man and the political era that he helped define." -Tucson Citizen

"A consummate political biography. Dominic Sandbrook insightfully probes Eugene McCarthy's complex role in the decay of American liberalism. Avoiding nostalgia, he writes with an incisive and compelling honesty. . . . A sobering story in vivid prose, rich in nuance." -Alan Taylor, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of William Cooper's Town

"Sandbrook's biography will command attention and spark discussion about this controversial career and McCarthy's role in the end of the New Deal liberal consensus."
-Publishers Weekly

"Illuminating. . . . Sandbrook is especially good at describing how McCarthy's Catholicism formed his political visionE. Scholarly, scrupulously researched." -Library Journal

"This incisive account of the career both of postwar liberalism and of one of its most romantic standard-bearers reads like the anatomy of a lost cause -lost thanks not only to ideological choices but to the all-too-human attributes of arrogance, self-absorption and spite. An invaluable book for liberals who want to understand how they got where they are." -James Traub, contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine