Customer Reviews

The Ambition and the Power: The Fall of Jim Wright : A True Story of Washington

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Barry, who wrote for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other publications, was allowed unbelievable access to former Speaker of the House Jim Wright's private meetings, and also got cooperation from then-back bencher Gingrich and others of Wright's enemies. The result is an absolutely brilliant study of how power works in Washington, inside the Congress, between the Congress and the White House, the media. Well-written and provocative, this book will give you an understanding of Washington like nothing else I have ever read. Ever since it came out (in 1989), I have been waiting for Edmund Morris's Reagan biography to get the other side of the story. If only Morris had done what Barry did. But Morris failed. Barry didn't.

This book is incredible in depth of research, interviews with key players in the House of Representatives, a balanced approached, and analysis. It reveals more of the inner workings of the House of Representatives than any other single source. A must read for anyone who wants to understand how the House works, and at the same time how Speaker Jim Wright lost the speakership.

An amazing read of the rise of Newt Gingrich and the fall of Speaker Wright. If you want a behind the scenes look at leadership and power in the US House - you must read this book. It basically follows how Newt dogged Speaker Wright and pushed him out the door with questionable tactics. Ironic that as Speaker himself, Newt had a lot of trouble with a book deal. Cannot recommend more highly.

For the afficionado of the political genre, there is no better book than this. Barry's access was not equally granted by all the players, but he was sufficiently "in the room" and privy to frank discussion that he places the reader in the Congress during the end of a Speaker's tenure. This episode really marks the rise of Newt Gingrich, the end of Democrat control of the U.S. House, and profound changes in America. The book doesn't explain how it all came about. It does, however, live up to its title by showing how ambition and power collide. In this instance, ambition won. That Gingrich eventually suffered an ignominous political end is one of the great ironies of recent American politics.

For all the thousands of politics books out there today, it is hard to understand why this book has gone out of print and is so hard to find. This is probably because Jim Wright's tenure as Speaker of the House was so brief and he came between more outsize personalities Tip O'Neil and Newt Gingrich.

That's unfortunate, because this is the best book I've read on the true inner workings of Congress. Jim Wright was a hard personality and not the warm and fuzzy type, but he was toppled probably because he was too effective and too driven, and when Republicans ganged up on him, he did not have the support of his squeamish caucus.

In the end, the operation of Congress and congressional leadership pivots on delicately handling the enormous egos of Members, and John Barry's book does an incredible job teasing that out by chronicling Wright's brief, but nonetheless fascinating two-year run in the Speaker's rostrum. If you're a politics junkie, get your hands on a cheap copy of the book and you'll plow through it in a week or two. Well worth your time.

This is the book whose account of what it takes to be a "Member" that so turned my stomach (i.e. the book is phenomenal) I concluded that no sane and honorable person should seek election.

On the one hand, it recounts in excruciating detail the degree to which then Speaker of the House Jim Wright had to be constantly on the go to collect ("raise") funds for his future campaigns (every two years), while also illuminating the pathologies of House leadership processes.

On the other hand, it recounts in equal detail the deliberate and malicious manner in which future Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich set about to destroy Jim Wright--his reputation, his position, his office, his personna.

I am not sure which turned my stomach more--the two together are quite depressing.

I have since learned that the Democrats are much more practiced at electoral fraud and other connivances, and that the Republicans are now learning to match the Democrats and "level the playing field." We need to take back the power, get the money out of politics, eradicate the rule by secrecy and information asymmetries between elites and the voters, and get our Republic back.

This is a SUPERB reading for any university or college class studying the real world of politics as it is still practiced today on the Hill.

More recent books, also recommended:
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)
Tribes on the Hill: The United States Congress--Rituals and Realities, Revised Edition

Long (760 pages), slow, and sordid might sound like a back-handed title for a five-star review. Since the book is out of print, and only one used copy is available, it hardly matters. Nevertheless I want to congratulate John M. Barry for researching and writing the most detailed and accurate description I've ever read of how Congress and the American political system functions. It doesn't build confidence, but it's knowledge that all citizens should confront before they toot and vote. Partisans, don't worry! The portrayal of Demublicans is no more wart-free than that of Republirats. If you believe, as my American Grandfather did, that the electoral process usually sends people of above-average ability and character to Washington, you'd better not read this book lest you become morose and disillusioned.
Barry's more recent books, Rising Tide & The Great Influenza, are a good deal more readable for intellectual recreation -- excellent books, in fact -- but this is his masterpiece of reportage.