''Peril'' is a book by American journalists

Bob Woodward Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for ''The Washington Post'' as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the title of associate editor. While a young reporter for ''The Washingto ...

and Robert Costa about the last days of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of ...

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by ...

, as well as the presidential transition and early

of Joe Biden. The book was published on September 21, 2021, by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pub ...

. Considered the culmination of Woodward's reporting on the

Trump Administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...

, ''Peril'' takes its title from an excerpt of Biden's inaugural address. In the speech, Biden proclaimed that Americans "will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility." This contrasts with Woodward's previous books about the Trump administration, ''

Fear Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...

'' and ''Rage'', which took their titles from Trump's comments made during a March 2016 interview conducted by Woodward. ''Peril'' has generally received mixed reviews by book credits for election, but some of them criticized on 2020 election coverages.

Background

Following the publication of Woodward's previous two Trump books, ''Fear'' and ''Rage'', ''Peril'' acts as the final installment in Bob Woodward's Donald Trump trilogy. The book follows Trump's second Presidential campaign while interspersing details from Joe Biden's campaign. ''Peril'' has two narratives: one following Trump, and the other following the campaign of Joe Biden as he defeats his primary opponent Bernie Sanders and later faces Trump himself. The majority of the book was written as an exposé during the final months of Trump's presidency, detailing his legal challenges to the 2020 presidential election, his attempts to subvert the certification system, and his insistence that the election was stolen.

Content

The conversation between

Mark Milley Mark Alexander Milley (born June 20, 1958) is a United States Army general who serves as the 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He previously served as the 39th chief of staff of the Army from August 14, 2015 to August 9, 2019, and hel ...

and Chinese general

Li Zuocheng Li Zuocheng (; born October 1953) is a general of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China, currently serving as the chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission. Between 2015 and 2017, he served as the inaugural Com ...

is one of the subjects of ''Peril''. The book also reveals further new details behind

attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election After Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, then-incumbent Donald Trump pursued an unprecedented effort to overturn the election, with support and assistance from his campaign, proxies, political allies, and many of ...

by the outgoing Trump administration.

Reception

''Peril'' received mixed reviews from critics. Chris Megerian of ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

'' panned it as a "tedious" read, criticizing Woodward and Costa for "spending more time stacking up anecdotes like bricks than generating new insights into a presidency that has already received exhaustive coverage." ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

''s Fred Kaplan wrote that ''Peril'' lacks narrative structure: "Like many of Woodward's past works, this is less a cohesive book than a string of anecdotes, some hair-raising, some less so than they appear to be. Perhaps because it was churned out so quickly, this book contains some very intriguing bits—the hints of a story, but not quite the follow-through—that someone should investigate more thoroughly." In his ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' review, John Williams wrote, "Like an installment of a deathless Marvel franchise, for all its spectacle 'Peril' ends with a dismaying sense of prologue." In a positive appraisal of the book, '' Kirkus Reviews'' called ''Peril'' " solid work of investigation that, while treading well-covered ground, offers plenty of surprises."

References

{{Trump media 2021 non-fiction books American political books Collaborative non-fiction books Non-fiction books about elections Books about Donald Trump Books about the Trump administration Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign Criticism of Donald Trump Books about Joe Biden Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign Books by Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster books English-language books