It Was All a Lie

How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump

By: Stuart Stevens

Narrated by: Dan John Miller

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the most successful Republican political operative of his generation, a searing, unflinching, and deeply personal exposé of how his party became what it is today

“A blistering tell-all history. In his bare-knuckles account, Stevens confesses [that] the entire apparatus of his Republican Party is built on a pack of lies." —The New York Times

Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass.

This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else. Stevens shows how Trump is in fact the natural outcome of five decades of hypocrisy and self-delusion, dating all the way back to the civil rights legislation of the early 1960s. Stevens shows how racism has always lurked in the modern GOP's DNA, from Goldwater's opposition to desegregation to Ronald Reagan's welfare queens and states' rights rhetoric. He gives an insider's account of the rank hypocrisy of the party's claims to embody "family values," and shows how the party's vaunted commitment to fiscal responsibility has been a charade since the 1980s. When a party stands for nothing, he argues, it is only natural that it will be taken over by the loudest and angriest voices in the room.

Critic reviews

"Stevens stands out among Trump’s conservative critics because of his candor about the deeper rot at the core of the GOP... He offers a grand mea culpa for his own role in paving the way for Trumpism."
—Sean Illing, Vox

"It Was All a Lie is unlike anything published in the Trump era: a photo negative of the genre of self-justifying apparatchiks... He’s written a history of the modern GOP from an insider’s perspective, as well as something deeply personal."
—Benjamin Wofford, Washingtonian

"A stunning indictment."
—David Corn, Mother Jones

“A blistering tell-all history. In his bare-knuckles account, Stevens confesses [that] the entire apparatus of his Republican Party is built on a pack of lies."
—The New York Times

"This book is going to become an important reference volume for future historians trying to explain what happened to the Republican Party in the second half of the 20th century and the Trump era. It takes someone with Stuart Stevens' insights as a writer to be able to see this story and deliver it to us the way he has."
—Lawrence O'Donnell

“A sustained attack… Refreshingly frank.”
—John S. Gardner, The Guardian

"Washington in 2020 often beggars belief: an American President answering a deadly pandemic with ignorance, inflaming racial unrest with racism, stoking violent confrontations while his fearful party stands mute... What if the accounting comes from one of the Republican Party's most accomplished political strategists, an insider provoked by Trump to reconsider his life's work? In fact, it has. Stevens dissects several categories of deception. Though he could not have anticipated it -- the book, completed last September, does not include the words "coronavirus" or "George Floyd" -- events of recent days keep offering improbably-vivid evidence for his assessments.
—CNN

"A blistering attack on the modern Republican Party and its wholesale surrender to Donald Trump... His willingness to tell the truth should serve as a model for the mea culpas that Republicans who enabled Trump’s corruption, norm-shattering, and immorality owe us."
—Michael A. Cohen, The Boston Globe

"An epitaph, of interest to all politics junkies, for a formerly venerable party by a champion-turned-gravedigger."
—Kirkus

Brilliant Summary Of How We Got Here

Didn’t know who Stuart Stevens was until today. Very glad to have been introduced to him now!

Powerful and A breath of Fresh Air!

I am grateful to Mr. Stevens for giving me hope again in people. None of us as Americans are perfect but what takes genuine courage is to admit wrong and recommit to a more just path.
Thank you for having the courage to speak truth and open our minds and hearts to commit to real change in America. Then and only then can we commit to becoming a great nation.

interestingly book explains a lot on yhe past of

explains alo t of how we got here to this messed up system we are in

Truth revealed

A sobering, yet sad depiction of American/Republican politics. Well written, and frank rendition of the lengths that politicians go to in order to gain/maintain power.

An amazing in-depth look at Conservative politi s

Genuinely enjoyed every aspect of this book. It's going to change alot of minds and open eyes across the aisles of our nations political landscape.