The Washington Post, America's premier newspaper for politics and elections, has been in the forefront of the post-election coverage, and in this book its award-winning staff provides the first full-length account of the closest and strangest election in our history - from the last frantic days of campaigning to the networks' premature election-night projections; from the "butterfly ballot" to the manual recounts; from the first legal challenges to the final adjudication. The Post has offered unsurpassed coverage of the events that transfixed the nation and the world, and now its all-star team of reporters has produced a page-turner to rival the best political thrillers. Deadlock is a wholly original work of history-in-the-making, written by David Von Drehle and Ellen Nakashima, two of the paper's most accomplished political writers, drawing on the reporting of over two dozen top reporters and columnists in Washington, Florida, and Texas. The Post will publish a seven-part front-page series based on the book right before Inauguration Day (January 14-20), and the book will contain additional chapters that will not have appeared in the newspaper. Books will be in stores by mid-February, making it the first post-election book available to readers. Phil Graham, the legendary publisher of The Washington Post in the 1950s and early 1960s, famously called newspapers "the first rough draft of history." His newspaper has now produced not a rough draft, but history itself - rich, detailed, nuanced, and groundbreaking. This is a book that no citizen should do without.

In reading the book I think a little bit of a democratic bias comes out, just a little, but enough to notice. I also thought it interesting that they had far more details of the Gore group then the Bush camp, it follows the perception that the Post is somewhat liberal in its views. The book is an overview that came out almost 10 minutes after Gore hung up the phone on the second concession call so there are a few more details out now that they did not get in the book. Overall it is a good effort and a readable book, but not the end all be all on the subject.


Terrific re-telling of a gripping era in American history   March 1, 2002
 10 out of 18 found this review helpful

I don't care what Repubs say, there was no liberal media bias apparent in this book. They showed both campaigns, warts and all, and let the public form its own opinion. The book was a fantastic behind-the-scenes re-telling of America's most recent Constitutional crisis, one that could have disrupted government for years to come. Of course, recent events have taken peoples' minds off of this contentious election, but this book should be pushed as much as possible so people will never forget that every vote actually does count sometimes.