Skip to Main Content

About The Book

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
THE NEW YORK TIMES NO 1 BESTSELLER
The storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021 revealed the transition from President Trump to President Biden to be one of the most dangerous periods in American history, with the result of the election called into question by the sitting president.


But, as internationally bestselling author Bob Woodward and acclaimed reporter Robert Costa reveal for the first time, it was far more than just a domestic political crisis. At the highest level of the US military, secret action was taken to prevent Trump from possibly starting a war.

Woodward and Costa interviewed more than 200 people at the centre of the turmoil, resulting in a spellbinding and definitive portrait of a nation on the brink. They take readers deep inside the Trump White House, the Biden White House, the 2020 campaign, and the Pentagon and Congress, with vivid, eyewitness accounts of what really happened. Peril is supplemented throughout with never-before-seen material from secret orders, transcripts of confidential calls, diaries, emails, meeting notes and other personal and government records, making for an unparalleled history.

It is also the first inside look at Biden’s presidency, revealing the background to his controversial decision to leave Afghanistan. He took office faced with the challenges of a lifetime: dealing with the continuing deadly pandemic and its crushing economic impact, all the while navigating a bitter and disabling partisan divide, and the hovering, dark shadow of the former president. ‘We have much to do in this winter of peril,’ Biden declared at his inauguration.

Peril is the extraordinary story of the end of one presidency and the beginning of another. The culmination of Bob Woodward’s bestselling trilogy on the Trump presidency, along with Fear and Rage, it is an essential read for anyone wanting to understand this tumultuous period.

About The Authors

Lisa Berg

Bob Woodward is the author of three consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers on President Trump—Fear (2018), Rage (2020), and Peril (2021) with Robert Costa—and an audiobook of 20 interviews with Trump. He has authored 22 bestselling books, 15 of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers, covering every president from Nixon to Biden.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LISA BERG

Robert Costa is the Chief Election and Campaign Correspondent for CBS News, where he has worked since 2022. He previously served as a national political reporter at The Washington Post and as moderator and managing editor of Washington Week on PBS. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge. He is from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (September 21, 2021)
  • Length: 512 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781398512146

Browse Related Books

Raves and Reviews

'The thing that is so bracing and nerve-wracking and important about this new book is what it reveals about how much worse it was than we knew, how much closer we came to real disaster than we have known before now.'

– Rachel Maddow, MSNBC

'Excerpts of the Woodward/Costa book in the Washington Post and CNN make the Trump administration’s operations in January 2021 sound like a bewildering blend of King Lear, The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire, Dr Strangelove and Veep.'

– Olivier Knox, Washington Post

'A cliffhanger... Like an instalment of a deathless Marvel franchise, for all its spectacle Peril ends with a dismaying sense of prologue.'

– John Williams, New York Times

'We know that the period between the election and the inauguration was a time of great domestic turmoil. And what Peril does is it shows that this was also a grave national security crisis.'

– Isaac Stanley-Becker, NPR

'Explosive new details about former President Donald Trump's actions around last year's election and the January insurrection.'

– PBS

'Woodward and Costa got an exclusive transcript of the call. Pelosi has the same concerns that Milley does. The phone call is dramatic. It's blunt. And Pelosi wants Milley to reassure her that the nuclear weapons are safe.'

– Jamie Gangel, CNN

'The book details how Mr Trump's presidency essentially collapsed in his final months in office, particularly after his election loss and the start of his campaign to deny the results.'

– Michael S. Schmidt, New York Times

Resources and Downloads

High Resolution Images

More books from this author: Bob Woodward