The Rebels

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Devil’s Bargain comes the deep, revelatory inside history of the populist uprising on the Democratic left that erupted during the 2008 financial crisis and has carried all the way into Joe Biden’s White House.

If you were to go looking for the one event that has defined recent American politics—that has fueled the anger and contention that now feels endemic, eroded the nation’s faith in its leaders, and elevated radical alternatives in their place—the 2008 financial crisis would be a strong contender. 

Green’s last book, Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump and the Nationalist Uprising, documented how this popular dissatisfaction unfolded on the political right, supercharging Trump’s toxic right-wing populism and driving the greatest upset in U.S. presidential history.

But the financial crisis also generated a new populism on the left. Green follows the rise of the new left movement that emerged from its ashes to become a powerful force in Democratic politics. The book tracks three major characters—Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—each critical to the movement’s rise.

For decades before the crisis, Wall Street held sway over both parties. Left populism was consigned to the periphery of U.S. politics. Through tireless organizing, shrewd use of social media, and a willingness to confront the Democratic Party’s failures, all three politicians have become national icons.

With razor-sharp analysis drawn from years of interviews in Washington and on Wall Street, The Rebels spins a grand narrative of a political party undergoing tumult and transformation to tell an even larger story about America as it struggles to enter the post-neoliberal era.

About the Author

Joshua Green is a national correspondent for Bloomberg Businessweek and a CNN political analyst. Previously, Green was a senior editor of the Atlantic, a weekly political columnist for the Boston Globe, and an editor at the Washington Monthly. He has also written for the New Yorker, Esquire, Vanity Fair, and other publications. Green regularly appears on CNN's shows, HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, and PBS's Washington Week and Frontline.

Author Residence: Bethesda, MD

Author Hometown: New London, CT