About this item
A Rosetta Stone for understanding Donald Trump's style, mindset, and every action, made up of over one hundred interviews with his closest associates over the last 15 years.To his critics, Donald Trump is an impulsive, undisciplined crackpot who accidentally lucked into the presidency. But in The Method to the Madness, reporters Allen Salkin and Aaron Short reveal that nothing could be further from the truth. This objective, nonpartisan oral history shows that Trump had carefully planned his bid for the presidency since he launched what many considered to be a joke candidacy in 1999.Between 2000 and 2015, when he announced his candidacy in the lobby of Trump Tower, he was able to identify an unserved political constituency, hone a persuasive message that appealed to their needs, and deliver it effectively, despite intense media opposition.Through candid conversations with more than 100 subjects close to the President, Salkin and Short make the case that Donald Trump's ostensibly erratic approach to politics is consistent with his carefully honed personal and professional style of information gathering, opinion seed-planting, and conclusion sharing. His business, media, and political dealings from this era serve as a guide for understanding the man, his mindset, and his every action.The Method to the Madness is an accessible and unbiased oral history that brings readers into the private rooms where decisions are made, confidences are broken, strong words fly, and not all eye-witnesses see the same scene in quite the same way.
About the Author
Allen's credits include: New York Times reporter, TV reality show love interest, rubber ducky salesman, podcast host, marathon runner and restaurant prep cook. Besides writing for many outlets-- Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Food&Wine... hell, even Cosmopolitan -- he has cast industrial films in Hong Kong, picked oranges in Crete, and peddled oil paintings door-to-door in Western Australia. Allen has a hobby of attending Summer Olympics: 7 so far plus two winters and a World Cup.He attended U.C. Berkeley (Go Bears! -- graduation dinner Chez Panisse downstairs) , Calabasas High (pre-Kardashians) , and N.Y.U.'s Journalism Masters Program. He has since taught at N.Y.U."The Method to the Madness: Donald Trump's Ascent as Told by Those Who Were Hired, Fired, Inspired and Inaugurated," co-authored with Aaron Short, is Allen's third book."From Scratch: Inside the Food Network" is Allen's second book. He wrote "Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us", a bit of a lighter affair, a few years ago. You can still check that out at festivusbook.com. Some of Allen's favorite topics he's written on include: Monocles (They're Back) , Annie Leibovitz's finances, and the last waterbed salesman in the San Francisco Bay Area.Contact Allen by emailing: salkin -- at -- allensalkin.com
