The life of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid presents a striking archetype for the self-made powerbroker, a man unwilling to accept his place in the world who “approached every deal trying to extract the most he could.” The Game Changer, Jon Ralston’s new book on the late Nevada senator, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2021, unveils an extraordinary, dogged figure whose determination (and arguably, moral compromise) briefly made him the most powerful legislator in the uncontested global hegemon of early 21st-century America.