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.

Ralston writes vividly on Reid’s long journey from terrible poverty in a forgotten corner of southern Nevada to the senior ranks of the Democratic Party. He critiques his subject for his sins, but at times seems enamored by the senator’s artful backstabbing, gladhanding, and scheming.