Richard Ben Cramer

A masterpiece of political reportage that exposes the emotional reality of the modern American campaign system

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Richard Ben Cramer cracks open the heart of the American political system in this classic exploration of the 1988 presidential campaign. Cramer delves into the personal, intimate lives of the key candidates, including George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, Joe Biden, and Michael Dukakis, as he seeks to understand the drives, passions, egos, and failings that transform an individual into a president.

Exhaustively researched from thousands of hours of interviews, What It Takes creates powerful portraits of the men who would be president, and how the campaign for the highest office transforms them.

• Vanity Fair

  “A pit bull with a generous heart. An energy field with soul. A tireless explorer of people, events, and great ideas. This is a workable definition of the complete reporter, which is why it fits Richard Ben Cramer so well.”

• Time

  “A perfect-pitch rendering of the emotions, the intensity, the anguish, and the emptiness of what may have been the last normal two-party campaign in American history.”

• Los Angeles Times Book Review

  “A hopped-up amalgam of Teddy White, Tom Wolfe, and Norman Mailer . . . Presidential elections are the White Whale of American journalism—a work of great skill, tenacity, and empathy."