Andrew Kirtzman has covered Rudy Giuliani for three decades as a political reporter for print and television. He began as a City Hall reporter and then wrote what is considered a definitive book about Giuliani’s mayoralty. He was with Giuliani on the morning of September 11th and chronicled their experience together. He has covered more than a dozen national political campaigns and hosted two of New York’s most widely watched political shows, winning multiple Emmy Awards. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and other publications, and authored a book about the Bernie Madoff scandal. He appears regularly on CNN and MSNBC to discuss politics and government.
Cuts through the myth and caricature that has too often defined Giuliani. . . . As a former television reporter for NY1, Kirtzman knows the man better than the pundits who have often scratched their heads about the Giuliani they thought they knew. . . . If Giuliani's story is a tragedy, Kirtzman argues that it's self-inflicted through a combination of alcohol, sanctimony and a bottomless need for attention. -- Chris Megerian * Los Angeles Times * Masterful and engrossing. . . . Capture[s] what made the man tick and what led to his fall from grace. Kirtzman's critique is leavened with bittersweet impressions and references to Giuliani's accomplishments. -- Lloyd Green * The Guardian * A lively new biography explores how the man once celebrated as 'America's mayor' fell into disgrace. -- Louis Menand * The New Yorker (a New Yorker Best Books of the Year ) * With a cinematic made-for-TV sense of scene and pacing, gossipy insider revelations, and sharp analysis, Kirtzman vibrantly depicts the sad and tawdry unraveling of Giuliani's reputation. * Booklist (starred review) * A veteran political reporter ventures an answer to the question so many have asked in recent years about Rudy Giuliani: 'What happened?'. . . . A sad tale, expertly told, of corruption, bad judgment, avarice, and treason. * <I>Kirkus Reviews</I> (starred review) * A diagnostic study of Giuliani's auto-destruct apparatus is probably beyond the capabilities of psychiatric case study. . . . [Kirtzman] possesses the salient advantage of having covered Giuliani close up for decades, witnessing his evolution from an Eliot Ness crimebuster to the Sheriff of Rottingham. . . . . . . . .What this biography conveys is that Rudy's breaking bad wasn't a sudden turn to the dark side. The hairline cracks in his moral and behavioural make-up were there from the outset. -- James Wolcott * The London Review of Books *