Robert Strauss and the Art of Politics
- kmc.cover
“Kathryn McGarr’s absorbing book reads like The Making of the President meets Dallas. Well-researched and written, judicious in its judgments, bursting with new stories, it gives us a well-rounded and unforgettable portrait of Robert Strauss as family man, lawyer, businessman, politician and statesman.”
—Michael Beschloss

About the Book
- kmc.authorThe Whole Damn Deal is Kathryn McGarr’s first book. She’s a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and Stanford University. Photo by: Heather Weston
Publisher
PublicAffairs

Hardcover
$29.99

Category
Nonfiction

Publication Date
October 11, 2011

ISBN
978-1-58648-877-2

Classification
Biography

In the Press
- The Washington Post Stephen Hess
  10 Dec 2011
  
  As Kathryn J. McGarr skillfully shows, Strauss, now 93, was a vivid personality when on the stage, and fun to read about. But people like Strauss also have had a unique role in American public life, which is important to understand, and extends McGarr’s book beyond one man’s story.
  
  Read the full article
- Newsweek/Daily Beast Writers’ Favorite Books 2011 Paul Begala
  11 Dec 2011
  
  Kathryn McGarr’s The Whole Damn Deal: Robert Strauss and the Art of Politics: Can you imagine the current chairman of the Republican Party being asked to secretly advise President Obama? Me neither. But when Nancy Reagan called Strauss, patriotism trumped partisanship. From Stamford, Texas, to the Kremlin, McGarr takes us along with Strauss on one hell of a ride.
  
  See the complete list
- Hardball With Chris Matthews
  11 Oct 2011
  
  Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
- The Dallas Morning News Book Review: The Whole Damn Deal Carl Leubsdorf
  16 Oct 2011
  
  For many years, friends and associates of Robert Strauss have unsuccessfully urged the legendary Dallas lawyer-politician to write his memoirs or cooperate on a biography.
  
  Now, it’s been done — by Strauss’ great-niece Kathryn McGarr. A Dallas native and Stanford graduate in her 20s, she initially wrote on Strauss for a class project at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and has expanded that into a full-fledged biography.
  
  Unsurprisingly, the result is a largely favorable view of the man she calls “Uncle Bob.” Based mainly on Strauss’ interviews with a previous prospective biographer, writer Peter Ross Range, supplemental conversations with him, and interviews with close Strauss associates, she has produced a vivid, accurate account that captures the flavor of this colorful, outspoken Texan, often in his own words.
  
  Read the full article
- C-SPAN2 Book TV
  22 Nov 2011
  
  Watch online
Continue Reading Press
“Bob Strauss is one of a kind. This is the story of a man who changed everything he touched – people, ideas, and ideals. Nobody who spends moments with The Whole Damn Deal will have a dull one, I promise. A delightful book about a delightful character who did delightful things for his country and for everyone around him.”
—Jim Lehrer
- president
“By interviewing everyone from presidents to party leaders to members of the press, Kathryn McGarr gives us an inside look at behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing as politicians made policy and fought campaigns through the last half of the twentieth century. But better yet she uses Bob Strauss’s own, often salty words to give us true insight into one of the most effective.”
—Cokie Roberts

Press

Kirkus Reviews

The Whole Damn Deal: Robert Strauss and the Art of Politics

1 Sep 2011

A well-paced, exhaustively researched biography of Robert Strauss, the well-connected lawyer, politician, businessman and diplomat known in some circles as “Mr. Democrat.” Readers interested in national politics will find McGarr’s first book packed with compelling stories about her subject’s varied and intriguing career, the evolution of the Democratic Party from the 1950s to the ’90s and the changing tone in Washington during the same period.

Read the full article

Posted in Press

2011 Texas Book Festival

26 Aug 2011

As Kathryn McGarr reveals in The Whole Damn Deal: Robert Strauss and the Art of Politics, Robert Strauss created an archetype. He was the big talker, the power broker, the guy who knew everybody and got things done. Strauss was born in the small town of Lockhart, Texas, to an immigrant couple known locally for their kindness and industry. In spite of poverty and their provincial surroundings, Strauss’s parents instilled in him the virtues of culture and intellect.

Read the full article

Posted in Press

Political Wire

Taegan Goddard

22 Jul 2011

A portrait of the masterful political operative who brought a troubled Democratic party together in the 1970s and who has come to personify a bygone era of civility in Washington.

Read the full article

Posted in Press