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This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral -- Mark Leibovich -- Summary, Review & Analysis
SAVE TIME & UNDERSTAND MORE!
WARNING: This is not the actual book This Town by Mark Leibovich. Do not buy this summary & analysis if you are looking for a full copy of this fascinating and often hilarious book, which can be found back on the Amazon search page.
Instead, we have already read This Town and pulled out some of the key take-away points and insights to give you a comprehensive chapter-by-chapter summary & review. In doing so, unfortunately we do not have the space to include all of the many important ideas and anecdotes found in This Town. To get it all, you should first order the full book. Packaged together in an engaging and easily digestible format, this concise summary & analysis works best as an unofficial guide or companion to read alongside the book.
A SUMMARY OF MARK LEIBOVICH’S THIS TOWN: TWO PARTIES AND A FUNERAL -- PLUS, PLENTY OF VALET PARKING! -- IN AMERICA’S GILDED CAPITAL -- MARK LEIBOVICH
Washington, D.C. has been described as a poli-media-corporate pigpen, where just about everyone is, has been, or will be at the trough. It is hard to tell when sentiments, emotions, and feelings are genuine. It appears that, by and large, even those expressions of sincere love and affection are really a product of self-interest and of the need to maintain appearances.
An enlightening, cynical, gossipy portrayal of the DC elite – journalistic, political, and business – Mark Leibovich’s This Town is also in places hilarious. The biographical sketches of the good and the great are usually done with a cool even-handedness, describing their shortcomings and qualities. Their interactions are equally well rendered as they battle in their quests to be at the top of the pecking order. Neither the current nor the “former” (a reference to past office holders now making zillions as lobbyists) are spared from Leibovich’s humorous analysis. In this summary, you will:
• Meet some DC power players who actually take advantage of high-profile funerals as the perfect networking opportunities, while outwardly displaying a somber face, of course.
• Learn how even the most reform-minded outsiders become corrupted by the zeitgeist of present-day DC and the lure of money.
• Meet some once idealistic Obama administration officials who were then co-opted by Washington lobbyists and corporations such as BP or Goldman Sachs.
• Learn what has caused the steady drift of 21st century journalists away from investigative journalism and towards celebrity, scandal, and superficial stories with the sole purpose of generating "buzz."
All this and much more!
Personality-driven yet ultimately insightful and utterly engaging, This Town delivers a stunning critique – rarely delivered from a self-professed member of "The Club" such as Leibovich – of the incestuous relationships that serve only to enrich and entrench DC’s power-brokers...at the expense of any meaningful reform.
FROM START-TO-FINISH IN JUST 30 MINUTES!
Here's your chapter-by-chapter guide to Mark Leibovich's This Town that you can start and finish right now!
WARNING: This is not the actual book This Town by Mark Leibovich. Do not buy this summary & analysis if you are looking for a full copy of this fascinating and often hilarious book, which can be found back on the Amazon search page.
Instead, we have already read This Town and pulled out some of the key take-away points and insights to give you a comprehensive chapter-by-chapter summary & review. In doing so, unfortunately we do not have the space to include all of the many important ideas and anecdotes found in This Town. To get it all, you should first order the full book. Packaged together in an engaging and easily digestible format, this concise summary & analysis works best as an unofficial guide or companion to read alongside the book.
A SUMMARY OF MARK LEIBOVICH’S THIS TOWN: TWO PARTIES AND A FUNERAL -- PLUS, PLENTY OF VALET PARKING! -- IN AMERICA’S GILDED CAPITAL -- MARK LEIBOVICH
Washington, D.C. has been described as a poli-media-corporate pigpen, where just about everyone is, has been, or will be at the trough. It is hard to tell when sentiments, emotions, and feelings are genuine. It appears that, by and large, even those expressions of sincere love and affection are really a product of self-interest and of the need to maintain appearances.
An enlightening, cynical, gossipy portrayal of the DC elite – journalistic, political, and business – Mark Leibovich’s This Town is also in places hilarious. The biographical sketches of the good and the great are usually done with a cool even-handedness, describing their shortcomings and qualities. Their interactions are equally well rendered as they battle in their quests to be at the top of the pecking order. Neither the current nor the “former” (a reference to past office holders now making zillions as lobbyists) are spared from Leibovich’s humorous analysis. In this summary, you will:
• Meet some DC power players who actually take advantage of high-profile funerals as the perfect networking opportunities, while outwardly displaying a somber face, of course.
• Learn how even the most reform-minded outsiders become corrupted by the zeitgeist of present-day DC and the lure of money.
• Meet some once idealistic Obama administration officials who were then co-opted by Washington lobbyists and corporations such as BP or Goldman Sachs.
• Learn what has caused the steady drift of 21st century journalists away from investigative journalism and towards celebrity, scandal, and superficial stories with the sole purpose of generating "buzz."
All this and much more!
Personality-driven yet ultimately insightful and utterly engaging, This Town delivers a stunning critique – rarely delivered from a self-professed member of "The Club" such as Leibovich – of the incestuous relationships that serve only to enrich and entrench DC’s power-brokers...at the expense of any meaningful reform.
FROM START-TO-FINISH IN JUST 30 MINUTES!
Here's your chapter-by-chapter guide to Mark Leibovich's This Town that you can start and finish right now!
61 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 4, 2013
3 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 19, 2018
This was a behind the scenes look at the culture and campaigning of politics. I respect Obama a lot more and see Hillary Clinton in a different light after reading this. It was a good book but my expectations of it based on the description on the back of the book were totally different from what I was anticipating. It’s very in depth and descriptive about the life of a politician. The parties in Washington are highlighted as extravagant in my opinion. It gave me an appreciation for what the guys in office do but at the same time it made it seem like all politicians do is attend social gatherings and spend too much money on food.
September 2, 2013
I found this book troubling. Written with the stereotypic cynicism for which journalists are noted, (makes me sound like a right-winger), the author writes about power and corruption in Washington. Nowhere does he even hint at the possibility that some politicians may be committed to the common good...just to the accumulation of power in all its tawdry forms.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews