When the Clock Broke

Reviews / Votes

John Ganz shows how the 1992 US election was a dress rehearsal for the triumph of Trump . . . Ganz, a journalist by trade, is a fine historian; he brings clarity to events we remember but perhaps did not fully understand. Rollicking stories are offered instead of bludgeoning polemic -- Gerard De Groot * The Times * When the Clock Broke is so terrifying, so convincing in its depiction of the 1980s I absorbed as a child, so unusually stylish in its sentences, that it haunted me long afterwards -- Adam Thirlwell * New Statesman Books of the Year * A fascinating, provocative challenge to our age - passionate, unexpected, illuminating -- Rory Stewart Clear and convincing . . . A spry and superbly written book on 1990s American politics . . . the best account I have ever read on the origins of Trumpism . . . brilliant -- Tomiwa Owolade * Daily Telegraph * In When the Clock Broke, John Ganz offers a continuously absorbing and bracing genealogy of today's incontinent far-right. A must-read for those wondering why the collapse of communism did not bring about the end of the history, and instead inaugurated the apotheosis of fanatics in the free world -- Pankaj Mishra Ganz discovers a moment of rupture . . . Rather than reading the 1990s as a decade of "posts", Ganz understands them as prefigurative: pre-alt-right, pre-MAGA, pre-DOGE . . . fascinating -- William Davies * London Review of Books * A terrific new book . . . Vibrant . . . Ganz has the skills of a gifted storyteller - one with excellent comedic timing, too - slipping in the most absurd and telling details . . . Urgent and illuminating . . . When the Clock Broke is one of those rarest of books: unflaggingly entertaining while never losing sight of its moral core -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times * When the Clock Broke is leagues more insightful on the subject of Trump's ascent than most writing that purports to address the issue directly -- Becca Rothfield * Washington Post * A fascinating shadow story of the 1990s -- Ezra Klein * The Ezra Klein Show * Masterly . . . Ganz spotlights the rage and rancour that spread beneath the surface of American life in a period now remembered for its peace and prosperity -- Kyle Burke * Times Literary Supplement * A brilliant, biting account of how the dream of a "kinder, gentler America" curdled into the chaos we live with today -- Eliot Higgins Superb . . . When the Clock Broke offers a compelling examination of a neglected and revealing period in American history . . . It is also one of the most entertaining history books I have read in years. Ganz has a novelist's skill at managing character, pacing, and plot, as well as a great eye for details that are telling, bizarre, and hilarious -- Daniel Geary * Irish Times * We should . . . pay greater heed to the ghosts of battles lost. That is the premise--and brilliant insight--of John Ganz's When the Clock Broke . . . Among its virtues, the greatest value of Ganz's book is that it delivers history in its richest context -- Edward Luce * Financial Times * John Ganz is a fantastic writer . . . When the Clock Broke is phenomenal . . . truly, truly great -- Chris Hayes * Why Is This Happening? Podcast * Lively and kaleidoscopic -- Andrew Marantz * New Yorker * A great book -- Michelle Goldberg * New York Times * Ganz paints a vivid panorama of underhanded power players in America in the 1990s -- Sam Tanenhaus * Vanity Fair *