Jeff Greenfield

A Cautionary Tale

The People's Choice

praise for "Oh waiter! one order of crow!"

“Breezy, witty, urbane, sophisticated and erudite all describe Greenfield's ‘You Are There’-style chronicle of what it was like to be at the CNN anchor desk election eve 2000. He flawlessly matches laugh-out-loud humor with genuine insight into the factors that shaped the Bush-Gore contest for the presidency and the bitter political trench warfare that was the fight for Florida. Making ample use of satire, skewering members of the working press, legal scholars of the left and right, and most satisfyingly the political establishments of both Republicans and Democrats, Greenfield captures the sublime and the ridiculous of this history-making election, although there is (perhaps necessarily) a heavier helping of the ridiculous. Greenfield takes readers through each of the pivotal moments in the campaign and its aftermath, specifically highlighting the primaries, the conventions, the debates, the recount battles and the court arguments and decisions with a characteristically unpretentious approach that will be familiar to readers who have followed his career as a political commentator for ABC and CNN. And although the touch is light, the analysis is never lightweight. Among the many strengths of the book is the attention it devotes to the primary campaigns of both Bush and Gore, depicting in detail why the internal dynamics of the Republican and Democratic parties respectively made it impossible for either John McCain or Bill Bradley to mount successful challenges. This is a valuable political commentary wrapped in a wonderfully entertaining package.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Oh, Waiter! One Order of Crow!"

praise for If Kennedy Lived

“On the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, this is the book to read. An intelligent, often haunting book about what America and the world would have looked like if John Kennedy had lived.” — Fareed Zakaria

If Kennedy Lived: The First and Second Terms of President John F. Kennedy

praise for then everything changed

"In his shrewdly written, often riveting new book, Then Everything Changed, the veteran political journalist Jeff Greenfield ponders some smaller-scale and more plausible what-ifs: three events, he says, 'that came within a whisker of actually happening.' Thanks to Mr. Greenfield’s own familiarity with American politics and a lot of energetic research, he turns these twists of fate into accelerating historical snowballs that rumble through our recent history, altering the social landscape in ways both small and large. In doing so he’s produced three slyly observed novellas that...have the verisimilitude of real life.” — The New York Times

Then Everything Changed

Published Books by Jeff Greenfield

Jeff Greenfield is the author or co-author of 13 books, including A Populist Manifesto: The Making of a New Majority (1972), Jeff Greenfield's Book of Books (1979), No Peace, No Place: Excavations Along the General Fault (1973), Television: The First Fifty Years (1977), Playing to Win: An Insider's Guide to Politics (1980), The People's Choice: A Cautionary Tale (1995)—a national bestseller and named by the New York Times Book Review as one of the notable books of the year—Oh, Waiter, One Order of Crow! (2001), Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics (2011)—a finalist for the 2011 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, Long Form—43*: When Gore Beat Bush (2012), and If Kennedy Lived: The First and Second Terms of President John F. Kennedy (2013).

Learn more about Jeff's bestsellers and purchase one or more of his books below. 

praise for the people's choice

“Greenfield gives a deft satiric spin to his first novel, a cautionary tale about the electing of the U.S. president. What The Player did for Hollywood, The People's Choice, in its unabashed flailing of the American system, does for presidential politics.” — Publishers Weekly 

 “A grand entertainment cum history lesson whose triumphant bad taste, genuine wit, and uncommon sense could and should make it a landslide winner in the marketplace.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Greenfield...knows his electoral-college rules. More important, after many years inside campaign politics and many more inside network television, he knows the players and the inner workings of politics and the press. And most important, he can write with biting wit and piercing satire, drawing portraits of people and institutions that are unerring and hilarious.” — Washington Post Book World