Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove

Karl Rove has come to personify scorched earth political tactics and merciless, win-at-any-cost trickery. His status as the so-called architect behind Bush's election victories has elevated him to a mythic kingmaker in the national imagination. Not since Mark Hanna, special assistant to President William McKinley, has someone not elected to public office played such a vital role in the governance of our nation.

We know the myth, but who is the man? In Machiavelli's Shadow, the full, unvarni...