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Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America
by Abraham Riesman
The definitive biography of Vince McMahon, former WWE chairman and CEO, charts his rise from rural poverty to the throne of one of the world's most influential media empires—and features never-before-seen research and exclusive interviews with more than 150 people who witnessed, aided, and suffered from his ascent.
Even if you've never watched a minute of professional wrestling, you are living in Vince McMahon's world.
In his four decades as the defining figure of American pro wrestling, McMahon was the man behind Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, John Cena, Dave Bautista, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, and Hulk Hogan, to name just a few of the mega-stars who owe him their careers. For more than twenty-five years, he has also been a performer in his own show, acting as the diabolical "Mr. McMahon"—a figure who may have more in common with the real Vince than he would care to admit.
Just as importantly, McMahon is one of Donald Trump's closest friends—and Trump's experiences as a performer in McMahon's programming were, in many ways, a dress rehearsal for the 45th President's campaigns and presidency. McMahon and his wife, Linda, are major Republican donors. Linda was in Trump's cabinet. McMahon makes deals with the Saudi government worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And for generations of people who have watched wrestling, he has been a defining cultural force.
Accessible to anyone, regardless of wrestling knowledge, Ringmaster is an unauthorized, independent, investigative chronicle of Vince McMahon's origins and rise to supreme power. It is built on exclusive interviews with more than 150 people, from McMahon's childhood friends to those who accuse him of destroying their lives. Far more than just an athletics or entertainment biography, Ringmaster uses Vince's story as a new lens for understanding the contemporary American apocalypse.
"This revelatory biography of Vince McMahon argues convincingly that pro wrestling can explain contemporary America. It's a knockout."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A vivid, warts-and-all portrait of the man behind WrestleMania—and much of the worst of contemporary politics." —Kirkus Reviews
"Ringmaster is riveting, essential reading even if, like me, you have no taste for professional wrestling. All you need is an appetite for good stories of how the best—which is to say, the worst—conmen get over. Follow Abraham Riesman through that looking glass, and you even may creep closer to understanding how the U.S. managed to make one president." —Rick Perlstein, New York Times bestselling author of Nixonland and Reaganland
"Ringmaster examines how seemingly innocuous pastimes like professional wrestling have shaped American culture and warped it beyond measure. In Abraham Riesman's telling, Vince McMahon emerges as a powerful figure of terrifying complexity, his rise and fall in lockstep with the country's. Ringmaster brilliantly pulls back the curtain of kayfabe to reveal the pulsating reality underneath—and how the lines, once blurred, can never be separated again." —Sarah Weinman, bestselling author of The Real Lolita and Scoundrel
"To understand what's at the heart of carny culture is to understand what's at the heart of a huge swath of the American experience. As Abraham Riesman demonstrates in this highly readable, sharp and compelling book, professional wrestling embodies this idea both on screen and off, in the arenas and in the conference rooms. This is a serious work about the legacy of confidence games, abandonment, abuse and power. Whether or not you are a lifelong wrestling mark like me, Ringmaster is essential reading." —Brian Koppelman, cocreator of Billions and cowriter of Rounders
"No faking! Ringmaster is one of the best biographies I've read in years — smart, entertaining, impressively reported, and beautifully written. Wrestling fans will devour it, but everyone who wants to better understand this crazy country and one of its truly original characters ought to read it." —Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life
This information about Ringmaster was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Abraham Josephine Riesman is a journalist and essayist, as well as the author of the biographies Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America and True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee. She was a longtime staffer at New York magazine and its culture site, Vulture, and her work has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, VICE, The New Republic, and elsewhere. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her spouse and their cats.
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