From the get-go, Bird provides a thorough and readable account of Cohn’s astonishing life and career ... An elegant retelling of the lurid Cohn story, but it’s also something more ... As much as American Scoundrel is a biography of Cohn, it’s shadowed by another, equally important, story: that of his parasitical relationship with the American establishment Bird has studied for so many years. Cohn would rail against it, positioning himself as its ultimate antagonist, while nevertheless feeding off its power brokers.
Offers an effective portrait of Cohn’s role in New York society in an era when sleaze and respectability were not clearly delineated. There is a great deal of salacious gossip; readers will learn far more than they ever wanted to know about Cohn’s sexual habits. Yet despite the extent of Bird and Goldmark’s research, the portrayal of Cohn as an unbounded narcissist misses some of what his life might tell us about the right-wing politics of his era.
It’s disturbing to think that this modern Moloch might have exercised so much influence over midcentury America, as Mr. Bird maintains, with Cohn’s baleful legacy extended into the present day by President Trump. But is this a plausible claim? ... While Cohn’s historic significance is, at best, minimal, his status as a menacing specter in the minds of liberal journalists has only grown. Which makes it especially regrettable that, while Mr. Bird offers considerable detail chronicling Cohn’s colorful legal career and enduring interest to gossip columnists and magazine profilers, all the entertaining stories and lurid set-pieces are spoiled in the service of an underlying thesis—Cohn as linchpin of modern conservative politics and Trump’s Svengali—which grows less persuasive with more repetition.
I gobbled up every page ... A bounteous cornucopia of midcentury sleaze and uneasily addictive for just that reason ... As ugly and lurid as this saga is, American Scoundrel is consistently riveting, full of astonishing twists, ballsy plots, and eleventh-hour escapes from justice, like the legal version of the exploits of some Old West outlaw who is forever eluding the sheriffs by the skin of his teeth.
Kai Bird has written a magisterial biography of the notorious lawyer and Trump whisperer that is indispensable reading for anyone who wants to understand the current political moment ... Bird demonstrates how he practically invented the dark political arts of resentment and division adopted by his former client, protégé and future president of the U.S.
In this capacious and probing biography, prize-winning biographer Bird and researcher Goldmark depict Cohn as a study in contrasts, an antisemitic Jew and a homophobic gay man who was charming to his friends and cruel to those he considered his enemies. To the extent that Cohn’s impact is still being felt 40 years after his death through the persona of his prized pupil and friend, Donald Trump, this deeply researched, admirably balanced, and propulsively paced biography is key to understanding the current political culture.
Astonishing ... It adds up to an extraordinary portrait of a singular American figure whose callousness and brazenness continue to mar the country 40 years after his death.
