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"The Forgotten" - a new book by Ben Bradlee Jr. is now available on &

Former Boston Globe editor and reporter Ben Bradlee Jr. (who was portrayed by John Slattery in the Oscar-winning film Spotlight) focuses on a single Pennsylvania county of Trump voters. He describes Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, as 'a prism through which to explore the undercurrents of one of the most historic elections in American history'.

~ Entertainment Weekly

As Bradlee relates the findings from his in-depth conversations with Luzerne voters, he avoids stereotypes and pat answers...fascinating.

~ Kirkus Reviews

This is a book that should be absorbed by the millions of Democrats who still cannot understand how Donald Trump won in 2016. Bradlee did what the brightest editors in New York and California did not assign their reporters to do-he spent months talking to white working-class Americans in a rural county in Pennsylvania, a nominally blue state, and learned the hard way, on the job, that Trump was a far more viable candidate than the elite thought. This is a real reporter's book.

~ Seymour M. Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter

The Forgotten is a riveting and empathetic portrait of a cross-section of (mostly disillusioned) people of Luzerne County, PA, which arguably gave Trump that state - and the presidency. As we near the 2018 midterms, which will largely be a referendum on the Trump presidency and the future of our nation, Ben Bradlee Jr.'s 'listening-reporting' of the stories of those whose votes shook this country in 2016 offers complex, sobering, and important lessons for the future of our country.

~ Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher of The Nation

Pennsylvania has long fancied itself 'the keystone state' - the piece that holds together the arch of the nation. In 2016, when the nation came apart in disturbing ways, this state's role was especially revealing. Ben Bradlee Jr.'s meticulous reporting illuminates the riveting story of how people who felt forgotten discovered how to get the nation's attention.

~ George F. Will, Washington Post columnist

Ben Bradlee's The Forgotten is an eye-opening look at the American electorate in the Age of Trump. By honing in on a singular Pennsylvania county, Bradlee brilliantly dissects the myriad of reasons behind our Great Political Divide. A must-read!

~ Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University

About the Book

The people of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, voted Democratic for decades until Donald Trump flipped the county in 2016. What happened?

In The Forgotten, Ben Bradlee Jr. reports on how voters in Luzerne County, a pivotal county in a crucial swing state, came to feel like strangers in their own land -- marginalized by flat or falling wages, rapid demographic change, and a liberal culture that mocked their faith and patriotism.

Fundamentally rural and struggling with limited economic opportunity, Luzerne County can be seen as a microcosm of the nation. In The Forgotten, Trump voters speak for themselves, explaining how they felt others were "cutting in line,'' and that the federal government was taking too much money from the employed and giving it to the idle. The loss of breadwinner status -- and, more important, the loss of dignity -- primed them for a candidate like Donald Trump.

The political facts of a divided America are stark, but the stories of the men, women, and families in The Forgotten offer a kaleidoscopic and fascinating portrait of the complex on-the-ground political reality of America today.

Recent News

Book Reviews of "The Forgotten"

Boston Globe

These are the folks who gave us Trump. And this is why

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Associated Press

Review: "The Forgotten' eyes evolution of white Trump voters

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Washington Post

How Trump captured working class voters and how the Democrats lost them

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TV and Radio Interviews

Morning Joe - MSNBC

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NPR's "Here and Now"

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See other interviews in Press section

Bradlee Featured in Recent PBS Documentary on Ted Williams

Ben - who wrote the 2013 biography "The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams" - discusses Williams in the 60-minute American Masters production: "Ted Williams: The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived" which aired on 7/23/18

Watch »

Watch the Boston Globe's review Watch »

Bradlee Featured in "Spotlight"

Ben was portrayed by actor John Slattery in the film "Spotlight", which won the Best Picture Oscar in 2016. The movie is about the Boston Globe's investigation into the Catholic Church sexual abuse crisis for which the paper was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2003. As Deputy Managing Editor, Ben oversaw the four reporters on the Spotlight Team, the Globe investigative unit, which produced the stories: Walter Robinson, Mike Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer and Matt Carroll.
More About The Project »

Interview of Ben and John Slattery at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival Watch »

Interview of Ben and Mike Rezendes with Seymour Hersh at the 92nd Y in New York Watch »