American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump

"A narrative masterwork. Bird vividly creates the sinister web of charm and deceit that Cohn was able to spin through his decades at the very center of power." --Marie Brenner, award-winning writer-at-large for Vanity Fair and coproducer of the documentary Where's My Roy Cohn?

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning coauthor of American Prometheus, inspiration for the box-office sensation Oppenheimer, a penetrating biography of super-lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn, whose shocking exploits over four decades have shaped the modern political era, most prominently the ascent of Donald Trump.

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the many dramas of American political life had one common denominator: Roy Cohn. In his twenties, the infamous young prosecutor sent Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair, and as the chief aide to Senator Joe McCarthy became the baby-faced symbol of ruthless communist-hunting. By his thirties, Cohn had begun working as the Mafia's hired legal gun. In his forties, he was an informal adviser to Richard Nixon. In his fifties, he partied with the glitterati at Studio 54 and visited the Reagan White House where he traded gossip with the first lady. Perhaps most significant, Cohn mentored the young Donald Trump, who telephoned the older man daily and studiously emulated not only his mannerisms but core philosophies.

Years after his death in 1986 from AIDS-related complications, Cohn emerged as a central figure in Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America. Cohn's feistiness, his surly defiance--and, yes, his charm--were frequently flourished to conceal vast insecurities, particularly regarding his closeted sexuality.

A street fighter, self-promoting hustler, and a true Zelig of the dark side, Cohn was a nefarious actor in a startling number of history-shaping events whose influence resonates to the present day.

Author: Kai Bird,Susan Goldmark
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 09/01/2026
Pages: 528
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.58lbs
Size: 9.26h x 6.30w x 1.45d
ISBN: 9781668031575


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2026
Publishers Weekly 07/13/2026
Booklist 08/01/2026

About the Author
Kai Bird is an acclaimed biographer and journalist. With Martin J. Sherwin, he won the Pulitzer Prize for biography for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, which was the inspiration for Christopher Nolan's Academy Award-winning Best Picture, Oppenheimer. Bird is Executive Director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. He has won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Duff Cooper Prize for History and is the recipient of numerous fellowships. His work includes critical writings on the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the CIA. He is an elected member of the prestigious Society of American Historians.

Susan Goldmark, Kai Bird's wife and chief researcher, has worked in over seventy-five countries--in consulting, for nonprofits, and at the World Bank. She was a World Bank Country Director in Nepal and later in Latin America. She holds a BA from Carleton College and a graduate degree in development economics from Princeton University. Susan has been Kai's muse for decades and led the research for American Scoundrel.