On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden took his oath of office, and set out to transform the nation. He proposed the most ambitious domestic spending bills since the 1960s and vowed to withdraw America from Afghanistan, ending the nation's longest war and reorienting it toward a looming competition with China. With unparalleled access to the tight inner circle of advisers who have surrounded Biden for decades, Franklin Foer dramatizes in forensic detail the first two years of the Biden presidency, concluding with the historic midterm elections. As the midterms drew near, Biden somehow found a way to invest trillions of dollars in clean energy, the domestic semiconductor industry, and new infrastructure. Had he done the impossible, breaking decisively with the old Washington consensus to achieve progressive goals?