The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule (August 2008) is a book

Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...

 written by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 Thomas Frank

Thomas Frank

Thomas Frank is an American author, journalist and columnist for Harper's Magazine. He is a former columnist for the Wall Street Journal, authoring "The Tilting Yard" from 2008 to 2010....

, which explores the current state of conservative Washington.

Frank summarized the message of his book as, "Bad government is the natural product of rule by those who believe government is bad."

Frank argues that certain elements of the Republican party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 have intentionally dismantled the government by many means including turning public policy

Public policy

Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...

 into a private-sector feeding frenzy. Frank describes the current state of Washington

Federal government of the United States

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

 as analogous to a large group of privatized pigs feeding at the public trough, brought on by the privatization schemes engineered by the present Republican party.

This book follows Frank's New York Times bestseller What's the Matter with Kansas?

Web pages

• Thomas Frank's page for The Wrecking Crew
• Thomas Frank Publisher's webpage (Henry Holt and Co.)
• The Wrecking Crew's Publisher's webpage (Henry Holt and Co.)
• Bill Moyers interview with Thomas Frank
• Salon.com Thomas Frank interview "Thomas Frank on the Bush administration: Sabotage by design"
• NPR Thomas Frank interview "Thomas Frank's Indictment of Conservatism"
• Democracy Now Thomas Frank interview
• New York Post book review
• Louisville Kentucky Courier-Journal book review "The Right in power"