In this instant  New York Times  bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines Senator Frank Church, the man at the center of numerous investigations into the abuses of power within the American government. ​    “Gripping ... spectacular piece of reporting.” —Ken Burns​   For decades now, America’s national security state has grown ever bigger, ever more secretive and powerful, and ever more abusive. Only once did someone manage to put a stop to any of it. Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community. The dark truths that Church exposed—from assassination plots by the CIA, to links between the Kennedy dynasty and the mafia, to the surveillance of civil rights activists by the NSA and FBI—would shake the nation to its core, and forever change the way that Americans thought about not only their government but also their ability to hold it accountable. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and reams of unpublished letters, notes, and memoirs, some of which remain sensitive today, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter James Risen tells the gripping, untold story of truth and integrity standing against unchecked power—and winning—in  The Last Honest Man. Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography “Timely and long overdue ... This book should be required reading.” ―Tom O’Neill, author of  Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties “James Risen is one of our country’s greatest investigative reporters, and Frank Church, the senator at the heart of this book, is an American icon—a man of supreme confidence, integrity, and wisdom. The dark truths he exposed about America’s spy agencies are shocking even by today’s standards. A gripping book, The Last Honest Man is a spectacular piece of reporting that reads like a spy novel with the eloquence of great history.”― Ken Burns “A detailed, impassioned and admiring biography."― The Wall Street Journal “You might be aware that Marlene Dietrich slept with JFK, but did you know about Bing Crosby’s role in a CIA plot to blackmail the president of Indonesia? James Risen’s The Last Honest Man contains this and other volcanic gossip that might never have scorched the congressional record had it not been for the eponymous Sen. Frank Church… Church emerges in this readable, fast-paced biography as a politician of rare integrity…if you’re there for the politicking and the scandals, The Last Honest Man crackles.”― The Washington Post “Vigorous… a welcome restoration of a largely forgotten politician who navigated issues that continue to reverberate.”― Kirkus Reviews “A book that takes us back to a time when intellect and integrity won out .... Not enough has been written about those moments in recent history when profiles in courage arose from the thicket of partisanship and abuse of power. James Risen has done just that by chronicling the inside story of Frank Church’s successful effort to rein in agencies of national security that were out of control.”― Bob Kustra, Idaho Statesman “Church was that rarity among elected representatives: an ideologue fully prepared to sacrifice his career to a great cause… [ The Last Honest Man ] pairs the gripping pace of an espionage thriller with the intense research of a comprehensive and timely account of government oversight.”― Booklist (starred review) "Both paean and lament... The Last Honest Man is a gem, marbled with scoop, laden with interviews."― The Guardian “ The Last Honest Man is a vitally important, timely story about how our elected politicians—few of them perfect—can protect us from tyranny by insisting that presidents, spies, and generals follow the law. It is also a ripping good read: a Washington thriller that reliably sorts fact from myth about the Mafia, JFK, and the CIA, while re-investigating improbable episodes of a tumultuous era.”― Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 and Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan “James Risen's engrossing book is more than a biography of a hugely significant senator, more than the resurrection of one of the most influential congressional committees of the 20th century, and more than a colorful tour of the CIA's assassination plots, mafia ties and outrageous mind control experiments