"Joining the infatuated at campaign rallies from Minnesota to Texas, Hoffman brilliantly evokes both the hypnotic cadences of a demagogue and the misguided faith of his followers. He plunges with them down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, grievances, and alienation—without ever losing sight of their humanity. It is trenchant, surprising and profound.”

"Liar's Circus is a brilliant, riveting, funny, terrifying, unflaggingly readable journey into the beating heart of Trumpland. With the same zest, curiosity and deep humanity that has drawn him to immerse in cultures all over the world, he waits in line, finds a seat, and transports the reader to the front row of a succession of signature Trump rallies. Along the way he connects (and camps out) with a cast of fanatic rallygoers who are by turns surreal, odd, lonely, friendly, scary, sympathetic, awful-- and important. The book reads like a dream. You will consume it whole at a single sitting."

"A wildly entertaining road trip into the belly of the beast that is Trump rallies. Hoffman never condescends or dismisses and brings these Americans to life with fascinating subtleties and contradictions. Many of us have wondered “who are these people” and Hoffman answers that question with great grace and understanding. It’s a hell of a trip.”

“Hoffman often shakes his head in wonderment but rarely condescends, and he approaches his subject with scholarly vigor, sometimes quoting from heady philosophical and sociological sources while retaining a sense of fraught adventure: “If Trumpism was a place, then it was a place I could travel to just as surely as a village in the swamps of New Guinea or the huts of nomads in the rain forests of Borneo.” What he discovered speaks volumes about economic uncertainty, racism, xenophobia, fundamentalism, and other populist dog whistles that “lay at the heart of Trump’s message and his power.” A valuable portrait of authoritarianism in action and its more-than-willing adherents.”