Works by
Bill Bradley
(Senator, Writer)

• Life on the Run (1976)
  Bill Bradley's account of twenty days in a pro basketball season remains a classic in the literature of sports, unparalleled in its candor and intelligence.
  
  Bradley takes readers from a court to the locker room, from the seamless teamwork of a winning game to the loneliness of a motel in a strange city.  We see Bradley and his fellow Knicks as they withstand the abuse of the press and the smothering adoration of their fans, along with the shameless appeals of those who want to parlay their celebrity into a fast buck. We watch in horror as Earl Monroe is beaten outside Madison Square Garden barely an hour after twenty thousand people cheered him. And we come to understand the euphoria and exhaustion, the icy concentration and intense pressure, that are felt only by those who play basketball for keeps.

• The Fair Tax: At Last, A Proposal That Offers The Fair Tax To Every American! (1984)
  Everyone complained about our income tax system, but Senator Bill Bradley decided to do something about it.  The result: The 1986 tax reform legislation.
  
  In his 1984 book, he said we need an income tax system that:
   

  • Treats people with the same income equally

  • Eliminates exclusions, deductions and loopholes that confuse even the most seasoned tax expert

  • Renews America’s prospects for future economic growth

  The Fair Tax is a point-by-point plan for lowering the tax base, and insuring your financial future – and the well-being of our country.

• Time Present, Time Past: A Memoir (1996)
  In a memoir at once deeply felt, lively, and astute, Bill Bradley talks about his life, his country, and his hopes for the American future.
  
  He speaks with affection about his small-town, Missouri upbringing and the values shaped by it. He traces his road from childhood to Princeton to Oxford to ten years of professional basketball to public service in the U.S. Senate. And he brings vividly alive the world of a senator – the rocky road to legislation, the invasiveness of the media, the power of money.

• Values of the Game (1998)
  In 10 essays, filled with intensely personal observations and reflections, Bradley revisits the basketball court with the fire of the competitor and the eye of the writer, and explores these qualities in action: the dynamics of teammates on the court and off; the pure love of the game that leads to the unselfish pass or the screen away from the ball; the individual courage to risk the last-second shot, to face a hostile crowd, to say “I blew it”; the responsibility to teammates, coaches, and fans to stay in shape, play hard, and honor the game. In his best-selling Life on the Run, Bradley offered fans a fascinating account of the day-in day-out experiences of an NBA star. In Values of the Game, he shifts his thinking to a larger universe. He pulls back the curtain once again, letting us in on basketball's secrets - many of which, it turns out, extend to life beyond the hardwood court.

• The Journey From Here (2000)
  Bill Bradley ran for president, helped shape a national debate, and altered America's consciousness and views on universal health care, child poverty, race relations, gun control, and campaign finance reform. If anything, his thinking was ahead of the country's.
  
  That experience forms the heart and soul of The Journey from Here, a compelling call to action from a man no longer campaigning for office, but still running hard for the ideas and principles that will define the very essence of this nation.
  
  From the perspective of a year on the road, listening to Americans in all circumstances and walks of life, Bradley now reflects on the issues we need to confront head on. The Journey from Here is a call to each of us to be our best, from a public servant at his best: informed, thoughtful, candid, unwavering in his quest to "build consensus and advance our collective humanity a few inches."

• The New American Story (2007)
  What will it take to make America a better, stronger, truer country? asks the bestselling author, former Knicks star, and onetime presidential candidate. Bill Bradley believes that America is at a teachable moment when we are compelled to reevaluate our political system, our leadership, our agenda as a nation, and ourselves as citizens. With clarity and urgency, Bradley shows why the story we are being told now about who we are as a people is not true. He then offers a new story about our nation, based on America’s rich heritage and his belief in the character of the American people. Bradley explores what changes need to be made in our parties, in our politics, and in citizen activism to ensure America’s future. He asserts that the American people are ready for the truth and suggests that the party that chooses to embrace this new story will be in power for a generation.
  
  Writing from his own experience in politics and drawing on his knowledge of history, Bradley shows how the Republican Party has built a solid pyramid structure since the 1970s, at the base of which are money, ideas, and media, whereas the Democratic Party’s structure is an inverted pyramid, with too much emphasis put on the need for a charismatic leader to hold the pyramid up. Each party, for different reasons, fails to deal with the real issues that now confront America.
  
  This informed and inspiring call to action is addressed not only to the parties and elected leaders, but to citizens as well. Bradley proposes things every American can do to shape our nation’s future. He points out that if eighty percent of the electorate voted, instead of fifty percent, it would be the most important change in American politics since women got the vote. Now more than ever, he says, we need to embrace an “ethic of connectedness,” a combination of collective action and individual responsibility, to solve our nation’s most pressing problems, and he argues that the fate of all countries is bound together as never before. Writing today with the freedom of a private citizen, Bradley provides this transformative and eye-opening book about the danger and the promise of America’s choice at this crucial moment in the nation’s history.

See also:

• A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton (1999) by John McPhee
  When John McPhee met Bill Bradley, both were at the beginning of their careers. A Sense of Where You Are”, McPhee’s first book, is about Bradley when he was the best basketball player Princeton had ever seen. McPhee delineates for the reader the training and techniques that made Bradley the extraordinary athlete he was, and this part of the book is a blueprint of superlative basketball. But athletic prowess alone would not explain Bradley’s magnetism, which is the quality of the man himself – his self-discipline, his rationality, and his sense of responsibility.  Here is a portrait of Bradley as he was in college, before his time with the New York Knickerbockers and his election to the U.S. Senate – a story that suggests the abundant beginnings of his professional careers in sports and politics.