Joel Pollak’s Wacko Birds: The Fall (and Rise) of the Tea Party is a fascinating history, an effective defense, and a thoughtful critique of the Tea Party, all in one. It’s also a quick and easy read. As a close confidant of the late Andrew Breitbart and current senior editor-at-large for Breitbart News, Pollak has an insider’s knowledge of the Tea Party. This makes him as adept at sorting through the Tea Party’s mix of strengths and weaknesses as he is at battling slanders by the media and the Left.

Just seeing Pollak lay out the Left’s view of the Tea Party is eye-opening, as is his account of the various efforts to suppress it. Pollak’s defense is more powerful for being presented calmly and carefully.

He also understands that the Tea Party’s strength is its weakness. Determined to offer genuine opposition to those seeking to expand an already bloated and spendthrift government, the Tea Party has guarded against co-option by any organized leadership. This has kept the Tea Party formidable and untamed, yet also hampered its effectiveness. Pollak’s thoughts on all this are both clarifying and helpful.

The second half of Wacko Birds features chapter-length examinations of Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Scott Walker. The Walker chapter is particularly interesting because it leads to a discussion of the Tea Party’s influence on state governments. The upshot of these chapters is to provide a primer of sorts to several of the GOP’s leading presidential prospects in 2016. Anyone looking to make sense of the next Republican presidential field will profit from Pollak’s book.

Not only friends but critics of the Tea Party will want to look at this work. A history and a critical defense of the Tea Party from a smart insider who’s mastered the details, yet keeps the big picture in mind, Wacko Birds is a contribution fair-minded readers of all stripes should welcome.