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After factional infighting dominated the G.O.P.\u2019s struggle to elect a House speaker, it feels weirdly quaint to revisit Mitt Romney\u2019s career. He\u2019s served as governor, U.S. senator and presidential nominee for a Republican Party now nearly unrecognizable from what it was when he started out. At the end of his time in public office, Romney has found a new clarity in his identity as the consummate institutionalist in an increasingly anti-constitutionalist party. But as a newly published biography of him shows, that wasn\u2019t always the case.\n\nMcKay Coppins, a staff writer at The Atlantic, interviewed Romney dozens of times over the past several years and had access to his private journals, emails, and text messages. In this resulting biography \u201cRomney: A Reckoning,\u201d Coppins pushes Romney to wrestle with his own role \u2014 even complicity \u2014 in what his party has become.\n\nIn this conversation, guest host Carlos Lozada and Coppins examine Romney\u2019s legacy at a time when it may seem increasingly out of place with the mainstream G.O.P. They dive deep into the key decisions and events in Romney\u2019s life; discuss the looming influence Mitt Romney\u2019s father, George, also a Republican presidential candidate, had over his life; how Romney rationalized appeasing figures on the campaign trail he found disdainful, including Tea Party populists and an early 2010s Donald Trump; how he failed to articulate just why he wanted to be president; the many grudges he has against members of his own party who acquiesced or embraced Trump; how Romney will be remembered by history; and much more.\n\nThis episode was hosted by Carlos Lozada, a columnist for The New York Times Opinion, and the author of \u201cWhat Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era.\u201d Lozada is also a host on \u201cMatter of Opinion,\u201d a weekly podcast from New York Times Opinion.\n\nBook Recommendations:\n\nThe Last Politician by Franklin Foer\n\nNumber the Stars by Lois Lowry\n\nThe Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz\n\nHell of a Book by Jason Mott\n\nLess by Andrew Sean Greer\n\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\n\nThis episode of \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show\u2019s production team also includes Emefa Agawu and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Sonia Herrero.