Black Movement: African American Urban History since the Great Migration
Edited by Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar
The University of North Carolina Press, 2025
[Publication date: April 15, 2025]
Edited by Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar
The University of North Carolina Press, 2025
[Publication date: April 15, 2025]
The Great Migration of African Americans from the South to northern and western cities between 1915 and 1970 fundamentally altered the political, social, and cultural landscapes of major urban centers like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit, and changed the country as well. By the late twentieth century, Black people were mayors, police chiefs, and school superintendents, often at parity and sometimes overrepresented in municipal jobs in these and other cities, which were also hubs for Black literature, music, film, and politics.
Since the 1970s, migration patterns have significantly shifted away from the major sites of the Great Migration, where some iconic Black communities have been replaced by mostly non-Black residents. Although many books have examined Black urban experiences in America, this is the first written by historians focusing on the post–Great Migration era. It is centered on numerous facets of Black life, including popular culture, policing, suburbanization, and political organizing across multiple cities. In this landmark volume, Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar and his contributors explore the last half century of African American urban history, covering a landscape transformed since the end of the Great Migration and demonstrating how cities remain dynamic into the twenty-first century.
Contributors are Stefan M. Bradley, Scot Brown, Tatiana M. F. Cruz, Tom Adam Davies, LaShawn Harris, Maurice J. Hobson, Shannon King, Melanie D. Newport, Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Brian Purnell, J. T. Roane, Chanelle Rose, Benjamin H. Saracco, and Fiona Vernal.
REVIEWS:
“An extraordinary collection by a stellar roster of scholars. It not only marks a very significant milestone in the study of African American and US urban history; it also establishes a compelling baseline for the next generation of innovative scholarship.” —Joe William Trotter Jr., author of Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America
“Contribute[s)] meaningfully to the discourse on African American urban histories and beyond.”—Carl Suddler, author of Presumed Criminal: Black Youth and the Justice System in Postwar New York
Since the 1970s, migration patterns have significantly shifted away from the major sites of the Great Migration, where some iconic Black communities have been replaced by mostly non-Black residents. Although many books have examined Black urban experiences in America, this is the first written by historians focusing on the post–Great Migration era. It is centered on numerous facets of Black life, including popular culture, policing, suburbanization, and political organizing across multiple cities. In this landmark volume, Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar and his contributors explore the last half century of African American urban history, covering a landscape transformed since the end of the Great Migration and demonstrating how cities remain dynamic into the twenty-first century.
Contributors are Stefan M. Bradley, Scot Brown, Tatiana M. F. Cruz, Tom Adam Davies, LaShawn Harris, Maurice J. Hobson, Shannon King, Melanie D. Newport, Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Brian Purnell, J. T. Roane, Chanelle Rose, Benjamin H. Saracco, and Fiona Vernal.
REVIEWS:
“An extraordinary collection by a stellar roster of scholars. It not only marks a very significant milestone in the study of African American and US urban history; it also establishes a compelling baseline for the next generation of innovative scholarship.” —Joe William Trotter Jr., author of Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America
“Contribute[s)] meaningfully to the discourse on African American urban histories and beyond.”—Carl Suddler, author of Presumed Criminal: Black Youth and the Justice System in Postwar New York
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar is Professor of History and the founding Director of the Center for the Study of Popular Music. He is the author or editor of several books, including Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity, Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap, and The Harlem Renaissance Revisited: Politics, Arts and Letters. In 2018 he released Keywords for African American Studies with co-editors Erica R. Edwards and Roderick A. Ferguson. He is currently editing a book on African American urban history. Dr. Ogbar’s articles appear in the Journal of Religious Thought, Journal of Black Studies, Souls, Centro, and Radical Society among other academic publications. He has been invited to write for the New York Times’ “Room for Debate” and The Daily Beast, among other publications. Raised in Los Angeles, California, Ogbar received his BA in history from Morehouse College and his MA and Ph.D. degrees in history from Indiana University.Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar is professor of history at the University of Connecticut.
King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South
by Jeanne Theoharis
The New Press, 2025
[Publication date: March 25, 2025]
A Ms. Magazine Most Anticipated Book
From the New York Times bestselling author, a radical reframing of the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr.
From the New York Times bestselling author, a radical reframing of the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr.
“Theoharis shows us through penetrating research and sensitive, scholarly insight that Dr. King not only was keenly aware of the history of antiblack racism in the North, but battled it from the very beginning of his career.”
—Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The Martin Luther King Jr. of popular memory vanquished Jim Crow in the South. But in this myth-shattering book, award-winning and New York Times bestselling historian Jeanne Theoharis argues that King’s time in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago—outside Dixie—was at the heart of his campaign for racial justice. King of the North follows King as he crisscrosses the country from the Northeast to the West Coast, challenging school segregation, police brutality, housing segregation, and job discrimination. For these efforts, he was relentlessly attacked by white liberals, the media, and the federal government.
In this bold retelling, King emerges as a someone who not only led a movement but who showed up for other people’s struggles; a charismatic speaker who also listened and learned; a Black man who experienced police brutality; a minister who lived with and organized alongside the poor; and a husband who—despite his flaws—depended on Coretta Scott King as an intellectual and political guide in the national fight against racism, poverty, and war.
King of the North speaks directly to our struggles over racial inequality today. Just as she restored Rosa Parks’s central place in modern American history, so Theoharis radically expands our understanding of King’s life and work—a vision of justice unfulfilled in the present.
REVIEWS:
Praise for King of the North:
"Theoharis depicts a complex, radical King whose fight against Northern racism alternately inspires and infuriates. . . . A powerful must-read that sheds new light on King and the Civil Rights Movement."
—Kirkus (starred review)
"An exemplary history that forces readers to reassess their assumptions about America’s racial reckoning."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Just when you thought you knew everything about MLK, Jeanne Theoharis comes along and proves you wrong. Within these gripping pages we meet a public King who is well aware of Northern racism and is concerned with addressing it throughout his public ministry."
—Lerone A. Martin, Martin Luther King Jr., centennial professor and director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University
"Theoharis delivers another revelatory, meticulously documented account that revises our fundamental assumptions about American history, with critical implications for our future. This indispensable book is a vital resource for all who seek to ‘make real the promise of democracy.’"
—Alondra Nelson, Institute for Advanced Study
"King of the North is a revelation—a much-needed book that shifts and enhances our appreciation of MLK's radical vision."
—Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of King: A Life
"With insightful precision and narrative power, Theoharis shows that the struggle to end Jim Crow was by every measure a national movement. For the first time in a King biography, Coretta Scott King’s active partnership in the struggle is made clear. King of the North is a revelation."
—Barbara Smith, co-founder, the Combahee River Collective
"Fresh, electric, grounded in its research and yet radical in its scope, King of the North is a modern masterpiece."
—Steven W. Thrasher, author of The Viral Underclass
"A groundbreaking history. With deep research and brilliant insight Jeanne Theoharis illuminates new parts of Martin Luther King Jr.’s revolutionary legacy that speaks to our disturbing present. A must-read."
—Peniel Joseph, author of The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X
"A distinctive and urgently needed account of an often-under-appreciated side of Dr. Martin Luther King. Theoharis reveals new depth and complexity to the quieter dimensions of his thought in the shaping of a national and global synergy of Black political power."
—Patricia J. Williams, author of The Alchemy of Race and Rights
"In this gripping history, King of the North provides a powerful reminder that the civil rights struggle always involved more than segregation in the South. Those who seek to carry on King’s legacy today would be well-served to read this vital book."
—Kevin M. Kruse, professor of history, Princeton University
"King of the North is a compelling, carefully researched account of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s largely invisible but important and impactful activism outside the Jim Crow South. Theoharis’s feminist analysis of Coretta Scott King’s unrelenting activism forces readers to see their partnership/marriage anew, as well as other women freedom fighters who were critical to the success of the contemporary Black freedom struggle throughout the U.S."
—Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Comparative Women’s Studies at Spelman College
"Jeanne Theoharis redirects our collective gaze from the racial regime of the South to his time in the North, and the people, political campaigns, and repressive circumstances above the Mason–Dixon line. That reframing alone is enough of a reason for you to pick this book up, but Theoharis’s spotlight on the intimate depths of the intellectual union he shared with his wife, political partner, and spiritual and intellectual compatriot Coretta Scott King is the reason you will not want to put it down."
—Noliwe Rooks, author of A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune
"Theoharis demonstrates how King, with equal spiritual and political precision, cut at the heart of systemic racism’s stranglehold on the American body politic. King of the North is a necessary and exceptional addition to the canon of King scholarship."
—Dr. Lester A. McCorn, president of Paine College
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jeanne Theoharis is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College of City University of New York. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks and winner of the 2014 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work Biography/Autobiography and the Letitia Woods Brown Award from the Association of Black Women Historians. Her book has been adapted into a documentary of the same name, executive produced by Soledad O’Brien for Peacock where Theoharis served as a consulting producer. Her young adult adaptation with Brandy Colbert, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks for Young People, was included in the Best Books of 2021 by the Chicago Public Library and Kirkus Reviews. Her book A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History won the 2018 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize in Nonfiction and was named one of the best Black history books of 2018 by Black Perspectives. Theoharis’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC, The Nation, Slate, The Atlantic, and many more. She is also the author of King of the North (The New Press) and lives in Brooklyn.
America, América: A New History of the New World
by Greg Grandin
Penguin Press, 2025
[Publication date: April 22, 2025]
A New York Times bestseller
“An extraordinarily ambitious book . . . America, América reads at times as the historical equivalent of the great epic novels of Gabriel García Márquez.” —Irish Times
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, the first comprehensive history of the Western Hemisphere, a sweeping five-century narrative of North and South America that redefines our understanding of both
The story of how the United States’ identity was formed is almost invariably told by looking east to Europe. But as Greg Grandin vividly demonstrates, the nation’s unique sense of itself was in fact forged facing south toward Latin America. In turn, Latin America developed its own identity in struggle with the looming colossus to the north. In this stunningly original reinterpretation of the New World, Grandin reveals how North and South emerged from a constant, turbulent engagement with each other.
America, América traverses half a millennium, from the Spanish Conquest—the greatest mortality event in human history—through the eighteenth-century wars for independence, the Monroe Doctrine, the coups and revolutions of the twentieth century, and beyond. Grandin shows, among other things, how in response to U.S. interventions, Latin Americans remade the rules, leading directly to the founding of the United Nations; and how the Good Neighbor Policy allowed FDR to assume the moral authority to lead the fight against world fascism.
Grandin’s book sheds new light on well-known historical figures like Bartolomé de las Casas, Simón Bolívar, and Woodrow Wilson, as well as lesser-known actors such as the Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda, who almost lost his head in the French Revolution and conspired with Alexander Hamilton to free America from Spain; the Colombian Jorge Gaitán, whose unsolved murder inaugurated the rise of Cold War political terror, death squads, and disappearances; and the radical journalist Ernest Gruening, who, in championing non-interventionism in Latin America, helped broker the most spectacularly successful policy reversal in United States history. This is a monumental work of scholarship that will fundamentally change the way we think of Spanish and English colonialism, slavery and racism, and the rise of universal humanism. At once comprehensive and accessible, America, América shows that centuries of bloodshed and diplomacy not only helped shape the political identities of the United States and Latin America but also the laws, institutions, and ideals that govern the modern world. In so doing, Grandin argues that Latin America’s deeply held culture of social democracy can be an effective counterweight to today’s spreading rightwing authoritarianism.
A culmination of a decades-long engagement with hemispheric history, drawing on a vast array of sources, and told with authority and flair, this is a genuinely new history of the New World.
REVIEWS:
“An extraordinarily ambitious book . . . America, América reads at times as the historical equivalent of the great epic novels of Gabriel García Márquez.” —Irish Times
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, the first comprehensive history of the Western Hemisphere, a sweeping five-century narrative of North and South America that redefines our understanding of both
The story of how the United States’ identity was formed is almost invariably told by looking east to Europe. But as Greg Grandin vividly demonstrates, the nation’s unique sense of itself was in fact forged facing south toward Latin America. In turn, Latin America developed its own identity in struggle with the looming colossus to the north. In this stunningly original reinterpretation of the New World, Grandin reveals how North and South emerged from a constant, turbulent engagement with each other.
America, América traverses half a millennium, from the Spanish Conquest—the greatest mortality event in human history—through the eighteenth-century wars for independence, the Monroe Doctrine, the coups and revolutions of the twentieth century, and beyond. Grandin shows, among other things, how in response to U.S. interventions, Latin Americans remade the rules, leading directly to the founding of the United Nations; and how the Good Neighbor Policy allowed FDR to assume the moral authority to lead the fight against world fascism.
Grandin’s book sheds new light on well-known historical figures like Bartolomé de las Casas, Simón Bolívar, and Woodrow Wilson, as well as lesser-known actors such as the Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda, who almost lost his head in the French Revolution and conspired with Alexander Hamilton to free America from Spain; the Colombian Jorge Gaitán, whose unsolved murder inaugurated the rise of Cold War political terror, death squads, and disappearances; and the radical journalist Ernest Gruening, who, in championing non-interventionism in Latin America, helped broker the most spectacularly successful policy reversal in United States history. This is a monumental work of scholarship that will fundamentally change the way we think of Spanish and English colonialism, slavery and racism, and the rise of universal humanism. At once comprehensive and accessible, America, América shows that centuries of bloodshed and diplomacy not only helped shape the political identities of the United States and Latin America but also the laws, institutions, and ideals that govern the modern world. In so doing, Grandin argues that Latin America’s deeply held culture of social democracy can be an effective counterweight to today’s spreading rightwing authoritarianism.
A culmination of a decades-long engagement with hemispheric history, drawing on a vast array of sources, and told with authority and flair, this is a genuinely new history of the New World.
Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful
by David Enrich
Mariner Books, 2025
[Publication date: March 25, 2025]
New York Times Bestseller
"Authoritarian governments abroad have long used legal threats and lawsuits against journalists to cover up their disinformation, corruption, and violence. Now, as master investigative journalist David Enrich reveals, those tactics have arrived in America.” — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen
David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers, produces his most consequential and far-reaching investigation yet: an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign—orchestrated by elite Americans—to silence dissent and protect the powerful.
It was a quiet way to announce a revolution: In an obscure 2019 case that the Supreme Court refused to even hear, Justice Clarence Thomas raised the prospect of overturning the legendary New York Times v. Sullivan decision. Though hardly a household name, Sullivan is one of the most consequential free speech decisions, ever. Fundamental to the creation of the modern media as we know it, it has enabled journalists and writers all over the country—from top national publications to revered local newspapers to independent bloggers—to pursue the truth aggressively and hold the wealthy, powerful, and corrupt to account.
Thomas’s words were a warning—the public awakening of an idea that had been fomenting on the conservative fringe for years. Now it is going mainstream. From the Florida statehouse to small town New Hampshire to Donald Trump's White House, this movement today consists of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people and companies, who believe they should be above scrutiny and want to silence or delegitimize voices that challenge their supremacy. Indeed, many of the same businessmen, politicians, lawyers, and activists are already weaponizing the legal system to intimidate and punish journalists and others who dare criticize them.
In this masterwork of investigative reporting, David Enrich, New York Times Business Investigations Editor, traces the roots and reach of this growing threat to our modern democracy. With Trump’s emboldened right-wing coalition committed to demonizing and punishing those who attempt to hold them accountable, Murder the Truth sounds the alarm about the looming war over facts, laying bare the stakes of losing our most sacrosanct rights. The result is a story about power in the age of Trump—the way it’s used by those who have it and the lengths to which they will go to avoid it being questioned.
REVIEWS:
“David Enrich makes a compelling and alarming case in this very important new book.” — Rachel Maddow
“With the new administration already seizing every opportunity to strong-arm the press, and with stiff spines in short supply among leaders of major media organizations, Murder the Truth makes for an unfortunately urgent warning…This is a story not just about political and legal shifts, but about the power of money.” — Washington Post
“David Enrich is a keen observer of the intersection of money, power and politics… [A] granular and disturbing read.”
"Authoritarian governments abroad have long used legal threats and lawsuits against journalists to cover up their disinformation, corruption, and violence. Now, as master investigative journalist David Enrich reveals, those tactics have arrived in America.” — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen
David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers, produces his most consequential and far-reaching investigation yet: an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign—orchestrated by elite Americans—to silence dissent and protect the powerful.
It was a quiet way to announce a revolution: In an obscure 2019 case that the Supreme Court refused to even hear, Justice Clarence Thomas raised the prospect of overturning the legendary New York Times v. Sullivan decision. Though hardly a household name, Sullivan is one of the most consequential free speech decisions, ever. Fundamental to the creation of the modern media as we know it, it has enabled journalists and writers all over the country—from top national publications to revered local newspapers to independent bloggers—to pursue the truth aggressively and hold the wealthy, powerful, and corrupt to account.
Thomas’s words were a warning—the public awakening of an idea that had been fomenting on the conservative fringe for years. Now it is going mainstream. From the Florida statehouse to small town New Hampshire to Donald Trump's White House, this movement today consists of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people and companies, who believe they should be above scrutiny and want to silence or delegitimize voices that challenge their supremacy. Indeed, many of the same businessmen, politicians, lawyers, and activists are already weaponizing the legal system to intimidate and punish journalists and others who dare criticize them.
In this masterwork of investigative reporting, David Enrich, New York Times Business Investigations Editor, traces the roots and reach of this growing threat to our modern democracy. With Trump’s emboldened right-wing coalition committed to demonizing and punishing those who attempt to hold them accountable, Murder the Truth sounds the alarm about the looming war over facts, laying bare the stakes of losing our most sacrosanct rights. The result is a story about power in the age of Trump—the way it’s used by those who have it and the lengths to which they will go to avoid it being questioned.
REVIEWS:
“David Enrich makes a compelling and alarming case in this very important new book.” — Rachel Maddow
“With the new administration already seizing every opportunity to strong-arm the press, and with stiff spines in short supply among leaders of major media organizations, Murder the Truth makes for an unfortunately urgent warning…This is a story not just about political and legal shifts, but about the power of money.” — Washington Post
“David Enrich is a keen observer of the intersection of money, power and politics… [A] granular and disturbing read.”
— The Guardian
“The story Enrich has unearthed is engaging…Enrich takes readers deep into other interesting First Amendment legal battles, showing how each one could chip away at Times v. Sullivan.”
— Boston Globe
“[Murder the Truth] feels especially timely in the current political climate, amid questions of whether owners of newspapers and TV networks will stand up to a president who’s long demonized the media—and whether the conservative-majority Supreme Court could upend libel laws in America.” — Vanity Fair
“Please read this important book while we still have the liberty to publish and enjoy such tomes.” — Philadelphia Inquirer
“[This] book reads like a thriller. I read the entire thing in a day because it’s so captivating. It’s the perfect primer on the right wing’s war against free speech. If you’re looking to learn more about free speech and how Trump and the far right are seeking to weaponize our speech laws to silence dissent, this book is a must read.” — Taylor Lorenz, User Mag
“A most fascinating and comprehensive chronicle of this new threat to journalism…The ultrawealthy are feeling emboldened to file lawsuits against journalists and their publishers, perhaps inspired by Donald Trump’s giddy disregard for a free press. In his new book, ‘Murder the Truth,’ David Enrich forecasts a dangerous endgame.”
— William D. Cohan, Puck News
“Urgently relevant… Enrich is an indefatigable investigative reporter as well as a gifted storyteller.” — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“In his tightly reported book, Enrich shows how we got here. The story is not without nuance: not every plaintiff he describes is unsympathetic; not every critic of Sullivan is on the political right (and some who might like to keep the precedent in place are). In the end, though, he paints a clear picture of a right-wing crusade to weaken press protections in order to blunt scrutiny of the rich and powerful—one that is already exerting a devastating financial and emotional toll on American journalists, even as Sullivan remains the law of the land.” — Columbia Journalism Review
"Authoritarian governments abroad have long used legal threats and lawsuits against journalists to cover up their disinformation, corruption, and violence. Now, as master investigative journalist David Enrich reveals, those tactics have arrived in America. Murder the Truth is a timely and essential study of how these favored legal tools of repressive regimes are being regularly deployed in the United States to conceal the truth, discredit the press, and benefit anti-democratic forces." — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen
“This important book is about an attempted murder. With readers as witnesses, we see small newspapers killed, and editors and publishers terrorized by legal assaults from public officials who demonize the press as Enemies of the People. Yet as this riveting narrative shows, the ultimate target is the Supreme Court’s landmark New York Times vs Sullivan decision, which erected a First Amendment wall to protect journalists from being silenced by those in power. David Enrich’s engrossing, carefully reported account is vital to help prevent this murder.” — New York Times bestselling author Ken Auletta
“This is the deeply reported, richly narrated story of a war on honest journalism that disturbs the interests of the wealthy and powerful. David Enrich takes us behind the scenes of a concerted right-wing campaign to destroy news organizations financially — but the ultimate goal is to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, the linchpin of libel protection for reporters who err in good faith. Nothing less than the future of accountability journalism is at stake." — Barton Gellman, New York Times bestselling author and three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize
“A chilling deep dive . . . an unsettling look at a dire threat to democracy.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[Enrich] elucidates the complex legal challenges to fact-based journalism brought against long-established media and independent outlets by hungrily litigious politicians and corporate executives...With thousands of publications now defunct, Enrich’s probing analysis brings crucial attention to this endangered tenet of a functioning democracy.” — Booklist (starred review)
"A revealing look at a campaign intended to stifle the First Amendment in favor of those in power." — Kirkus Reviews
“Startling and deeply researched”
“Urgently relevant… Enrich is an indefatigable investigative reporter as well as a gifted storyteller.” — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“In his tightly reported book, Enrich shows how we got here. The story is not without nuance: not every plaintiff he describes is unsympathetic; not every critic of Sullivan is on the political right (and some who might like to keep the precedent in place are). In the end, though, he paints a clear picture of a right-wing crusade to weaken press protections in order to blunt scrutiny of the rich and powerful—one that is already exerting a devastating financial and emotional toll on American journalists, even as Sullivan remains the law of the land.” — Columbia Journalism Review
"Authoritarian governments abroad have long used legal threats and lawsuits against journalists to cover up their disinformation, corruption, and violence. Now, as master investigative journalist David Enrich reveals, those tactics have arrived in America. Murder the Truth is a timely and essential study of how these favored legal tools of repressive regimes are being regularly deployed in the United States to conceal the truth, discredit the press, and benefit anti-democratic forces." — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen
“This important book is about an attempted murder. With readers as witnesses, we see small newspapers killed, and editors and publishers terrorized by legal assaults from public officials who demonize the press as Enemies of the People. Yet as this riveting narrative shows, the ultimate target is the Supreme Court’s landmark New York Times vs Sullivan decision, which erected a First Amendment wall to protect journalists from being silenced by those in power. David Enrich’s engrossing, carefully reported account is vital to help prevent this murder.” — New York Times bestselling author Ken Auletta
“This is the deeply reported, richly narrated story of a war on honest journalism that disturbs the interests of the wealthy and powerful. David Enrich takes us behind the scenes of a concerted right-wing campaign to destroy news organizations financially — but the ultimate goal is to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, the linchpin of libel protection for reporters who err in good faith. Nothing less than the future of accountability journalism is at stake." — Barton Gellman, New York Times bestselling author and three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize
“A chilling deep dive . . . an unsettling look at a dire threat to democracy.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[Enrich] elucidates the complex legal challenges to fact-based journalism brought against long-established media and independent outlets by hungrily litigious politicians and corporate executives...With thousands of publications now defunct, Enrich’s probing analysis brings crucial attention to this endangered tenet of a functioning democracy.” — Booklist (starred review)
"A revealing look at a campaign intended to stifle the First Amendment in favor of those in power." — Kirkus Reviews
“Startling and deeply researched”
— Nieman Lab
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
David Enrich is the Business Investigations Editor at the New York Times and the bestselling author of Dark Towers and Servants of the Damned. The winner of numerous journalism awards, he previously was an editor and reporter at the Wall Street Journal. His first book, The Spider Network: How a Math Genius and Gang of Scheming Bankers Pulled Off One of the Greatest Scams in History, was short-listed for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year award. Enrich grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, and graduated from Claremont McKenna College in California. He currently lives in New York with his wife and two sons.
