**A Sunday Times (London), Best Book of 2018“A thoughtful, entertaining, and occasionally profound critical study of the texts that entertain, move and, sometimes, shape us.”—The Spectator (London)“A bold, witty, and brilliantly argued analysis of the role pop culture has played in the rise of American extremism.”—Ruth Reichl“You'll never look at your favorite movies and TV shows the same way again. And you shouldn't.”—Steven S...

A Sunday Times (London), Best Book of 2018"A thoughtful, entertaining, and occasionally profound critical study of the texts that entertain, move and, sometimes, shape us."— The Spectator (London)"A bold, witty, and brilliantly argued analysis of the role pop culture has played in the rise of American extremism."— Ruth Reichl"You'll never look at your favorite movies and TV shows the same way again. And you shouldn't."— St...

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOKS OF 2023 SELECTION“Biskind’s saga about the rise and fall of prestige television explains, in punchy, propulsive prose, how we went from Tony Soprano to Ted Lasso.” —New YorkerBestselling author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures, cultural critic Peter Biskind turns his eye toward the new golden age of television, sparked by the fall of play-it-safe net...

"A brilliant and imaginative analysis of the political and sexual crosscurrents of the fifties in the movies" from the New York Times–bestselling author (Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed).Seeing is Believing is a provocative, shrewd, witty look at the Hollywood fifties movies we all love—or love to hate—and the thousand subtle ways they reflect the political tensions of the decade. Peter Biskind, former executive editor of

Based on long-lost recordings between Orson Welles and Henry Jaglom, My Lunches with Orson presents a set of riveting and revealing conversations with America's great cultural provocateur.There have long been rumors of a lost cache of tapes containing private conversations between Orson Welles and his friend the director Henry Jaglom, recorded over regular lunches in the years before Welles died. The tapes, gathering dust in a garage, did indeed exist, and ...

In 1969, a low-budget biker movie, Easy Rider, shocked Hollywood with its stunning success. An unabashed celebration of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (onscreen and off), Easy Rider heralded a heady decade in which a rebellious wave of talented young filmmakers invigorated the movie industry. In Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Peter Biskind takes us on the wild ride that was Hollywood in the '70s, an era that produced such modern classics as The Godfather, Chinatow...

Down and Dirty Pictures chronicles the rise of independent filmmakers and of the twin engines—the Sundance Film Festival and Miramax Films—that have powered them. Peter Biskind profiles the people who took the independent movement from obscurity to the Oscars, most notably Sundance founder Robert Redford and Harvey Weinstein, who with his brother, Bob, made Miramax an indie powerhouse. Candid, penetrating and controversial, Down and Dirty Pictures is a must–read for anyon...

Bestselling author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures, cultural critic Peter Biskind turns his eye toward the new golden age of television, sparked by the fall of play-it-safe network TV and the rise of boundary-busting cable, followed by streaming, which overturned both—based on exclusive, candid, and colorful interviews with executives, writers, showrunners, directors, and actorsWe are now lucky enough to be living ...

Famously a playboy, Warren Beatty has also been one of the most ambitious and successful stars in Hollywood. Several Beatty films have passed the test of time, from Bonnie and Clyde (which confirmed for him the importance of controlling the projects he was involved in) to Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, Reds (for which he won the best director Oscar), Bugsy, and Bulworth. Few filmgoers realize that along with Orson Welles, Beatty is the only ...

A “terrific, if chilling, account” (The Guardian) of how the Supreme Court’s new conservative supermajority is overturning decades of law and leading the country in a dangerous political direction.In The Supermajority, Michael Waldman explores the tumultuous 2021–2022 Supreme Court term. He draws deeply on history to examine other times the Court veered from the popular will, provoking controversy, and backlash. And he analyzes the most important ...

An acclaimed journalist on contemporary China lays bare the country's two-decade quest for global dominance and how the Chinese Communist Party coopted what Western leaders have long considered their most powerful tool in the fight for liberal democracy—capitalism—to expand its illiberal influence worldwide.Bethany Allen, the award-winning China reporter for Axios, shows that by tying profits to political acquiescence the Chinese Communist Party is forcing...

An award-winning investigative journalist takes a deep dive into the global waste crisis, exposing the hidden world that enables our modern economy—and finds out the dirty truth behind a simple question: what really happens to what we throw away?In Wasteland, journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis takes us on a shocking journey inside the waste industry—the secretive multi-billion dollar world that underpins the modern economy, quietly profitin...