A riveting account of one of the most remarkable episodes in American history.In his critically acclaimed history Freedom Summer, award- winning author Bruce Watson presents powerful testimony about a crucial episode in the American civil rights movement. During the sweltering summer of 1964, more than seven hundred American college students descended upon segregated, reactionary Mississippi to register black voters and educate black children. On the night...

Stephen Colbert is far more than a comedian and improv genius. As head of his fanciful Colbert Nation, the quick-witted host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report has delighted fans with his wit, audacity, and innovative uses of language and the media. In this biography, award-winning journalist Bruce Watson, author of Jon Stewart: Beyond the Moments of Zen, charts Colbert's rise from boyhood tragedy to "greatest living cultural/media critic."

A top-secret military code helped the Allies win World War II in the Pacific. The unbroken code was not based on numbers or symbols but on birds and whales and fish. This is the story of the Navajo Code Talkers, who left high desert country to storm tropical jungles, armed only with their language and a rare courage in the face of fire. Author Bruce Watson tells the story in this short-form book, which is based on interviews and oral histories by the last living Code Talkers.

Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, has been called a "cultural force," a "fourth branch of government," and "the most influential man in America." In this pioneering biography, award-winning journalist Bruce Watson charts Stewart's remarkable rise from a wise-cracking New Jersey comic to a powerful pundit hosting presidents and prime ministers, all with a smirk.

What caused the worst witch-hunt in U.S. history? What demons sent twenty innocent people to their deaths? Was it panic? Payback? Puritanism run amok? In this probing short-form book, award-winning journalist Bruce Watson captures all the fear and fear-mongering while exploring the latest historical research into this unforgettable American tragedy.

In the summer of 1964, with the civil rights movement stalled, seven hundred college students descended on Mississippi to register black voters, teach in Freedom Schools, and live in sharecroppers' shacks. But by the time their first night in the state had ended, three volunteers were dead, black churches had burned, and America had a new definition of freedom.This remarkable chapter in American history, the basis for the controversial film Mississippi Burning, is now the ...

On January 12, 1912, an army of textile workers stormed out of the mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts, commencing what has since become known as the "Bread and Roses" strike. Based on newspaper accounts, magazine reportage, and oral histories, Watson reconstructs a Dickensian drama involving thousands of parading strikers from fifty-one nations, unforgettable acts of cruelty, and even a protracted murder trial that tested the boundaries of free speech. A rousing look at a seminal and overloo...

In this groundbreaking narrative of one of America?s most divisive trials and executions, award-winning journalist Bruce Watson mines deep archives and newly available sources to paint the most complete portrait available of the ?good shoemaker? and the ?poor fish peddler.? Opening with an explosion that rocks a quiet Washington, D.C., neighborhood and concluding with worldwide outrage as two men are executed despite widespread doubts about their guilt, Sacco & Vanzetti is the def...

Modern Americans are accustomed to the insanity defense, but what if a madman shot the president? During the Victorian Era? In this brief gripping account, award-winning author Bruce Watson recounts how the lunatic Charles Guiteau stalked and killed President James Garfield, then stalked the courtroom while an indignant America watched. Guilty or innocent? That depends on your definition of insanity.

Once derided as a hopeless cynic, American author Ambrose Bierce now enjoys a solid literary reputation. Witty and sardonic, Bierce speaks to our own scandal-ridden times. His savage Civil War stories have become classics and his Devil's Dictionary is often quoted. In this brief biography, Bruce Watson explores the sorrow behind the wit, and probes Bierce's mysterious disappearance a century ago.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Jack London was the most celebrated author in the United States. As rugged as the wilderness he detailed in his adventure stories, he scratched his way up from a hardscrabble beginning to the pinnacle of publishing. But London heard his own call of the wild. From the details surrounding his conception and birth to the dissolution of his marriage, London's life was fraught with scandal. Despite it all, says award-winning journalist Bruce Watson in this ...

Stephen Colbert is far more than a comedian and improv genius. As head of his fanciful Colbert Nation, the quick-witted host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and former host of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Reporthas delighted fans with his wit, audacity, and innovative uses of language and the media.In this biography, award-winning journalist Bruce Watson, author of Jon Stewart: Beyond the Moments of Zen, charts Colbert’s rise from boyhood tragedy to...