Media, Tech, and Politics

James Poniewozik has been the chief television critic of the New York Times since 2015. He was previously the television and media critic for Time magazine and media columnist for Salon. In Audience of One (Liveright), Poniewozik shows how American media have shaped American society and politics, by interweaving two crucial stories: The first one follows the evolution of television from the three-network era of the 20th century, which joined millions of Americans in a shared monoculture, into today’s atomized media universe which has sliced and diced American society into fractious, alienated subcultures. The other story is a cultural critique of Donald J. Trump, who shape-shifted into a boastful tabloid playboy in the 1980s; then a reality-TV figure in the 2000s; and finally, into the biggest role of his life: president. Publishers Weekly called Audience of One “One of the Top 10 Politics and Current Events Books of Fall 2019.”

Jeffrey Brown is the Eisner Award-winning artist and author of the Darth Vader™ and Son series. A lifelong Star Wars fan, he lives in Chicago. Rey and Pals (Chronicle Books) is his most recent book. What if Rey hadn't grown up all alone on dusty planet Jakku, but instead had a galaxy of friends to play with? Rey and Pals is a collection of adventures starring young Rey and Kylo, Finn and Poe, Hux and Phasma, Rose and BB-8—all under the watch of Luke, General Leia, Han, and Chewie. Jeffrey Brown's charmingly hilarious vision is sure to delight Star Wars® fans of all ages. Rey and Pals joins the collection of perennial favorites like Goodnight Darth Vader, Darth Vader and Son, Vader’s Little Princess, and Darth Vader and Friends.

Richard Stengel wrote the New York Times best-seller Mandela's Way, and collaborated with Nelson Mandela on the South African leader's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. Stengel was the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs from 2013-2016 and before that, the Editor of TIME, from 2006-2013. Disinformation is as old as humanity. But the rise of social media has made disinformation even more pervasive and pernicious. In a troubling turn of events, governments are increasingly using disinformation to create their own false narratives, and democracies are proving not to be very good at fighting it. Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation and What We Can Do About It (Atlantic Monthly Press) is Stengels’ account from the front lines of this global information war. As Undersecretary of State, he was the person in government tasked with unpacking, disproving, and combating both ISIS’s messaging and Russian disinformation. As he watched Donald Trump use disinformation, Stengel saw a pattern at play: ISIS sought to make Islam great again; Putin tried to make Russia great again; and here came Trump staking his own claim for America. Stengel ‘s account moves through Russia and Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and introduces characters from Putin to Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Mohamed bin Salman and shows how disinformation is impacting our global society. Walter Isaacson (Jobs) praised Stengel for providing, “With colorful behind-the-scenes stories and razor-sharp insights, […] the first insider report from the front lines of the disinformation wars waged by Russia and ISIS. At the heart of the struggle was the way the internet allowed people to weaponize grievances, as Donald Trump did in his campaign. Countering this trend is the most crucial challenge for our democracy and free society. Stengel shows how we’ve failed and what we can do in the future.”