Tucson Festival of Books

The Dangerous Manipulators


Misinformation and disinformation are hardly new tools for American politicians, and these three authors have come to the festival with tales about three master manipulators: Joseph McCarthy, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.


Panelists
Clay Risen

Clay Risen is a reporter at The New York Times, a member of the Society of American Historians, and a fellow at the Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania. His new book is "Red Scare." He also wrote three previous works on American history, including "The Crowded Hour," a New York Times Notable Book of 2019 and a finalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Prize in Military History, "The Bill of the Century," a finalist for a 2014 NAACP Image Award, and "A Nation on Fire....

David Rohde

David Rohde is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of "Where Tyranny Begins," "In Deep," and three other books. He is the national security editor at NBC News and a former executive editor of the New Yorker website, where he wrote about the Justice Department, democracy and disinformation....

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Michael Tackett

Michael Tackett is an award-winning journalist with more than three decades of experience covering national politics, including nine presidential elections. He is currently the deputy Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press and is a recipient of the White House Correspondents Association’s Edgar A....

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Books:
Red Scare
Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America
Clay Risen
Current Issues / Politics / Social Science
Scribner
March 2025
ISBN 9781982141806
480 pages
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Where Tyranny Begins
The Justice Department, the FBI, and the War Against Democracy
David Rohde
Current Issues / Politics / Social Science
W. W. Norton, Incorporated
August 2024
ISBN 9780393881967
304 pages

The Price of Power
How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party
Michael Tackett
Current Issues / Politics / Social Science
Simon & Schuster
October 2024
ISBN 9781668005842
400 pages
Buy now