Book Readings by Columbia Journalism School Prof. David Hajdu, author of "The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008).
“Every once in a while, moral panic, innuendo, and fear bubble up from the depths of our culture to create waves of destructive indignation and accusation. David Hajdu's fascinating new book tracks one of the stranger and most significant of these episodes, now forgotten, with exactness, clarity, and serious wit, which is the best kind. He illuminates the lives of his protagonists -- from pompous, on-the-make censors to cracked comic book geniuses -- with his own graphic powers, as well as his intense intellectual curiosity. The book is a rarity, vividly depicting a noirish 1950's America but without a trace of irony or nostalgia.” --Sean Wilentz, Professor of History, Princeton University
April 3: Boston, 6:00 p.m., Harvard Book Store, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass.
April 7: Washington, DC, 7:00 p.m., Politics & Prose, 5015 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
April 10: New York City, 7:00 p.m., Book Culture, 536 West 112th Street
April 12: Easton, Penn., 2:00 p.m., Barnes & Noble, 4445 Southmont Way
April 17: Seattle, Wa., 7:30 p.m., Nextbook, Downstairs at Town Hall, 1119 8th Avenue
April 19: Syracuse, N.Y., 2:00 p.m., Barnes & Noble, 3454 Erie Blvd. East, Dewitt, N.Y.
