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Simon and Schuster
May 2011
On Sale: May 3, 2011
496 pages
ISBN: 1416552731
EAN: 9781416552734
Hardcover
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True Crime
The man who revolutionized the way we think about baseball now examines our cultural obsession with murderβdelivering a unique, engrossing, brilliant history of tabloid crime in America. Celebrated writer and contrarian Bill James has voraciously read true crime throughout his life and has been interested in writing a book on the topic for decades. Now, with Popular Crime, James takes readers on an epic journey from Lizzie Borden to the Lindbergh baby, from the Black Dahlia to O. J. Simpson, explaining how crimes have been committed, investigated, prosecuted and written about, and how that has profoundly influenced our culture over the last few centuriesβ even if we havenβt always taken notice. Exploring such phenomena as serial murder, the fluctuation of crime rates, the value of evidence, radicalism and crime, prison reform and the hidden ways in which crimes have shaped, or reflected, our society, James chronicles murder and misdeeds from the 1600s to the present day. James pays particular attention to crimes that were sensations during their time but have faded into obscurity, as well as still-famous cases, some that have never been solved, including the Lindbergh kidnapping, the Boston Strangler and JonBenet Ramsey. Satisfyingly sprawling and tremendously entertaining, Popular Crime is a professed amateurβs powerful examination of the incredible impact crime stories have on our society, culture and history.
 Media BuzzTavis Smiley - May 20, 2011
Weekend Edition Saturday - May 14, 2011
Colbert Report - May 5, 2011
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