A deep dive into the role that mass-appeal movies, television, videos, and music played in Donald Trump’s failed reelection campaign, including brand-new interviews with some of the major players. “A cleareyed overview of the modern interaction of culture and politics.” —Kirkus Reviews Bloody Crossroads 2020 takes a deep dive into the role that mass-appeal movies, television, videos, and music played in America’s political culture in the year of Donald Trump’s failed reelection campaign. The book also explores the impact of entertainment celebrities in communications, fundraising, and campaigning to support the election of Joe Biden. Although there existed a decades-old tradition of “liberal Hollywood,” Trump’s ascension to the presidency in 2016 triggered an unprecedented level of engagement by artists and performers. Within days of the 2016 election, a critical mass of entertainers, from teenagers to the last survivors of the World War II generation—blockbuster movie stars, art-film auteurs, Broadway dramatists, comedians, and musicians from the worlds of classical, country, pop, rock, R&B, and hip-hop—all seemed to have heard the tom-tom beat of resistance at the same moment and amplified a moral alternative to Trumpism. That level of engagement intensified with rare passion and purpose in the period of 2020 chronicled in Bloody Crossroads 2020—the Democratic primaries, the COVID-19 pandemic, the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, the conviction of sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, and the 2020 general election campaign—culminating in Trump’s failed insurrection. Exhaustively researched, Bloody Crossroads 2020 draws from brand-new interviews with Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, Rosanne Cash, David Simon, Adam McKay, Chuck D, David Corn, Mandy Patinkin, and many more. It also explores the important political activities of entertainers like Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Taylor Swift, Cardi B, Alyssa Milano, Mark Ruffalo, Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro, Bette Midler, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and Wanda Sykes. Bloody Crossroads 2020 expertly dissects and celebrates how the empowering actions of artists and entertainers helped a record turnout of everyday citizens realize a triumphant 2020 election.

Music insider and progressive activist Danny Goldberg has spent decades tuning into the rhythms and voices that speak straight to the hearts and desires of American youth. In that time, one fact has become increasingly clear: America's venerable political leaders are too often tone deaf. In this startling, provocative book, Goldberg shows how today's professional public servants have managed to achieve nothing less that the indefensible, wholesale alienation of an entire generation. 'Goldberg authoritatively dissects the disconnect between politics and young voters' - Time Out NY

A giant of the music industry grants an all-access pass to the world of rock and roll, with mesmerizing stories of thirty-five years spent working with legends from Led Zeppelin, to Stevie Nicks, to Nirvana. Danny Goldberg has been a hugely influential figure in the world of rock and roll. He did PR for Led Zeppelin; he managed the career of Nirvana; he ran Atlantic Records, Mercury Records, and Warner Bros. Records; he launched Stevie Nicks’s solo career. In Bumping into Geniuses, Goldberg shares his stories about performers who represent a broad and powerful portion of the psychic real estate of the rock and roll kingdom: Patti Smith, Warren Zevon, Bruce Springsteen, KISS, Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, Hole, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Earle, Led Zeppelin, and more. But there’s more to this story than just Goldberg’s varied career. It’s also a look at the industry itself: a business that was neither the romantic vehicle for self-expression that its most naive fans imagined, nor the purely crass money machine depicted by its most cynical critics. It was complex and chaotic—a mixture of art and commerce, idealism and selfishness—and sometimes, rock’s most gifted and influential musicians were able to transcend it all. For anyone interested in the rock and roll industry, or simply the mores and temperaments of the musicians themselves, Bumping into Geniusesis an incredible insider’s tale that only Goldberg could tell.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death comes a new perspective on one of the most compelling icons of our time In early 1991, top music manager Danny Goldberg agreed to take on Nirvana, a critically acclaimed new band from the underground music scene in Seattle. He had no idea that the band’s leader, Kurt Cobain, would become a pop-culture icon with a legacy arguably at the level of that of John Lennon, Michael Jackson, or Elvis Presley. Danny worked with Kurt from 1990 to 1994, the most impactful period of Kurt’s life. This key time saw the stratospheric success of Nevermind, which turned Nirvana into the most successful rock band in the world and made punk and grunge household terms; Kurt’s meeting and marriage to the brilliant but mercurial Courtney Love and their relationship that became a lightning rod for critics; the birth of their daughter, Frances Bean; and, finally, Kurt’s public struggles with addiction, which ended in a devastating suicide that would alter the course of rock history. Throughout, Danny stood by Kurt’s side as manager, and close friend. Drawing on Goldberg’s own memories of Kurt, files that previously have not been made public, and interviews with, among others, Kurt’s close family, friends, and former bandmates, Serving the Servants sheds an entirely new light on these critical years. Casting aside the common obsession with the angst and depression that seemingly drove Kurt, Serving the Servants is an exploration of his brilliance in every aspect of rock and roll, his compassion, his ambition, and the legacy he wrought—one that has lasted decades longer than his career did. Danny Goldberg explores what it is about Kurt Cobain that still resonates today, even with a generation who wasn’t alive until after Kurt’s death. In the process, he provides a portrait of an icon unlike any that has come before.

' Danny Goldberg is probably one of the purest, most reasonable guides you could ask for to 1967.' Ex-Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham. ' Weaves together rollicking, rousing, wonderfully colourful and disparate narratives to remind us how the energies and aspirations of the counterculture were intertwined with protest and reform ... mesmerising.' The Nation It was the year that saw the release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and of debut albums from the Doors, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. The year of the Summer of Love and LSD; the Monterey Pop Festival and Black Power; Muhammad Ali's conviction for draft avoidance and Martin Luther King Jr's public opposition to war in Vietnam. On its 50th anniversary, music business veteran Danny Goldberg analyses 1967, looking not only at the political influences, but also the spiritual, musical and psychedelic movements that defined the era, providing a unique perspective on how and why its legacy lives on today. Exhaustively researched and informed by interviews including Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary and Gil Scott-Heron, In Search of the Lost Chord is the synthesis of a fascinating and complicated period in our social and countercultural history that was about so much more than sex, drugs and rock n roll.

"In a world of rising tensions between Russia and the United States, the Middle East and Europe, Sunnis and Shiites, Islamism and liberalism, Turkey is at the epicentre. And at the heart of Turkey is its right-wing populist president, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an. Since 2002, Erdo?an has consolidated his hold on domestic politics while using military and diplomatic means to solidify Turkey as a regional power. His crackdown has been brutal and consistent - scores of journalists arrested, academics officially banned from leaving the country, university deans fired and many of the highest-ranking military officers arrested. In some senses, the nefarious and failed 2016 coup has given Erdo?an the licence to make good on his repeated promise to bring order and stability under a 'strongman'. Here, leading Turkish expert Soner Cagaptay will look at Erdo?an's roots in Turkish history, what he believes in and how he has cemented his rule, as well as what this means for the world. The book will also unpick the 'threats' Erdogan has worked to combat - from the liberal Turks to the Gulen movement, from coup plotters to Kurdish nationalists - all of which have culminated in the crisis of modern Turkey."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

"Most folks probably don't learn about Alexis de Tocqueville in school anymore, but his seminal work, Democracy in America, is still surprisingly resonant. When he came to America in 1831 to study our great political experiment, he reported that the main issues were: religion, money, sex, death, love, gender inequality, work and politics. Clearly, we haven't come as far as one might hope. But it wasn't all doom and gloom. De Tocqueville not only cataloged our problems; he also provided a manual on how to solve them. In The Art of Being Free, journalist and scholar James Poulos parses de Tocqueville's advice for a modern audience, showing us how to live a sane, healthy, and happy life, regardless of the hectic world around us. Poulos dives into the original, beloved text to see what Tocqueville would say about our relationship to technology; our methods for coping with stress; our obsession with appearances; our workaholism; and our physical indolence. He explores how our uniquely American malaise might be alleviated, not by the next wellness or self-help craze, but by the kind of inner inventory-taking that has fallen out of fashion. Like Sarah Bakewell's How to Live or Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Art of Being Free offers a vital new twist on a collection of timeless wisdom--for Americans of all ages."--

"This book comprehensively but succinctly tells the story of LatCrit's emergence and sustainable presence as a scholarly and activist community within and beyond the US legal academy, finding its place alongside such other schools of critical legal knowledge as Feminist Legal Theory and Critical Race Theory that aim to combust social and legal transformative change"--

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A gripping, behind-the-scenes portrait of the rise of Saudi Arabia’s secretive and mercurial new ruler “Revelatory . . . a vivid portrait of how MBS has altered the kingdom during his half-decade of rule.”—The Washington Post Finalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Kirkus Reviews MBS is the untold story of how a mysterious young prince emerged from Saudi Arabia’s sprawling royal family to overhaul the economy and society of the richest country in the Middle East—and gather as much power as possible into his own hands. Since his father, King Salman, ascended to the throne in 2015, Mohammed bin Salman has leveraged his influence to restructure the kingdom’s economy, loosen its strict Islamic social codes, and confront its enemies around the region, especially Iran. That vision won him fans at home and on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley, in Hollywood, and at the White House, where President Trump embraced the prince as a key player in his own vision for the Middle East. But over time, the sheen of the visionary young reformer has become tarnished, leaving many struggling to determine whether MBS is in fact a rising dictator whose inexperience and rash decisions are destabilizing the world’s most volatile region. Based on years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, MBS reveals the machinations behind the kingdom’s catastrophic military intervention in Yemen, the bizarre detention of princes and businessmen in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton, and the shifting Saudi relationships with Israel and the United States. And finally, it sheds new light on the greatest scandal of the young autocrat’s rise: the brutal killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, a crime that shook Saudi Arabia’s relationship with Washington and left the world wondering whether MBS could get away with murder. MBS is a riveting, eye-opening account of how the young prince has wielded vast powers to reshape his kingdom and the world around him. Praise for MBS “Saudi Arabia is testing the extremes of tradition and innovation, of half-baked visions and intensifying repression. Ben Hubbard’s authoritative reporting on the inner sanctums of its society offers a perfect synthesis of journalism and area expertise: the best description we have at the moment of why things happen as they do in the kingdom.”—Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Return of Marco Polo’s World

At a time when the American left is foundering, Danny Goldberg stands tall. A maverick champion of First Amendment rights, he has also been pop culture's most vocal defender against assault by anyone who uses entertainment as a scapegoat for social problems, from violence to lousy test scores. In Dispatches from the Culture Wars, Goldberg takes a hard look at what has happened to American cultural politics since the turbulent sixties, particularly in the area of censorship. Goldberg's vantage point is fascinating. As a journalist, publicist, manager, producer, and, ultimately, head of four different major record companies, he has nurtured some of the most signicant musical artists of his time, from Bonnie Raitt and Neil Young to KISS, Madonna, Sonic Youth, and Nirvana. He has made audio recordings of such controversial intellectuals as Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary and has gone head-to-head with every politician from Ronald Reagan to Ralph Nader to Joseph Lieberman and John McCain. A lively, totally original, no-holds-barred commentary on the cultural state of the union from the 1960s to the present, Dispatches from the Culture Wars speaks to those disenfranchised by today's tepid, cautious liberal elite.