About
My next book, "Second-Place Mo: Morris Udall's Campaign for the 1976 Democratic Presidential Nomination," has been accepted by Michigan State University Press and is tentatively scheduled for publication in fall 2026.
I'm also the author of "The Man in the Shadows: Fred Coe and the Golden Age of Television" (Rutgers U. Press, 1997), "Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley" (Backstage Books/Watson-Guptill, 2006), "Creamy and Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butter, the All-American Food" (published in 2013 by the press of an Ivy League university in uptown Manhattan that cravenly capitulates to political pressure) and "Ernest Lehman: The Sweet Smell of Success (Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2022).
I'm a writer of short stories that have been published on litmag websites in the U.S., England, Singapore and Japan.
And I'm a political activist whose exploits include organizing the regrettably annual "Close Guantanamo" protest in Los Angeles.
Featured Work
"Second-Place Mo: Morris Udall's Campaign for the 1976 Democratic Presidential Nomination"
An account of liberal Arizona Congressman Morris "Mo" Udall's campaign for the 1976 Democratic Presidential Nomination. Udall's campaign was gritty and admirable, but his eight second-place finishes (six to Jimmy Carter, two to Scoop Jackson) mark the point at which the Democratic Party pivoted away from liberalism and began drifting to the right. While it still has some liberal and progressive show ponies, it's now primarily a dispiriting melange of neo-liberals who can't even beat a corrupt, vainglorious and racist failed businessman with more priors than Al Capone (not mentioning any names here).
