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Little Lindy Is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century Audiobook
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The biggest crime story in American history began on the night of March 1, 1932, when the twenty-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was snatched from his crib in Hopewell, New Jersey. The news shocked a nation enthralled with the aviator, the first person to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic. American law enforcement marshalled all its resources to return “Little Lindy” to the arms of his parents—and perhaps even more energized were the legions of journalists catering to a public whose appetite for Lindbergh news was insatiable.
In Little Lindy Is Kidnapped, Thomas Doherty offers a lively and comprehensive cultural history of the media coverage of the abduction and its aftermath. Beginning with Lindbergh’s ascent to fame and proceeding through the trial and execution of the accused kidnapper, Doherty traces how newspapers, radio, and newsreels reported on what was dubbed the “crime of the century.” He casts the affair as a transformative moment for American journalism, analyzing how the case presented new challenges and opportunities for each branch of the media in the days before the rise of television. Coverage of the Lindbergh story, Doherty reveals, set the template for the way the media would treat breaking news ever after. An engrossing account of an endlessly fascinating case, Little Lindy Is Kidnapped sheds new light on an enduring quality of journalism ever since: the media’s eye on a crucial part of the story—itself.
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“Grover Gardner’s breathless narration brings to mind radio personalities like Walter Winchell and Damon Runyon as they kept Americans informed about the investigation of ‘the crime of the century’ and its subsequent trial…Author Doherty argues that these events marked radio’s emergence…This audiobook makes for great listening.”
— AudioFile
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“Scrupulous research and thrilling insight…reveal that the news coverage surrounding the kidnapping of Little Lindy is just as historically significant as the crime itself.”
— Los Angeles Review of Books -
“Focuses on the public’s ravenous appetite for the story and the explosion of news coverage at every twist and turn…Doherty provides an academic take on the case from a fresh angle—that of the changes in media reporting and public consumption of news.”
— Library Journal -
“A gripping account of the story behind the story.”
— Mikita Brottman, author of An Unexplained Death -
“His writing style is fluid and almost conversational, making Little Lindy Is Kidnapped both rigorous scholarship and an enjoyable read.”
— Michael J. Socolow, author of Rowing Gold at the Nazi Olympics -
“A spellbinding rollercoaster of a read. It adds significantly to our understanding of how commercial media developed in the United States.”
— Kathryn Fuller-Seely, author of Jack Benny
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About Thomas Doherty
Thomas Doherty is an author and professor of American studies at Brandeis University. His books include Little Lindy Is Kidnapped; Hollywood and Hitler, 1933–1939; and Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist.
About Grover Gardner
Grover Gardner (a.k.a. Tom Parker) is an award-winning narrator with over a thousand titles to his credit. Named one of the “Best Voices of the Century” and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.