Why Nicaragua Vanished

by Robert S. Leiken

2003 · Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

In 1990, Nicaragua's Sandinista government was toppled in an election that every major American news organization and pollster predicted they would win in a landslide. Why the Nicaraguan upset and why did the U.S. media get it so wrong? Through an examination of American coverage of Nicaragua since the Cuban Revolution, Why Nicaragua Vanished provides intriguing answers to these questions, and for the first time tests media coverage of a major foreign policy crisis against an independent analysis of the events covered. Robert S. Leiken offers valuable insights into how the media shapes Americans' opinions about the world, and in the process he challenges American cultural stereotypes. Beautifully written, Why Nicaragua Vanished is perfect for all interested in the media, foreign policy, Latin America, or U.S. intellectual life.

City of the Absent

by Robert W. Walker

2009 · Harper Collins

Chicago's magnificent White City will soon be fading into memory. As the grand Exposition of 1893 reaches its final day, the metropolis is rocked by the public assassination of its popular mayor. In the chaos that ensues, another murder—the savage slaughter of a Pinkerton agent posing as a prostitute in a seedy slum alleyway—goes virtually unnoticed . . . except by police inspector Alastair Ransom. An avenging angel haunted by the ghosts and mistakes of his past, Ransom called the slain detective, Nell Hartigan, "friend"—and his unorthodox inquiries into her murder are pointing him toward a fiend who's targeting the city's most unremarkable and disposable citizens. But in a great urban slaughterhouse, where foul corruption festers in every dark corner, Ransom will find himself accused of the one crime he did not commit . . . and facing the final judgment of the hangman's noose.