Charlie LeDuff

We are thrilled to have Charlie LeDuff back for another event for his newest book, Sh*tshow! The Country's Collapsing...and the Ratings Are Great. Charlie will be joining us on Saturday, June 16th at 6:00pm at The Crooked Tree Auditorium. We are partnering with the Petoskey District Library for this free event. Reservations are requested. To reserve your spot please call us at 231.347.1180 or email at events@mcleanandeakin.com.

A daring, firsthand, and utterly-unscripted account of crisis in America, from Ferguson to Flint to Cliven Bundy's ranch to Donald Trump's unstoppable campaign for President--at every turn, Pulitzer-prize winner and bestselling author of Detroit: An American Autopsy, Charlie LeDuff was there in the Fall of 2013, long before any sane person had seriously considered the possibility of a Trump presidency, Charlie LeDuff sat in the office of then-Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, and made a simple but prophetic claim: The whole country is bankrupt and on high boil. It's a shitshow out there. No one in the bubbles of Washington, DC., New York, or Los Angles was talking about it--least of all the media. LeDuff wanted to go to the heart of the country to report what was really going on. Ailes balked. Could the hard-living and straight-shooting LeDuff be controlled? But, then, perhaps on a whim, he agreed. And so LeDuff set out to record a TV series called, "The Americans," and, along the way, ended up bearing witness to the ever-quickening unraveling of The American Dream.


For three years, LeDuff traveled the width and breadth of the country with his team of production irregulars, ending up on the Mexican border crossing the Rio Grande on a yellow rubber kayak alongside undocumented immigrants; in the middle of Ferguson as the city burned; and watching the children of Flint get sick from undrinkable water. Racial, political, social, and economic tensions were escalating by the day. The inexorable effects of technological change and globalization were being felt more and more acutely, at the same time as wages stagnated and the price of housing, education, and healthcare went through the roof. The American people felt defeated and abandoned by their politicians, and those politicians seemed incapable of rising to the occasion. The old way of life was slipping away, replaced only by social media, part-time work, and opioid addiction.
Sh*tshow is that true, tragic, and distinctively American story, told from the parts of the country hurting the most. A soul-baring, irreverent, and iconoclastic writer, LeDuff speaks the language of everyday Americans, and is unafraid of getting his hands dirty. He scrambles the tired-old political, social, and racial categories, taking no sides--or prisoners. Old-school, gonzo-style reporting, this is both a necessary confrontation with the darkest parts of the American psyche and a desperately-needed reminder of the country's best instincts. 

Charlie LeDuff is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, formerly at the New York Times and the Detroit News, and Detroit's Fox 2 News. The author of Detroit, US Guys, and Work and Other Sins, he lives near Detroit.

Event date: 
Saturday, June 16, 2018 - 6:00pm
Event address: 
Crooked Tree Arts Center
461 E Mitchell St
Petoskey, MI 49770
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Sh*tshow!: The Country's Collapsing . . . and the Ratings Are Great By Charlie LeDuff Cover Image
$27.00
Email or call for price
ISBN: 9780525522027
Published: Penguin Press - May 22nd, 2018

A daring, firsthand, and utterly-unscripted account of crisis in America, from Ferguson to Flint to Cliven Bundy's ranch to Donald Trump's unstoppable campaign for President--at every turn, Pulitzer-prize winner and bestselling author of Detroit: An American Autopsy, Charlie LeDuff was there


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Detroit: An American Autopsy By Charlie LeDuff Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780143124467
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Books - January 28th, 2014

An explosive exposé of America’s lost prosperity by Pulitzer Prize­–winning journalist Charlie LeDuff


Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts By Charlie LeDuff Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780143034940
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Books - January 25th, 2005

From the New York Times bestselling author of Detroit: An American Autopsy

"Except for a few drinks, nothing is free in Charlie LeDuff's blunt and touching Work and Other Sins. The laughter and wisdom are hard won, the lessons are often painful... the sad tales and wit from the bar rail are endless and timeless." --The New York Times Book Review