American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn Biography

From Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of American Prometheus (inspiration for the movie Oppenheimer), comes this biography of lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn. Cohn was a player in a startling number of history-shaping events — he was chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the “Red Scare,” a legal hired gun for Mafia bosses, and an informal adviser to Richard Nixon. Perhaps most consequentially, he mentored the young Donald Trump, who emulated Cohn’s style and philosophies. Years after his death from AIDS-related complications, Cohn was depicted as a main character in Tony Kushner’s play Angels in America. Bird and co-author Susan Goldmark, chief researcher on the project, speak about the new book and Cohn’s continuing influence with Ken Auletta, author of bestselling books and longtime writer of the Annals of Communication for The New Yorker.

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