Trudeau & Doonesbury

The Cartoonist Who Turned The News Into Art

By Joshua Kendall
First Dads

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Drawing on previously unmined archival materials and extensive interviews with Trudeau, his friends, fellow cartoonists, prominent journalists, and even politicians who were mocked in the strip, Trudeau & Doonesbury is an entertaining romp through both Trudeau’s remarkable life and the last half century of American history.

For more than 50 years, Doonesbury has helped drive the national conversation. The first comic strip to win a Pulitzer Prize, Garry Trudeau’s sprawling narrative featuring a host of beloved characters has reflected America back to itself, capturing the highlights and lowlights of American politics and culture with wit and penetrating insight. And as Doonesbury’s characters aged alongside their creator, Trudeau became one of the preeminent chroniclers of the Baby Boom generation.

The Author

Author Photo

Joshua C. Kendall was born in New York City. He received his BA (summa cum laude) from Yale, where he studied comparative literature. An award-winning freelance journalist, he has written on history, politics, biography, health care, and neuroscience for many national magazines and newspapers, including BusinessWeek, Mother Jones, The Nation, Politico, Slate, Time, Wired, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Boston, where he has ample opportunity to indulge his love of squash. He is currently an associate fellow of Yale’s Trumbull College. His previous books include First Dads, The Man Who Made Lists, and The Forgotten Founding Father.

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Reviews

“Garry Trudeau, the most perceptive and delightful social satirist of our times, chronicled and defined a generation. In this well-reported and -researched book, Joshua Kendall helps us understand the roots of his humor and insight.”
—Walter Isaacson, New York Times bestselling author of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk
“The nation's first investigative cartoonist, Garry Trudeau has been both breaking stories and getting Americans to laugh at themselves for over half a century. In this fast-paced, engaging narrative, Joshua Kendall traces the arc of Trudeau's exemplary career. Kendall's entertaining book will provide readers with both a deeper understanding of recent American history and many smiles.”
-Tom Brokaw, anchor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004 and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Greatest Generation
“In Trudeau and Doonesbury, Joshua Kendall offers a compelling biography of one of our nation’s greatest journalists, a man who can distill an essay’s worth of analysis, critique, and satire into a four-panel comic strip. Kendall explores Garry Trudeau’s entire life, from his early comics at Yale―where he satirized his fellow student George W. Bush―to his nationwide fame. His outstanding book helps us understand how Trudeau became a spokesman for our generation, someone who spoke truth to power while compelling us to laugh along at life’s many absurdities.”
-Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
"A compelling biography of one of our nation's greatest journalists. Outstanding."
—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
Well-reported and -researched.”
-Walter Isaacson, New York Times bestselling author of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk

Media

Here are some articles and interviews I have been featured in regarding the book:

Events

A few events for Trudeau and Doonesbury. More coming soon:

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  • Yale University (private events), February 26 and 27

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