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The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography


In this critically acclaimed true crime tale of "welfare queen" Linda Taylor, a Slate editor reveals a "wild, only-in-America story" of political manipulation and murder (Attica Locke, Edgar Award-winning author).


On the South Side of Chicago in 1974, Linda Taylor reported a phony burglary, concocting a lie about stolen furs and jewelry. The detective who checked it out soon discovered she was a welfare cheat who drove a Cadillac to collect ill-gotten government checks. And that was just the beginning: Taylor, it turned out, was also a kidnapper, and possibly a murderer. A desperately ill teacher, a combat-traumatized Marine, an elderly woman hungry for companionship -- after Taylor came into their lives, all three ended up dead under suspicious circumstances. But nobody -- not the journalists who touted her story, not the police, and not presidential candidate Ronald Reagan -- seemed to care about anything but her welfare thievery.


Growing up in the Jim Crow South, Taylor was made an outcast because of the color of her skin. As she rose to infamy, the press and politicians manipulated her image to demonize poor black women. Part social history, part true-crime investigation, Josh Levin's mesmerizing book, the product of six years of reporting and research, is a fascinating account of American racism, and an exposé of the "welfare queen" myth, one that fueled political debates that reverberate to this day.


The Queen tells, for the first time, the fascinating story of what was done to Linda Taylor, what she did to others, and what was done in her name. "In the finest tradition of investigative reporting, Josh Levin exposes how a story that once shaped the nation's conscience was clouded by racism and lies. As he stunningly reveals in this "invaluable work of nonfiction," the deeper truth, the messy truth, tells us something much larger about who we are (David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon).

The Queen

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Josh Levin

The Queen is the bizarre, true tale of a psychopath who changed American history, an in-depth account of how one beguilingly complex woman, raised in the Jim Crow South and molded by gangland Chicago, transformed the way we think about race and poverty to this day. Linda Taylor was one of the most gifted and most deranged criminals of modern times: a con artist, a thief, a kidnapper, and possibly a murderer. She was also the original "welfare queen." Thanks to Ronald Reagan, who continuously cited Taylor's larcenous behavior during his 1976 presidential campaign, she became the template for an insidious stereotype: the lazy, conniving, Cadillac-driving black woman who gets rich by grabbing public aid checks with both fists. The truth was worse, and more shocking. A rich and inventively reported work of true crime, The Queen takes readers back to a place and time when a criminal like Linda Taylor could bafflingly remain free.

Category - Non Fiction / Biography & Autobiography

Format - Paperback

Condition - New

Listed - 2 years ago

Views - 18

Wishes - 1

Ships From - Florida

Est. Publication Date - Apr 2020

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The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth

ISBN: 9780316513289

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Category - Non Fiction / Biography & Autobiography

Format - Paperback

Condition - New

Listed - 2 years ago

Views - 18

Wishes - 1

Ships From - Florida

Est. Publication Date - Apr 2020

Seller Description

Additional Information

The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth

ISBN: 9780316513289

Publisher Description

Tags

The Queen

By:

$4.00

Meet the seller

Discover more

The Queen

By: Josh Levin

Pango Buyer Protection

More from this seller

Additional titles by Josh Levin

'The Queen' readers also enjoyed:

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