A New York Times Bestseller

Since his arrival at The Daily Show, Jon Stewart has become one of the major players in comedy as well as one of the most significant liberal voices in the media. In Angry Optimist, Lisa Rogak follows his unlikely rise to stardom, from his early days growing up in New Jersey, through his years as a struggling stand-up comic in New York, and on to the short-lived but acclaimed The Jon Stewart Show, before at last landing a job as host of a half-hour comedy show that at the time was still finding its footing amidst roiling internal drama.

Once there, Stewart transformed The Daily Show into one of the most influential news programs on television today. Drawing on interviews with current and former colleagues and with new material on his departure from The Daily Show, Angry Optimist reveals how Jon Stewart has come to wield incredible power in American politics and changed how the news is reported along the way.

LISA ROGAK is the author of more than forty books, including the biographies And Nothing but the Truthiness: The Rise (and Further Rise) of Stephen Colbert and the Edgar- and Anthony-nominated Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King. She is the editor of the New York Times bestselling book Barack Obama: In His Own Words.