Backstabbers, Crazed Geniuses, and Animals We Hate: The Writers of Slate's "Assessment" Column Tell It Like It Is

Did Lewis and Clark really matter? What does it take to become a dictator's son, or a MacArthur Genius Grant awardee? Why is baseball always dying? Answers abound in Backstabbers, Crazed Geniuses, and Animals We Hate: fifty razor-sharp, contrarian looks at today's cultural landscape.

Drawing on seven years of Slate's Assessment column, editor David Plotz has compiled a pop-culture reference guide to everyone from L. Ron Hubbard to Scooby-Doo, everything from Bill O'Reilly's secret snobbery to the sudden newsworthiness of a little gland called the prostate.

Both Mother Nature and Lobbyists are "Backstabbers." "Crazed Geniuses"? Antonin Scalia and the Cirque du Soleil, to name a few. And when it comes to the common ground between Frank Sinatra and Jesus Christ, they're "Dead, but Won't Go Away." Hilarious and brilliant, Backstabbers, Crazed Geniuses and Animals We Hate offers an incisive take on the society you thought you knew. (Did you know, for instance, that Kim Jong-Il has long been rumored to have a fondness for blondes?)