American Scare

Florida's Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives

De: Robert W. Fieseler

Narrado por: Desmond Manny

A vital exposé for both our history and our present day, American Scare tells the riveting story of how the Florida government destroyed the lives of Black and queer citizens in the twentieth century.

In January 1959, Art Copleston was escorted out of his college accounting class by three police officers. In a motel room, blinds drawn, he sat in front of a state senator and the legal counsel for the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, nicknamed the “Johns Committee.” His crime? Being a suspected homosexual. And the government of Florida would use any tactic at their disposal—legal or not—to get Copleston to admit it.

Using a secret trove of primary source documents that have been decoded and de-censored for the first time in history, journalist Robert Fieseler unravels the mystery of what actually happened behind the closed doors of an inquisition that held ordinary citizens ransom to its extraordinary powers.

The state of Florida would prefer that this history remain buried. But for nearly a decade, the Florida Legislature founded, funded, and supported the Johns Committee—an organization using the cover of communism to viciously attack members of the NAACP and queer professors and students. Spearheaded by Charley Johns, a multi-term politician in a gerrymandered legislature, the Committee was determined to eliminate any threats to the state's white, conservative regime.

Fieseler describes the heartbreaking ramifications for citizens of Florida whose lives were imperiled, profiling marginalized residents with compassion and a determination to bring their devasting experiences to light at last. A propulsive, human-centered drama, with fascinating insight into Florida politics, American Scare is a thrilling reckoning of our racist and homophobic past—and its chilling parallels to today.

©2025 Robert W. Fieseler (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“American Scare is an important history of how Black activists and gay teachers were targeted by a legislative inquest in Florida in the late 1950s. But it’s also something more: The story of how this history was recovered and revealed after authorities tried to hide it. An important, riveting book both for those who value history and for those who want to understand the process by which history is preserved—and the ways the past impacts the present.”—Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Code Breaker and Elon Musk, professor of history at Tulane University, and recipient of the National Humanities Medal

“American Scare is a fierce and chilling book, deeply reported and deftly written. Fieseler shines a bright light on injustices past and present, bringing a censored saga to life.”—Jonathan Eig, author of the Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestseller King: A Life

“With a historian's rigor and a novelist's mastery of story, Robert W. Fieseler uncovers a harrowing, hidden chapter of American history—exposing the machinery of fear, repression, and resistance in Cold War Florida. American Scare unmasks the full scale of state-sanctioned persecution of Black and queer lives while celebrating the courage of those who refused to be silenced. Amid a 21st-century effort to erase our history and return us to the horrific politics of this era, Fieseler delivers an essential and unshakable reminder of the past’s grip on our present. This book is historical nonfiction at its finest: urgent, unflinching, and impossible to put down.”—Eric Cervini, New York Times bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Deviant’s War