Shadow Men: The Tangled Story of Murder, Media, and Privilege that Scandalized Jazz Age America
Counterpoint, 2024

About the book
On May 16, 1922, a young man’s body was found on a desolate road in Westchester County, New York. The victim was penniless ex-sailor Clarence Peters. Walter Ward, handsome scion of the family that owned the largest chain of bread factories in the country, confessed to the crime as an act of self-defense against a violent gang of blackmailers who exploited their victims’ moral weaknesses. What scandalous secret led Ward to murder? Shadow Men conjures the excess and contradictions of the Jazz Age and reveals the true-crime origins of the media-led voyeurism that reverberates today.

About the author
James Polchin is a writer, professor, and cultural historian. His book Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall was an Edgar Award finalist and a Macavity Award nominee, and was named one of the Best True Crime Books of the Year by CrimeReads.

Polchin will be in conversation with Bryan Russo at the event.

Bryan Russo is an award-winning journalist, songwriter, and composer. He is the program director for Delmarva Public Media, a group of three FM radio stations that offer the coastal region a diverse program of music, arts, culture, local news, and programming from National Public Radio. 

Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes.

About the Festival
The History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States devoted exclusively to history. With the help of our presenting funding partners — Delaware Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices | PenFed Realty — as well as our program and community partners, volunteers, and donors, the 2024 History Book Festival will be full of great discussions with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. Our Keynote event is presented by Sally Mott Freeman and John K. Freeman, and our Closing event is presented by Griswold Home Care for Sussex and Kent Counties. Saturday’s Spirited Discussion, our gathering for attendees and presenters to celebrate and discuss their day, is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.

Special thanks to our Founding Program Partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library, for event promotion and production, and Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Thanks also to: the  Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion, and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.

Additional thanks to our community partners: CAMP Rehoboth, Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center,  Historic Lewes Farmers Market, Lewes Historical Society, Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth Beach Film Society, Seaside Jewish Community, and Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice (SDARJ).