Angry Optimist: The Life and Times of Jon Stewart

A>New York Times>Bestseller Since his arrival at>The Daily Show in 1999, 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, biographer Lisa Rogak charts his unlikely rise to stardom. She follows him from his early days growing up in New Jersey, through his years as a struggling standup comic in New York, and on to the short-lived but acclaimed>The Jon Stewart Show. And she charts his humbling string of near-misses--passed over as a replacement for shows hosted by Conan O'Brien, Tom Snyder, and even the fictional Larry Sanders--before landing on 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, Rogak reveals how things work--and sometimes don't work--behind the scenes at>The Daily Show, led by Jon Stewart, a comedian who has come to wield incredible power in American politics.…