Street Fight : Mean America and the War on Sesame Street

Street Fight is muscularly reported journalism trained on the people and events that shaped Sesame Street from the 1990s to the present. Expanding from Street Gang, Michael Davis's acclaimed origin story of the series, this revelatory new book probes deeply into the decisions made by Sesame Workshop, the New York-based corporate non-profit that has weathered political and financial storms, all while upholding aspirational values instilled in the late-1960s when the mission-driven institution was known as Children's Television Workshop.

Hundreds of eyewitnesses provide on-the-record recollections of the show's evolution in a series of chapter-ending oral histories.

Interwoven in the storytelling are passages on time-tested friendships, courtships and marriages, the back stories of the artists who provided the show's melodies and lyrics. That, plus plenty of dish about the performers behind Muppets of Sesame Street, and how Jim Henson, decades after his shocking passing in 1990, is a spectral figure quite powerful in spirit.

Laughter and tears – in equal measure – await the reader.