{"product_id":"2940169295993","title":"American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e staff writer and bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Nine \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson\u003c\/i\u003e, the definitive account of the kidnapping and trial that defined an insane era in American history\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, a sophomore in college and heiress to the Hearst family fortune, was kidnapped by a ragtag group of self-styled revolutionaries calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army. The already sensational story took the first of many incredible twists on April 3, when the group released a tape of Patty saying she had joined the SLA and had adopted the nom de guerre \"Tania.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe weird turns of the tale are truly astonishing-the Hearst family trying to secure Patty's release by feeding all the people of Oakland and San Francisco for free; the bank security cameras capturing \"Tania\" wielding a machine gun during a robbery; a cast of characters including everyone from Bill Walton to the Black Panthers to Ronald Reagan to F. Lee Bailey; the largest police shoot-out in American history; the first breaking news event to be broadcast live on television stations across the country; Patty's year on the lam, running from authorities; and her circuslike trial, filled with theatrical courtroom confrontations and a dramatic last-minute reversal, after which the term \"Stockholm syndrome\" entered the lexicon.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe saga of Patty Hearst highlighted a decade in which America seemed to be suffering a collective nervous breakdown. Based on more than a hundred interviews and thousands of previously secret documents, \u003ci\u003eAmerican Heiress\u003c\/i\u003e thrillingly recounts the craziness of the times (there were an average of 1,500 terrorist bombings a year in the early 1970s). Toobin portrays the lunacy of the half-baked radicals of the SLA and the toxic mix of sex, politics, and violence that swept up Patty Hearst and re-creates her melodramatic trial. \u003ci\u003eAmerican Heiress \u003c\/i\u003eexamines the life of a young woman who suffered an unimaginable trauma and then made the stunning decision to join her captors' crusade.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOr did she?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47150224310512,"sku":"2940169295993","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169295993_p0.jpg?v=1763678963","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169295993","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}