Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford

Troublemaker tells the story of Jessica Mitford, the fifth of six famous Mitford sisters, a British aristocrat who became an American Communist and pioneering investigative journalist. Born into wealth and privilege, Mitford—known as Decca—rejected her family's expectations to pursue radical activism instead. She fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War, became known for exposés like her 1963 work The American Way of Death, and was crowned "Queen of the Muckrakers" by Time magazine for her role in American antifascist and civil rights movements. Decca combined serious political commitment with humor and irreverence, influencing figures from Benjamin Spock to Maya Angelou. Rather than settling into a life of beauty and wealth, she dedicated herself to social justice while maintaining an anti-authoritarian wit that both challenged and inspired those around her. Carla Kaplan's biography draws on extensive research and nearly fifty new interviews to examine how Decca's self-taught empathy and hard-won transformation from aristocrat to activist shaped American culture and remains relevant today.