Bruce Jackson is SUNY Distinguished Professor and the James Agee Professor of American Culture at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. He is the coauthor (with Diane Christian) of Voices from Death Row, Second Edition and author of Ways of the Hand: A Photographer's Memoir and American Chartres: Buffalo's Waterfront Grain Elevators, all published by SUNY Press.

• IntroductionPART I: PERSONAL STORIES 1. Telling Stories2. The Fate of Stories3. The True Story of Why Stephen Spender Quit the Spanish Civil War4. The Doctor's Story5. The Stories People Tell6. Acting in the Passive; or, Somebody Got Killed but Nobody Killed Anybody7. The Story of Chuck8. Storytellers' Storytellers9. The Deceptive Anarchy of Let Us Now Praise Famous MenPART II: PUBLIC STORIES 10. Just the Facts11. Stories That Don't Make Sense12. Murder, Movies, Trials, and Kinds of Talk13. The Real O.J. Story 14. Words to Kill By15. Bob Dylan and the Legend of Newport 1965PART III: SEEING IN THE DARK 16. Silver Bullets17. Loose Ends in Night Moves18. Making War, Making Movies: The Fog of War19. Filming Gatsby20. Fellini's Memory: AmarcordPART IV: THE STORY IS TRUE 21. The Storyteller I Looked for Every Time I Looked for Storytellers22. Farinata's SilenceCoda: Donald Trump's Big LieAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

From the Reviews of the First Edition"The Story Is True is an expertly written narrative by a professional storyteller, which shows its ideas through its structure as much as it tells them with words." — Discourse Studies"Jackson's book is a work every oral historian should read. It shows how stories inform many disciplines." — The Oral History Review"The writing style is warm, lucid, and informal—at all times humane and accessible … Students will love its verve and informality. It will painlessly show them the importance of words and stories for politics, philosophy, and social interaction. This book could be the sort of introductory classroom text that turns students of narrative into enthusiasts." — The Journal of American Folklore