Jonathan Sperber: Don't underestimate reach of "The Daily Show"

Don’t underestimate the reach of “The Daily Show.”

After Jonathan Sperber, a University of Missouri history professor, appeared on the show in April to discuss “Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life,” his biography of the German philosopher and revolutionary, he heard from several old friends.

“That included the girl I had a crush on in 1966,” Sperber said recently....