Reporters Who Made History: Great American Journalists on the Issues and Crises of the Late 20th Century

(Hardback)

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This volume looks back at the last half of the 20th century through the work and reminiscences of ten of the era's preeminent journalists. Reporters Who Made History: Great American Journalists on the Issues and Crises of the Late 20th Century looks at a series of extraordinary chapters in the American story through the eyes of ten giants of journalism: Helen Thomas, Anthony Lewis, Morley Safer, Earl Caldwell, Ben Bradlee, Georgie Anne Geyer, Ellen Goodman, Juan Williams, David Broder, and Judy Woodruff. Taking each of these journalists in turn, Hallock focuses on his or her work in the course of a single decade, drawing on the author's interviews with the journalist, archival research, memoirs, and critical studies. These exemplars of the best postwar American news reporting never took the easy path of simply restating policies and uncritically regurgitating press releases. Instead, their skeptical, independent, and searching methods of investigative and analytical journalism actually influenced the course of the very events they covered and significantly shaped our understanding of our national past.

Reviews

Hallock (journalism, Point Park U., Pittsburgh, PA) has some 30 years of experience in the newspaper business as an editor and writer. Exploring American journalism from 1950 to 2000, he examines the work of ten giants of print, broadcast, and wire service journalism, focusing on his/her work over the course of a single decade and the journalist's reflections on that era: Anthony Lewis and Helen Thomas (1950s), Morley Safer and Earl Caldwell (1960s), Ben Bradlee and Georgie Anne Geyer (1970s), Juan Williams and Ellen Goodman (1980s), and David Broder and Judy Woodruff (1990s). Combining information from interviews with the journalists conducted by the author, archival research, memoirs, and critical studies, the text is organized into chronological chapters forming a decade-by-decade history of American journalism and the country as a whole during the second half of the 20th century. * Reference & Research Book News *
"eye-opening and freshThe book's voices of optimism, coupled with a healthy dose of realism, should resonate with college instructors and their students. * Journalism History *

Author Bio

Steven M. Hallock PhD, is assistant professor of journalism at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA.