No comments about The Autobiography of S.S. McClure.

1 comments about Life With Ol' Mike: Wit & Wisdom on Life, Love and Happiness.

1. I just finished reading the book "Life With Ol' Mike: Wit & Wisdom on Life, Love and Happiness," a compilation of Eagle columns written by the late Mike Oatman. The first thing I thought of after finishing the book was how sorry I am I didn't get to know him when he was alive.

   What a wise man he was -- and what a treasure he left for all of us to share. The way Ol' Mike puts life into words is an absolute gift from God. I urge you to read this book, and buy some extra copies for those you care about most. Profits from book sales go to the American Cancer Society. I promise you that you'll never look at life the same way again. Thank God for Ol' Mike!

   DAWSON GRIMSLEY
   Wichita

5 comments about Izzy: A Biography of I.F. Stone.

1. Professor Robert Cottrell's biography of I.F. Stone offers startling insights into the complex world of one of the 20th century's most captivating journalists. This book, obviously the result of years of dedicated research, says as much about I.F. Stone as it does about the author Cottrell. Not only does the book depict Stone as a central character in the radical left, but also it places Cottrell as one of our most significant biographers of left-wing intellectuals (also see Cottrell's other biographies about Roger Nash Baldwin, the founder of the ACLU, and Nicholas Comfort). A biography should be assiduously researched and fair-minded, coveying its subject's contributions and conflicts. Cottrell accomplishes this, but the biography goes beyond a factual depiction, in that it also conveys both its author's and its subject's passion for left-leaning ideals. This is a brave work about a brave man.



2. The Venona decrypts of Soviet cable prove beyond any doubt that I.F. Stone was a paid Communist spy. If you don't believe me, read the decrypts yourself (do a search here on "Venona"). He worked to spread propaganda in America for a brutal Soviet regime that killed tens of millions, and he was paid to do it. When he died, his family burned all his private papers to conceal the truth, but ultimately he was exposed by Venona in 1994.

   I read this book with morbid fascination at how the liberal media touted this guy as "a Gibraltar of journalistic integrity" and "The most honest reporter in America" even as he worked to destroy our country. It's sad that even today few people are aware of the truth about this evil man who hated our American democratic, free-market values but embraced the monstrous totalitarianism of the Soviets.




3. The review you have unstarred was delivered by me to offer a sampling of positive analyses about Izzy. I gave my own book 5 stars, not 0, as you have indicated.



4. Iggy Stone was a terrific jounalist,holding the powers that be feet to the fire,as it were.Howevere, his undying Stalinist sympathies and loyalities suggest a blind eye,which discolrs much of what he wrote, for me anyway. Whether or not he was a paid soviet agent[professor Cottrell dismisses this] or not,would we be as tolerant of his leanings if he were a Fascist? Think of Ezra Pound, his vitriolic and poisonous braodcasts,and hgow he has been tarnished.Or Lindbergh.To be preached to on moral responsibility from soemone who ignored the atrocities that were day to day life in the Soviet Union is bizzare,if not wilfully ignorant.We have a responsibility to satnd up for all victims, as Albert Camus said,not to be on the side of the exucutioners. Stone was not, despite all his acumen and style...



5. Anyone who has read Stone's account of the Korean War (as I did a few decades ago) cannot be surprised at what is implied--strongly implied--by the Venona transcripts, and that is that Stone was a mouthpiece for Comintern in the US. Everything he wrote in Hidden History is not just wrong, but despicable lies...and Soviet records confirm this. If Stone had been an independently-minded journalist with a different slant, there is no way he could have been so far off on the origins of the Korean War. The only explanation for his take on it was...surprise!...it was the view being promulgated by the Soviets/Chinese/North Koreans.
   
   To call this guy an independent journalist is like calling Rush Limbaugh a socialist. He was, if not a spy, an agent of communism. And if you missed the launches of NK missiles and their nuke test lately, you missed the fruits of Mr. Stone's labor.

No comments about Man from Babel (Henry McBride Series in Modernism and Mo).

No comments about Carlos Lacerda, Brazilian Crusader: Volume II: The Years 1960-1977 (Dulles, John Wf//Carlos Lacerda, Brazilian Crusader).

1 comments about Events Leading Up to My Death: The Life of a Twentieth-Century Reporter.

1. This warm and insightful 1997 memoir by Howard K Smith (1914-2002) is worth reading. Smith describes his Louisiana upbringing, his Depression-era studies at Tulane and as a Rhodes Scholar, and his 60-years in journalism. Smith also describes covering Nazi Germany for Ed Murrow and CBS Radio during the war (1940-1941). Leaving Germany just before Pearl Harbor, Smith kept broadcasting from neutral Switzerland, writing LAST TRAIN FROM BERLIN about his experiences. After the war, the author helped usher in television news, moderated the first Kennedy-Nixon Presidential debate, covered civil rights protests, etc. Smith also describes leaving CBS in a dispute, and moving to ABC, where his fatherly voice and reasoned commentaries made him a fixture. Readers also learn his views on LBJ, Vietnam, Nixon, etc. Some criticized Smith for tilting rightward from his early liberalism (he was pro-Vietnam), but he was usually a voice of calm and reason.
   
   This book never took off in sales, but it is as warm and informative as the author. Readers might also enjoy memoirs from other CBS journalists like William L. Shirer, Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, etc.

3 comments about Buying the Night Flight: The Autobiography of a Woman Foreign Correspondent.

1. Ms. Geyer reveals her life and work as a wonderful adventure. As one of the first women foreign correspondents, she was where the action was. She provides us not only with brilliant insight into the geo-political events of Vietnam, Central America, and the USSR, but makes each of her tours an adventure. Ms. Geyer is truly a gifted writer. You have so much fun reading about her adventures, you may not realize you are learning a lot about foreign politics at the same time. This is a great book.



2. I know Geogie Anne Geyer personally. We met first in Poland in the 1980's when she covered my country after the military coup in 1981. I have red her autobiography several times. I translated it to Polish in jail, when I was a political prisoner of the communists. This woman is a unique example of an investigative journalist. If she had fought in the wars, she would become a war hero. But she covers all the wars and revolutions that broke out during her mature life.What I like about Georgie Anne ("GeeGee") is her sharp mind and toughness. She always gets to the heart of the matter. But (a unique feature) she's also a lovely woman who never looses her charm. I recommend her book to everyone who is conscious of the World we live in. DAVID MARIUS DASTYCH (60),a veteran international journalist, Warsaw, Poland. E-Mail me at: starm@poczta.onet.pl Date: August 12, 2001 on Sunday



3. Let me make two things clear: "Buying the Night Flight" is a good autobiography, and it is also the account of a woman's amazing career as a trailblazer in the field of journalism.
   
   Geyer was truly a pioneer and a real lady. As a female foreign correspondent, something of a rarity back in the old days, she had to overcome a lot of obstacles. Not only was she not as respected as her male counterparts in her profession, she was also in a line of work that's very physically and mentally demanding for a woman. What's more, as one of the first female foreign correspondents, Geyer really had no one to look up to or to learn from. She had to make up a lot of her own rules as she went along. But as she marches into uncharted territories, whether it's the deep Columbian jungles ruled by the rebels, or a hostage crisis in Egypt, she proves to us time and time again in this book that not only did she succeeded in surviving each assignment with the most fascinating stories and interviews, what's more, she's always done it with class and stylish prose.
   
   What I loved most about this book is Geyer's unrelenting criticism and analyses on herself through each situation. Being pretty much the very first female foreign correspondent, Geyer is acutely aware of her limitations as a woman. But she had also learned that there are many advantages to being a woman, namely that women are more sensitive, and are actually able to get men to open up more. At the same time, Geyer is also honest about the sacrifices that she's had to make in her personal life in order to gain the achievements in her professional life. That's another element that makes this book a good autobiography, because it's such a truthful introspective on the author.
   
   Geyer is also one of those journalist who has a strong moral conviction in what she does, and is not afraid to voice her own subjective opinion on each subject. She's unabashedly American, and carries that naive, moralistic optimism which is very endearing. It makes her book a very revealing read.

1 comments about An Honorable Estate: My Time in the Working Press.

1. QUICK REVIEW
   A simple story about the early years of the newspaper business and a young man's experience within it. Not engrossing, or particularly well written, but a short simple account that is somewhat enjoyable.

   FULL REVIEW
   This book may sound intriguing, and it is in a sense, but it is not intriguing throughout and ends up being only marginally enjoyable. It is neat to read an account of a young man's experience in the early years of newspapers, and nice to learn and see the differences between then and now. The problem with this book, however, is it is written as much for the author as it is for the reader, in trying to find meaning in why the author was drawn toward journalism and writing. The author simply tells of his experiences, hoping to find meaning by the end of the book. He does find some answers, but we aren't left with a full picture of the newspaper business back then or of his life. We are left with vignettes of his journalism career, which are nice, but they aren't written as well as you'd think they would be considering his profession was writing. The writing style is loose and simple, but there are many obnoxiously long sentences and he constantly digresses. Constantly. And then, every now and then, he starts throwing in a bunch of newspaper jargon which tends to confuse. Overall it is not that bad of a book, but it has its problems and those problems keep it from being a really good book.

No comments about Sophiatown: Coming of Age in South Africa.

2 comments about Dreams Die Hard.

1. In 1980 Allard Lowenstein was assassinated by a former "protege" named Dennis Sweeney. The two men first met in the early 60s when Sweeney was a 19yr old undergrad at Stanford. Lowenstein was a prof of Govt at Stanford and "Dean of Men". Sweeney was judged to be incompetent to stand trial by virtue of his schizophrenia. His whereabouts today is not clear but Lowenstein was buried in Arlington National Cemetery a few yard from JFK.
   
   The early 60s was a time of great change and ideological fervor and the interactions of Lowenstein and Sweeney are chronicled for us here by David Victor Harris. Lowenstein was what we today would describe as a motivator and a charismatic speaker who helped wake up the youth of the New Frontier and inspired them to go out and make our world a better place. Harris was one such youth who fell under Lowenstein's spell as a "protege" and is perhaps best known today for later marrying folksinger and human rights advocate Joan Baez. [Baez stands alone as one of the few anti Viet Nam War protestors who spoke out against the brutal postwar human rights record of the conquering North Vietnamese in the South] Of course to David Harris him for that achievemt alone would be a disservice. He like so many young idealistic and presumbaly well-off young collegians (from Stanford but also from Yale and other Ivies back east) saw first hand the segregation and hatred of pre Civil Rights Act Mississippi. Their experiences of southern racism and the establishment liberal Democrats who sought to compromise and negotiate with racist Dixiecrats of that time radicalized these students and paved the way for the antiwar counterculture.
   
   What I found most interesting about this book was the psychodynamics of the relationships Lowenstein formed with his many largely un-named "proteges". The young men like Sweeney presumably gravitated to the fatherlike figure of Lowenstein for understandable reasons. Lowenstein was in his 30s and his appeals to these young men met profound psyche needs: ie he sought out young men with "leadership potential" and then counted on them to provide him with transportation/chaueffeur services whenever he hit town on one of his many lectures to likeminded cause groupies.
   In the case of Sweeney we see a young man who never really knew his own father. Lowenstein ably stepped up to fill that role. And protege Sweeney was as dedicated and idealistic as any young impressionable altar boy could ever be in the presence of Lowenstein, a veritable high priest of mid60s Liberalism.
   Here we learn that my priest/altar boy comparison is apt indeed!!
   Allard would ask a student if he could drive Allard to a student gathering/teach-in at any of the various campii of that era which were aflame with aroused ideological passions. Allard certainly knew how to work up a crowd and the young men were eager to do whatever they could to help spread the word of their priest/father figure.
   Invariably the acolyte and Lowenstein would drive late into the night to reach their destination and eventually Lowenstein would suggest to his tired young chauffeur/protege that they stop for the night. Lowenstein would instruct the young man to wait in the car while he went in to get a room. Surprise surprise surprise!! They have only one room left and only one bed.
   So the naive and unsuspecting youth would strip down to underwear and tee shirt and lie down on his half of the bed. Lowenstein would have the other half.
   
   You can figure out what happened next. Lowenstein would invariably hug and get close up to the young man. Remember this was 1965 (or in Sweeney's case 1964!) Homosexual conduct was not as favorably or benignly viewed then among intellectuals as it is today. We cant know how many such "proteges" of the great Lowenstein endured such a maneuver since Harris seldom names them outright. Harris himself experienced a similar setup and learned that he and Sweeney werent the only young men Allard was able to manipulate into this arrangement.
   
   Lowenstein's sexuality was never clearly revealed. He expressed great solidarity with Florida homosexuals battling against Anita Bryant but never actually came out himself even though as Harris narrates many young campus activists spoke of trysts with Lowenstein.
   After Lowenstein's death Harris wrote about the "great work" Lowenstein and Sweeney had done with their voter registration drive in Mississippi. Lowenstein's fans and friends chafed at the evidence suggesting he was a sexual predator. He eventually married a gal and fathered 3 kids. One son today is a lawyer activist like his dad and worked on the disastrous John Kerry Presidential campaign.



2. This book gives a great insight into the excitement of the late 60's, and their less pleasant aftermath. It's written by David Harris, the famous SDS leader from Stamford who was one of the few to actually go to prison for draft resistance-- in the midst of which he married Joan Baez. Two other people are described in fascinating detail: Allard Lowenstein, an anti-war Congressman elected in the late 60's, and speaker at my Harvard commencement in 1969; and Dennis Sweeney, activist and Lowenstein protege-- who later murdered Lowenstein.
   
   This is a terrifically writen, hard to put down, account of the hopes and disappointments of the sixties.