5 comments about Mencken: The American Iconoclast.

1. Mencken has long been one of my favorite persons to quote. Ever since I got my first quote book when I was about 11, and have been attracted to those who are able to say so much in such superb, yet small ways...Mencken has always been up there with Twain, Ambrose Bierce, my scientists Einstein and Feynman, Will Rodgers. Notice something about this group? They all lived within the same time period: around the time my parents were growing up. Yet, I am sure if I had been alive then with my family's upbringing, I may never have been introduced to the writings of these men, especially Mencken who wrote for magazines, journals and the newspapers.
   
   I didn't know very much about him, but grabbed this book as soon as I could. Yeah, he was a greatly flawed individual, especially in his relationships with women, and with friends. Show me a 'great' man who wasn't flawed in significant ways. But here was a man who knew how to draw attention to the important problems of the time. There were a great many similarities between WWI and this time period with the Iraquian War. The wars were not the same, except in being run by those far from the front, and being paid for by the young men of our country. A lot of the other stuff has not changed. Stupid men in places of political power, such as the ambassador to Germany at that time, stated things that were totally untrue, but helped to draw our country into that war. Not that we didn't need to be involved in that war...but like Mencken, I have the absolute need to hear the absolute truth from my politicians, and from the media (which often doesn't happen now). Many of the civil rights that we take for granted, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from fear in our own homes are again at risk. Mencken did what he was in the power to do; reach the minds of Americans through print and put into plain and poignant words the facts regarding our freedoms.
   
   Mencken stood up for the rights of African-Americans during a very dangerous time period, when lynching was an accepted form of justice in the U.S. and when the KKK had way too much power. This from a white man who lived well in Baltimore. Not only that, but he helped to bring to the fore the writings of important African-American literature, and made possible the future writings of those today such as August Wilson and Maya Angelou (probably spelling this wrong).
   
   Mencken was like so many at the time, existing with blinders on his eyes concerning Hitler and his ability to control mobs. Like so many, including most Jews in Europe, Mencken thought Hitler was such a crackpot that no one could possibly take him seriously, but he didn't allow for the fact that the Allies devastated Germany, leaving her in a position where mob leadership was accepted.
   
   This is one of the most exquisitely written biographies I have ever read. Definitely up there with our local Pittsburgh favorite, David McCullough. I will wait with curiousity for the next biography from this fine writer. And I wait for someone within the media who has the ability that Mencken, Bierce, Twain, and Rodgers had to qualify our time with their journalistic bent and literature...
   
   Karen Sadler



2. Marion Rodgers has written a thorough biography of H. L. Mencken. He was a man of many facets, and they were all turned on. He was a champion of individual rights, and one wonders what he might have to say with the present political climate in this country. Although he often projected a blustry disposition, he also demonstrated a tender side as well. He appeared to be a confirmed bachelor, but he did finally marry while enjoying the company of numerous women who tried to make him their "catch". He also showed that he was quick with a quip with such examples as "golf and idiocy are the same word." There is also his well known definition of puritanism as "The haunting fear that someone somewhere may be happy." I found it interesting that although Mencken stated he was an agnostic, he would refer to God and heaven at various times. During his old age he lamented the fact that there was so much more writing he would have wanted to do and couldn't now that his health had deserted him. I rate the book four stars based on my interest level. I had first heard about H. L. Mencken through his definition of puritanism, and felt it would be interesting to know more about the man. The book was a long read, but it was worth the while.



3. Remarkably, so much of what Mencken warned about during his day is applicable today. If you were to read his columns and replace FDR with Bush you would swear he was talking about Bush and the neocons. The similarities leading up to both world wars are eerily similar to today's world. Rodgers does an excellent job providing as many details as one cares to take in.



4. A few weeks before graduating from Goucher College, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers stumbled accross the papers of H.L. Mencken's wife. One thing led to another, and the eventual result was this long, meticulously researched, and very enjoyable biography of one of the most interesting Americans to live in the last century.
   
   My purpose is not to regurgitate H.L. Mencken's prodigious and fascinating life and works, from being the first lexicographer of the American language to his phenomenal career as a thinker and wit, etc., etc. which Marion Rodgers so ably covers. Suffice it to write that Mencken's cogitations have greatly enriched my life.
   
   The one quibble that I have with this book is that she clearly is captivated by Mencken's charm - few aren't - perhaps to the point that she elides a few probing questions about the less happy aspects of Mencken's Werke. Mencken lived to write invective and provoke; many of the targets of his acidic pen, such as creationists, cult leaders, quack healers, racists, warmongers and more deserved all the sarcasm he sent there way. Mencken even established a commission to determine which state of the union was the most backward and least hospitable; the conclusion was for Arkansas, perhaps not coincidentally, the Arkansas legislature passed a motion urging Mencken's deportation. People, after all, decide what they do and in what they believe, and many people are quicker to learn when humor is used to reinforce an idea. I am sure that his harangues did a lot of good.
   
   Mencken, however, went a further, and though he was far more racially tolerant than many of his contemporaries, wrote tracts of invective against different races, which employed stereotypes that are not accepted in polite society today. Rather than insinuate that Mencken either disproved his ideas by his deeds, or that these ideas were a child of his times, I think this book would have been a lot more interesting had it asked whether it was fair for Mencken to turn his caustic pen lose on people for things which they could not change, and for which they were not responsible. Even in his day, I would imagine, it was hitting below the belt line to do so.
   
   If you want a great, but mildly adulatory, biography of the Sage of Baltimore, look no further.



5. What a disappointment. Often a writer's life presents a difficult challenge to a biographer, as the life is so often a solitary one. But there was no such problem with Mencken who seemed to be everywhere in the first half of the 20th century. Let's hope the publication of this does not dissuade anyone from attempting to write the definitive biography of Mencken because this is clearly not it.
   
   It feels as if it was written in accordance with a rigid, cookie cutter outline that allowed a chapter for every aspect of the author's life, and permits neither judgements or digressions. Redecorating his Baltimore house is given the same weight as the Scopes trial. Mencken very quickly went from a cub reporter at a Baltimore newspaper to the most famous reporter in America, but it seems to just naturally happen, almost accidentially.
   
   Also, the author is somewhat of an apologist for Mencken. The nation's top reporter missed the finale of the biggest story of his career when he left the Scopes trial early. As a result, he missed Clarence Darrow's devastating cross examination of William Jennings Bryan, when, as the joke goes, Darrow proved the theroy of evolution by making a monkey out of William Jennings Bryan. The author accepts Mencken's explaination that he was needed at the paper and moves on. Also, Mencken's German ancestry seems to be the cause of a blind spot during the two World Wars tht occurred during this lifetime.
   
   Just not a very strong biography about an author whose life almost cries out for one NOW.

No comments about Herb Caen's San Francisco: 1976-1991.

No comments about Ten Days that Shook the World.

5 comments about Malcolm Muggeridge: A Biography.

1. Malcom Muggeridge (1903-1990), British writer and social critic, was one of the most brilliant controversialists and media personalities of his generation. This new biography draws on unpublished diaries, correspondence, interviews, and Muggeridge's prolific writings to chronicle the long and turbulent life of this legendary figure.

   "Wolfe's book is bound to become the definitive biography of Muggeridge." Publisher's Weekly

   "Wolfe has entered his subject's life in the most unobtrusive and salutary way, by adopting the attitude of a servant, so that the reader rides at the turbulent center of one of the most quixotic, troubled, and fascinating figures of twentieth-century Christendom. This biography is both an inspiration and a call to repentance to any who think they can exist as 'carnal' Christians. There's hardly anything Muggeridge didn't try until the Lord laid him low. Wolfe's work will be the standard for Muggeridge studies for years to come." Larry Wiowode, author of Poppa John




2. What an incredible mind! Muggeridge's depth of vision is laid before us, his words powerfully used. It would be accurate to say that he "licked the earth" for most of his life and we are given convictingly honest insight into how this part of his life played out. The Lord had something else in mind and it was a long, slow process for Muggeridge to finally come to Christian faith. Bogged down a bit in the middle for my taste, but such a satisfactory read; couldn't put it down for long.



3. Malcolm Muggeridge is a literary icon of sorts, a man who called Orwell, Greene and Powell friends, whose image was displayed in Madame Tussaud's Waxworks Museum in London, who was a celebrity editor and tv personality in Britain for much of his life. Yet, it is the final journey of his life, toward spiritual growth and faith, that makes him a lasting figure on the literary scene, and one of the most celebrated Christian writers of the century. Gregory Wolfe's able biography takes us through his literary and spiritual journey, from the dark days of his infidelities and his contemplation of suicide to his saintly days as promoter of Mother Teresea and debater of Bill Buckley. Wolfe introduces us to a wonderful thinker and pundit, and does so without pulling punches, but I would also recommend Muggeridge's own Chronciles of Wasted Time. A shame he never completed the final part of this memoir, for it is a classic in the confessional genre.



4. A very strongly recommended addition to academic and community library collections, Malcolm Muggeridge: A Biography is a straightforward study of the life and impact of Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), a British writer and social critic at the center of controversy for his generation. In his creation of an absorbing portrait of a man did not shy from speaking out, biographer Gregory Wolfe has created an informed and definitive presentation on one of the most influential minds of the 20th Century.



5. Gregory Wolfe is a buoyant and dexterous writer who obviously loved Malcolm Muggeridge. This biography is a very thorough, fair, even warts-and-all account of the life of the great British writer and television host. Unfortunately, it is also more than that. Wolfe spares little effort in gratuitously reaffirming what he believes Muggeridge's political and religious agenda to have been, and spoils what should have been a straightforward biography with frequent little plugs for American conservative political prejudices. The result is that Muggeridge -- a lifelong critic of institutional fundamentalism in all its guises -- emerges from Wolfe's embrace as a kind of born-again neo-con. Muggeridge was not the only 20th century young socialist sympathizer to have had his utopianism later crash on the rocks of Stalin's crimes, but his own accounts of his journey from material idealist to spiritually minded skeptic are certainly the most entertaining to date in the English language.
   
   Wolfe, however, gives us few insights into Muggeridge's literary achievement, because he is too busy trying to position Muggeridge as some kind of raging bull against liberalism -- which, Wolfe editorializes, "opened the way for moral and social anarchy." Not only that, liberals also dismantled "the moral and cultural traditions of the West," Wolfe claims, and ushered in a "coarsening of attitude towards life," which featured (he says Muggeridge believed) terrible things like rising auto accident fatalities and factory farms for livestock. Leaving aside the fact that the beef industry or traffic laws have not been major targets of British or American conservatives, Wolfe's little jeremiads against liberalism fit uneasily into a biography of a man whose ethos was at odds with ossified, rigid belief systems of almost any kind. Muggeridge skirmished cheerfully with bombast wherever he found it, especially when it came from the pulpit or from politicians. He gave us, brilliantly, what all societies need: a skepticism administered with laughter. He always celebrated the simplest, least self-righteous of Christians, as well as the idea of Christendom, which surely to him meant a civilization of grace and acceptance, not polarization and intolerance -- which are often the hallmarks of how contemporary American conservatism is practiced. If Mr. Wolfe had written a book less intolerant of those whose political views he rejects, it would have more easily reflected the spirit of the man he celebrates.

1 comments about Politicians Are People, Too.

1. Whether you are intereted in politics or not, this book is very informative about a lot of interesting people who make up a part of our history - from Joe DiMaggio to President Bush. Richard Benedetto also presents a very interesting biography of himself and how USA Today first started. He also gives you insight into his writing philosophy and how he depicts those persons in the public eye - with fairness.

No comments about Life of Lorena Hickok E. R.'s Friend.

5 comments about Happy Days Were Here Again: Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist.

1. As I read this book, I laughed, I cheered, and, most amazingly, I remembered. WFB's resume gives him a wide range of ideas from which to draw, all of which do seem to find their way into his work, and serve to make the most mundane of topics worthwhile. As a conservative commentator, he is without peer, so you who would buy this book will gain insight. But what I found most valuable was that Mr. Buckley's writings don't just remind me of the past, they create memories of the moods, the voices; the hysteria when Reagan said "evil empire", the absolute shock when the Wall fell, the absurdity of Senator Weicker, and so on. I was at West Point in the late Eighties, and so got most of my news, as Mr. Whiting will attest, from the New York Times, and this helps me remember that there are more than just my former service mates and left-wing journalists in the world. And finally, those of you who just can't stand WFB's mannerisms and delivery, it's not an audio book, and you can put whatever soundtrack you want to it, and have full control of the dosage.



2. This is a fine collection of the thoughts and witticisms of William F Buckley. It covers most any area that Mr. Buckley holds an Interest whether it be politics, social affairs, sailing, classical music and spending time with dignitaries and well to do people. It is fantastically written (as can be expected from Buckley) however it seemed to talk just over the head of the common man. With his infatuation with the Ryder Cup and talking about people who are important to him, really have no impact on my life. All in all it is a very well written fast paced collection. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys political and social commentary. And to anyone who just like to read something different than a novel or text of history.
   Thanks For Your Time:
   T



3. William F. Buckley is unquestionably one of the most articulate and knowledgeable American debaters of the second half of the twentieth century. Buckley seems to know a little bit--if not a lot--about everything, and he reflects and gives observations about various topics in this collection of essays from the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s.

   As an author, Buckley is unfailingly witty and acerbic, and this book is littered with quips and sapient remarks. Buckley is particularly good at analyzing other peoples' positions, and at poking holes in their poor logic. That is where this book succeeds.

   This book occasionally fails when Buckley attempts to elucidate his own position on an issue. For instance, in one essay Buckley suggests that Beethoven is "a national monument" and should be entitled to governmental protection, so that vacationers can listen to the great composer's symphonies when they are traveling in non-cosmopolitan areas. My suggestion to Buckley would be to rent a car with a tape deck or cd player. It is not necessary for the government to mandate all-Beethoven channels in all cities and towns in order for citizens to listen to Beethoven when they are on vacation.

   In another essay Buckley spells out the case for allowing women to serve in the military, but then says that he takes the opposite position. His explanation for why he is against women serving in the military is vague. He says that allowing women to join the armed forces is repugnant to "human nature," which leads one to wonder how Buckley would respond to someone who believes that what he calls "human nature" is an artificial construct. Maybe he did not provide a response to that question because of spacial constraints, but I think that if he is going to base a policy position on human nature, he should provide readers with some sort of idea of what his theory of human nature is.
   I hope that I have not accentuated the negative too much in this review, because Buckley truly is a wonderful writer and an interesting read. He has opinions about everything, and he is fun to read not only for what he has to say, but also for how he says it. His vocabulary is expansive and his word-choices are colorful. This book should be read by anyone who wants intelligent and fiercely-opinionated commentary on newsworthy events, and the various parties involved, from 1985 to 1992.




4. This is Buckley at his acerbic best on subjects as varied as John Lennon, Ted Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor to academia, Gorbachev and The First Gulf War.

   It's always illuminating and stimulating to explore the brain of one of America's foremost conservative thinkers and as these essays drift more into history, his insights and deliberations become astounding in their perspicacity and accuracy.

   These essays cover everything from the fall of communism, the Los Angeles riots, Playboy magazine and lots more. The time spent reading this delightful paperback is time spent in the company of charming brilliance.




5. The book came in expected condition. They shipped quickly and did a great job.

5 comments about Murrow: His Life and Times (Communications and Media Studies, No. 1).

1. By the time most of us baby boomers were old enough to watch more substantive television fare than Felix the Cat, Edward R. Murrow was an aging icon without portfolio. He did not have the regular exposure of a Douglas Edwards, Chet Huntley, or David Brinkley. He would on occasion do spectacular work-as elementary school students we would discuss his "Harvest of Shame" documentary on the sufferings of migrant farm workers. But it was from our parents and older relatives that we inherited something of a sense of his importance in an earlier time, in the same fashion that they might speak of a Bob Taft or an Adlai Stevenson.

   What we could not know in 1959, what biographer A.M. Sperber makes abundantly clear, is that we were watching the shell of a driven man who had exhausted his incredible stores of emotional energy to international cooperation, then to radio coverage of the horrors of World War II, and on to shape the formation of the CBS new department during the explosion of the television era and the age of McCarthy. Sperber traces the rise and decline of this charismatic, almost manic, entrepreneur from the most unlikely of origins, that of a lumberjack named Egbert who quickly realized the liabilities of his given name in the male work camps of Washington State.

   Egbert, now Edward, chopped wood only long enough to scratch and claw his way into Washington State College. A student with fingers in many campus pies, he joined an organization called the International Institute of Education in 1931. The IIE in the early 1930's was a form of college student exchange program, one of its sponsors being the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time Columbia Broadcast System. When Murrow spoke at a West Coast gathering of IIE representatives, he earned himself election to the national office of the IIE in New York, a paid position there, and free air time on CBS radio. Murrow produced Sunday afternoon radio lectures and round table discussions, demonstrating a flair for attracting international speakers. As Murrow learned more about the plight of Jews in Germany from reporter [and later close friend] William Shirer, he used the machinery of the IIE in the United States to rescue as many Jewish intellectuals as possible and place them in American colleges. It was a tactic not universally appreciated, nor would his close cooperation with the Russians be forgotten by J. Edgar Hoover.

   By the beginning of the Battle of Britain, Murrow was assigned full time by CBS to provide radio coverage of Hitler's assaults and to coordinate the company's European reporting network. It is impossible to capsulize here the horrors of those eighteen months for Murrow and for England generally, when every night brought a terror at least as awful as the World Trade Center bombing. Murrow created a network of European radio correspondents-many of whom would become household names in their own rights. He overcame industry biases against putting reporters on the air and using taped reports from the fields. But most of all, he revolutionized the very style of radio news into "factual storytelling" by his nightly accounts of German bombings that by happenstance occurred during the East Coast's prime time 7 P.M. radio news hour. Later, as the theater of war shifted east, Murrow was among the first western reporters to see first hand an operating extermination camp. He could not bring himself to talk about it over the air for several days.

   Murrow returned to CBS in New York a conquering hero of sorts, the network's hottest property. Sperber does a good job in explaining why the postwar Murrow-CBS marriage was a stormy one. For one thing, the war years had reshaped Murrow into a cross between an Old Testament prophet and a posttraumatic stress sufferer. He would never be quite at home in an industry moving toward television, increased advertising dependence, and escapism. Secondly, Murrow was too much the prophet to claim objectivity. He would never be confused with, say, Bob Trout. Long before Woodward and Bernstein, Murrow crafted the art of investigative reporting for a presumably concerned nation, particularly through the medium of his weekly "See It Now" series, a rough and tumble forerunner of "60 Minutes." His most controversial television piece, his hour-long exposure of Joe McCarthy, was out and out editorializing, albeit accurate. In Murrow's mind, he was serving the common good. Others were not so sure. Thirdly, Murrow himself had a past that made him a potential network liability. When he produced his "Harvest of Shame" documentary, for example, hardly a paean for capitalism, those with long memories would recall his enthusiastic embrace of Russian intellectuals in the late 1930's with the IIE.

   The great irony in the breakup of Murrow and CBS is that the deciding infidelity may possibly have been unintentional. In 1960, with quiz show scandals threatening the credibility of the television industry, CBS President Frank Stanton announced a policy to eliminate the appearance of deceit in any of his network's programming, not just quiz shows. When pressed as to the extent of this policy, the network cited other programming, including rather surprisingly Murrow's own "Person to Person" prime time home visits to celebrities. In one reading of this event, Stanton may have simply been protesting the pre-scripting of interview questions and the staged walk-through of the homes. Or, there may have been a subtler message. A young Harry Reasoner inquired of Murrow on air, in so many words, "why are you, the Jeremiah of the industry, wasting precious prime time with the innocuous drivel of fighters and starlets?"

   Unlike Reasoner and Howard K. Smith, who felt no compunction about switching networks, Murrow lived and died CBS. Illness and ultimately death interrupted his stint as window dressing for the Kennedy administration in 1965. Perhaps his prodigious cigarette smoking had finally claimed him. More likely, it was the pressure of living so many lives in one frail human shell.




2. Since its publication in 1986, no other biography on Edward R. Murrow has been written that can depose A.M. Sperber's magnificent work. "Murrow: His Life and Times" is, by far, the best biography written to date on America's first, and possibly last, great broadcasting journalist.
   
   Sperber's book captures the essence of Murrow's life from a young intellectual to his rise from college campuses to directorship of the "Institute of International Education" and to Murrow's début at CBS where he broadcasted the bombing of London during World War II. It was during this period that Murrow demonstrated, so clearly, his finesse with the American audience as they listened to his broadcast of the traumatic events as they unfolded in World War II Europe.
   
   Sperber's methodical research, numerous interviews, attention to detail, and her writing give the reader a close and personal look at the extraordinary triumphs and tragedies that made up Murrow's life. Readers are able to follow Murrow's footsteps and virtually see into his world, as he became the voice of World War II and the voice for America. Murrow's denunciation of Senator Joseph McCarthy's treatment of Americans during the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) hearings set into motion the senator's decline and closed a dark chapter in American politics -- all with his rational, yet forceful manner of speaking.
   
   Sperber writes of Murrow's journalistic integrity and his struggles for openness and frankness in the media -- ideals that brought Murrow into constant conflict with CBS. The author also illustrates Murrow's battle with tobacco addiction - an addiction that would have devastating affects on Murrow's health. An entire life flawlessly researched and written in 705 captivating pages that will embrace readers today as it did when the book was first published 1986. After reading Sperber's book the reader will understand why CBS headquarters in New York City still displays a plaque in their lobby which contains the image of Murrow and the inscription: "He set standards of excellence that remain unsurpassed."
   
   "Murrow: His Life and Times" should be required reading for students of communications and those working in media. There is no better chronicle of America's greatest broadcasting journalist. Readers will find this book hard to put down once they begin reading it. It is superb in every respect and the very best biography on Edward R. Murrow.



3. Thank Heaven that this book - long out of print, I had my copy nailed down - has now been re-issued, and thank Heaven for the current renaissance in interest in this magnificent journalist and iconic human being. Murrow's speech to camera at the end of the McCarthy expose ought, if there is any justice, to be committed to memory by every American in the same way that the Gettysburg address is now.
   
   As for the book itself - well, I bought my first copy in the early 1980s, Murrow having been a childhood hero. It's bit, it's beautifully written, and is it enough to say that my original copy is falling apart? And that all my Christmas present problems are now solved?
   
   There are other good biographies (I'm a Murrow fanatic, if this isn't clear already)and I wouldn't fault any of them; and the newly-reissued DVD set of the Murrow Years is also essential and full of the most wonderful surprises. I guess that Sperber wrote the ur-text, and so this is probably the place to start. But thank you to everyone who remembered that he should not be forgotten. Meet a true American hero.



4. Edward R. Murrow was elusive. He was a pioneer radio and television broadcaster. His career arc did not include print journalism. His success was modern. Murrow, b. 1908, had a golden natured man for a father and a shrewd and enterprising woman for a mother. He ws the youngest of three sons. Black moods dogged his whole life. In the 1930's Murrow worked for a committee placing European scholars in American academic posts. He had contacts at CBS. At college, Washington State, he had been a speech major. At CBS, 1935, he became the Director of Talks. Murrow was also responsible for education and religion.
   
   Radio was changing the world of politics. Overseas radio was primarily a novelty act. NBC had Alistair Cooke and so its coverage of the abdication crisis was better. Murrow was asked to take a job in London as the European director for CBS. William Shirer was offered the job of continental representative of CBS. When Germans invaded Austria, Murrow traveled to Vienna. His immensely successful career as a radio reporter, commentator, had begun. Murrow and Shirer used stamina and imagination to cover the developing crisis in Prague and elsewhere on the continent. Listeners were taken to Nuremburg to hear Hitler. At the end of September NBC and CBS radio braodcasts reported on Munich. Murrow sat with Jan Masaryk.
   
   War finally came over Poland. CBS staff positions in the European capitals were filled. Murrow put in time everywhere. In the spring, blitzkrieg tactics caused the occupation of Belgium, the Netherlands. Norway fell. The Dunkirk evacuation took place. Churchill assumed office as Prime Minister. Commentators crowded into London. As neutrals CBS staff faced endless delays and red tape. A stringer, Vincent Sheean, became Murrow's boon companion. The reader is immersed with Murrow and company in rather delightful fashion in the events leading up to America's entry into World War II. A reader is able to sense in the author's careful descriptions the immediacy of war as brought to the radio listeners. Broadcasting brought facts and analysis to the audience in real time.
   
   London was under air attack. Janet Murrow busied herself with the evacuation of children to America. The BBC moved broadcasting underground. Murrow inhabited freely both the upper class and the London ghetto. Eventually daytime operations ceased. It was not known at the time, but it was an RAF victory. Night bombings continued. With the approval of the censors American audiences were permitted to hear the sounds of a raid. Murrow conveyed the impersonal nature of the new technology of killing. Home news editor at the BBC, R.T. Clark, became a mentor to Murrow. He was versed in the classics and military history. In the fall of 1940 Shirer left for home from Portugal. He and Murrow had built up radio news from nothing. Home leave, 1941, proved to be a case of culture shock for the Murrows. In America there were no shortages. Murrow was effective because he did more than his job. Through happenstance he met with FDR Pearl Harbor night. He sat on the scoop that the President was determined to go to war. In the spring of 1942 the Murrows returned to London.
   
   Murrow, disappointingly, had to coordinate CBS staff reports at headquarters during the operation of Overlord, the Normandy Invasion. In the end he was cut up with rage seeing the camps, Buchenwald and others. The Nazis had done a more thorough job of brutalizing the people than he had deemed possible. After an eighteen months' stint as an executive, Murrow returned to broadcasting. He was bitter over the death of George Polk in Greece in 1948. Polk had modeled himself on Murrow. In 1950 he took an unequivocal stand against Joe McCarthy and lost his sponsor. Regional sponsorship was arranged. Owen Lattimore commended Murrow for keeping the record straight on his case.
   
   Fred Friendly and Murrow were ready, in 1951, to convert I CAN HEAR IT NOW to television. ALCOA sponsored SEE IT NOW. It needed to brighten its image. At the beginning of 1953, after doing an historic piece, 'Christmas in Korea,' he was exhausted. His view of the US was changing. Murrow's attack on McCarthy on SEE IT NOW was considered an act of courage by most people. It resulted in FBI scrutiny, he became a watched man. After McCarthy's demise, employers and news broadcasters were still treading gently. By 1957 Murrow was a celebrity, but SEE IT NOW was cut and he and Friendly were given SMALL WORLD. After speaking in Chicago to an association of journalists about the need for independence in television news, Murrow lost clout at CBS. Informally he was demoted. Fred Friendly became the sole executive producer of CBS Reports. One of the programs in which Murrow participated notably was 'The Harvest of Shame.' Murrow was appointed to head USIA under Kennedy. He resigned in 1964 and died in 1965.



5. "Murrow: His Life and Times" is a superb biography about Edward R. Murrow. No one had a greater impact in defining and shaping broadcast journalism than Murrow, and in highlighting the responsibility of journalists, broadcasters, government and citizens in a democracy. Television, he observed in 1954, "can teach, it can illuminate...but it can only do so to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends...otherwise it is merely lights and wires in a box." Whether his brilliant and breathtaking radio coverage from London of World War II, or his confrontation with red-baiting Senator Joe McCarthy, he was always principled, strong and courageous. Speaking of the anti-communist hysteria sweeping this country in the early fifties he would turn to Shakespeare, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves." As mass media races onto the Internet and enters a new digital era, the experiences and issues raised during Murrow's life become even more relevant. In the mid-fifties he warned, "the frontiers of knowledge have been pushed back, and the more that comes to be known, the less is understood...looking ahead to a time when human destinies are to be determined by the uses or abuses of new sources of almost unlimited physical power, one may ask if democracy will be able to develop the competence to deal with these complexities." He concluded, "If so, it must be through a broadening of education and the use of communications not yet realized, or perhaps even conceived." Murrow is a man for all times.

5 comments about Right from the Beginning.

1. A very insightful and readable biography
   of American perpetual Presidential Candi-
   date Pat Buchanan, who used to be very
   good on the McLaughlin Group. Buchanan
   got my vote in 2000 when he ran on the
   Reform Party tix and I was 4th District
   Delegate in Ches., VA. Buchanan's troops
   marched off with the matching funds, Buch-
   anan started a silly Newsletter and a new
   Third political party of hacks and started
   using that stupid 'judeo-Christian' moniker
   again. I threw in the towel on him after
   trying to talk sense into his brainwashed
   followers. His sorry Newsletter was always
   late and I ordered a bumper sticker from
   his website store and got his Amer. 1st
   Party Newsletter instead. What a bunch of
   idiots he has working for him! Poor old
   guy. His follow-up books are not very good.
   They all leave out the United Nations /N.W.O
   connection to everything. How the mighty have
   fallen. I can't beleive a man this intelligent
   is involved in the Knights of Malta and his
   heroes are Reagan [one of the worst Presidents
   of all time] and Nixon [one of the worst men
   ever in the Whitehouse. Can you believe that
   Nixon had Joe Namath on his enemies list? JOE
   NAMATH?!] What could have been...Sigh.



2. The man is brilliant and an extremely talented writer and TV commentator. Another great asset this author has is a sense of humor. He does not take himself seriously. He is loyal to his friends in good times and bad. He does not apologize for his ethnic heritage,his deep love of his native land, his deep religious faith, his Jesuit education. He is a well rounded person. I am always impressed with his TV appearances in that he never raises his voice or tries to speak over another guest. His manners are genuine. We need more Pat Buchanans!



3. Because I have thoroughly enjoyed Patrick Buchanan's columns criticizing President George W. Bush's war in Iraq, I decided to catch up my reading of Buchanan's books by reading _A Republic, Not an Empire_ (1999) and _Where the Right Went Wrong_ (2004). Having been favorably impressed with these two books, I turned my catch-up reading next to _Right from the Beginning_ (1988; 2nd ed. 1990). It is a remarkably well-written and remarkably honest autobiography. At times it is very funny.
   
   As a boy and a teenager, Patrick J. Buchanan (born November 2, 1938) was a fist-fight waiting to happen. Being expelled from Georgetown for a year (1960-1961) enabled Buchanan to overcome his earlier proclivities toward fisticuffs and turn his energies instead toward verbal combat.
   
   Buchanan does an excellent job of explaining his cultural conditioning in the 1940s and of explaining how this cultural conditioning posed great difficulties for him in the 1960s:
   
   "Americans who had grown up in the late 1920s and early 1930s had memories of a time when the United States was denounced at home and abroad as an unjust and failed society, a country that exploited the poor and sided with the exploiters. We [who were children in the 1940s] had no such memories. The 1960s were thus more of a shock to us than to them." (p. 30)
   
   This is a remarkable admission. Buchanan here acknowledges that he is the product of his narrow cultural conditioning in the 1940s. He also states that "[b]etween 1941 and 1945, that idea of America [as "a glorious and militarily invincible Republic"] was stamped upon us for life" (p. 30; also see pp. 139-140).
   
   But hold on! In his epigraph to chapter 7, Buchanan quotes St. Paul as saying, "When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spake as a child, and I acted as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put off childish things" (quoted p. 175).
   
   So when is Buchanan going to recognize that his cultural conditioning as a child in the 1940s is something that he now as a man needs to put off, rather than cling to it?
   
   From the evidence that Buchanan himself presents in this book, it is possible to argue that his cultural conditioning in the 1940s skewed his consciousness too strongly toward brashness -- that is, toward an over-developed tendency to get angry and want to fight. When he returned to Georgetown after having been expelled, one of his teachers asked him, "Why are you so angry?" (p. 229). I would argue that at least in part he was angry because of his cultural conditoning as a child in the 1940s.
   
   --Thomas J. Farrell, author of Walter Ong's Contributions to Cultural Studies: The Phenomenology of the Word and I-Thou Communication (Media Ecology)



4. This is #100 on the reader's choice non-fiction, of the Modern Library's Top 100 list. It's basically an autobiography of Pat Buchanan, who is as right wing conservative as they come. He grew up in a traditional, staunch Catholic home, and ended up becoming extremely influential in right-wing politics. I'm happy he never became president. Most of his political ideas stem from his religious up-bringing. He definitely would not be able to separate church and state, which would be dangerous.
   
   I don't agree with most of ideas politically, but I think it's important to understand all sides of politics and would therefore recommend this book as a great way into the mind of the religious conservative. It shows how dangerous religion is when mixed with politics. The fact that Buchanan proposes we hold a second constitutional ammendment, that would basically violate all kinds of individual rights is appaling. If it was up to Pat we would all be living under a government run by the Pope. It didn't work out very well for his twin Darth Sidious, and it would have an even worse outcome in real life for the Pope, or any other religious crazy man.
   
   So, that's why I found the book important in furthuring my understanding of the right-wing. I definitely learned more than I ever would have imagined.



5. "Right from the Beginning" is the enjoyable autobiography of Pat Buchanan. His account of growing up in the middle decades of the twentieth century in Washington, D.C. is a page-turner, and he stresses how growing up in the pre-Sixties era was much different from doing so afterward. Some of the anecdotes that Buchanan relays in the book are laugh-out-loud funny.
   
   The book continues with Buchanan's path through college and graduate school to his days as an editorial writer in St. Louis. He tells the story of his hiring by Richard Nixon.
   
   The closing section of the book concerns the political situation as Buchanan saw it when the book was published in 1988. He believed that the moral climate of the country was far more important than the state of the economy, and was an unceasing advocate, not of détente, but of the defeat of the Soviet Union.
   
   Buchanan also has one of the best writing styles ever, and the fact that this book is still in print twenty years after it was published is indicative of how good it is.

5 comments about Meant To Be.

1. I am completely in awe of this author and this book Meant To Be. So many lessons,teachings and above all courage through out this book
   I want to also recommend Nightmares Echo. It also has courage and determination.



2. One of the most powerful narratives I've ever read.

   Not just because the author overcame great odds to go on and achieve great things, but because he honestly describes his lack of faith in God and then describes the day he comes to believe in the God of his real father.

   I can't say enough good things about this book, so, I'm just buying copies for all my friends, and letting them see for themselves.
   Marsha Marks, author of 101 SIMPLE LESSONS FOR LIFE.




3. Sad at times,but unable to put it down. The book draws you in...knowing/feeling the courage this person has. He reveals the truth about his life and tells this inspirational story..and you must read it.

   Also recommended: Nightmares Echo,Courage To Heal,Lucky




4. Walter Anderson's story of his experiences as an abused child, son without a loving father, confused young man, Viet Nam soldier & veteran, young writer, seeker of his own personal truth, and seeker of a truth bigger than his own. This book goes beyond personal memoir. It is about the generation who came of age in post WWII, being the son of a WWII veteran who was abused in his childhood and tortured in war, and ultimately being the true offspring of a Jewish man his mother had an affair with during the war. There are many books about how childhood abuse impacts women. This book gave insight into how men are impacted by such abuse, cultural expectations of toughness and violence, and then the traumas of war....creating men who oftentimes become the men they swore they would never become, alcoholics who abuse those closest to them. I believe Anderson was able to escape this destiny because on some level he did think differently (perhaps like his birthfather), but also because of the love of three wonderful loving women: his mother Ethel, the teacher Mrs. Williams, and his wife of over 30 yrs., Loretta. I was most moved by Anderson's comments & statements when visiting the Soviet Union in the 1980's. His definition of soul and his courage in speaking out on behalf of Jews in Russia were the best parts of the book. Inspiring and moving.



5. I thought this sounded like a great book. It had all the makings for a great book but it just didn't get there for me. I enjoyed hearing about Walter Anderson's life growing up and I felt for him. I thought he was one smart and tough cookie. I think for me the book sort of fell apart at the end when he connects with his half brother. For me it just didn't live up to the build up that the reviews and book jacket gave it.
   I think I would have been a happier reader if the story had just focused on his success as a person and less on him finding his half brother.