Customer Reviews

The New York Times:The Complete Front Pages 1851-2009 Updated Edition

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Despite the fact that the New York Times is not my favorite paper with its liberal bias, I am also a history buff, and I love old newspapers and magazines. So last Christmas I ran out and bought the 2008 edition. Although enjoyable, it was missing several months (including my daughters birth month of Septmeber 1994, to my disappointment), and trying to read many of the older issues was very difficult.


I'm happy to report that the 2009 edition not only includes the missing months, but to my surprise many of the more difficult papers to read have somehow been "cleaned up". I don't know how they did it, but i just compared the Sept 24 1851 paper in the two editions and it's like night and day, much easier to read in the new edition. Also as in the old edition you can easily access the NYT archive to continue reading a front page article or read the articles in the other pages of that newspaper. A very nice feature.


If you were disappointed with the 2008 edition, I would recommend getting this revised edition.

The DVD's are amzing, but despite the improvement some front pages seem to be missing : The Western editions of February and March 1963 (during a strike), despite the fact that articles exist for those dates according to the New York Times archives. Still, wonderful product.

It would be wonderful to be able to easily access the content provided, but, as a glasses wearer, it is awkward. In the book, it's understandable that the print is small, I suppose. It already a tome in incorporating what it does. But I had hoped that the DVD's would be resolvable at a larger print type. Instead, legible tiny print that can be read by the patient reader holding a magnifying glass to the computer screen dissolves at a larger size into dots. Help!

I don't care what your political bend is, but this presentation by the New York Times is awesome. Looking at front pages from the civil war, world war I and II, landing on the moon, 9/11 and so forth is amazing. What a coffee table addition. This book is beautifully layed out and a pleasure to scan at any time. The online links to stories are great. I have no regrets buying this book, it is a keepsake for all times.

The book is just what it professes to be, selected covers of the New York Time's front page. The print is very, very small and hard to read, but fascinating if you can read it. I have not tried the CD's as yet, and have high hopes that the computer can enlarge the type.

This book is a coffee table book every American and person in America should have. The early days of news will bring earlier times to light. It's a great information source for the past.

I bought this for my Dad for Christmas for his bathroom "library". We spent most of Christmas morning looking at this book- really interesting and well worth the price.

We bought this book for our Dad, who is 70-something. He now has trouble going to bed because he can't put this book down! It's probably the best gift we've ever gotten 'someone who has everything and needs nothing!'

I can't speak to the earlier versions of this CD but as one reviewer commented "Improved Over 2008 Edition" I can't imagine how much worse the 2008 edition could be over the 2009 edition. The earlier dated pages are difficult to read to the point of being illegible. I may be mistaken but isn't the whole point of a printed reference tool predicated on ones ability to be able to read it. I'm running Max OS X 10.6.2 with Adobe Acrobat Professional. Possibly the Windows version looks better or I may not have the correct font installed on my system, but after all these are PDF's, even with the view zoomed between 100% and 200% the scans are just very poor (seem to be extremely low resolution) making the text completely undecipherable in some sections. The more recent pages in color are somewhat better. It seems Saturday, January 1, 2000 was a red-letter date for New York Times. The scans from that date forward are perfect. Don't know what the difference is but everything after those dates are very legible at all magnifications. This has the potential to be a fantastic reference, if only I could read it.....

This edition is a great improvment over the one I got for Christmas in 1980. There have been so many interesting stories and news items that I can relate to. It would be an asset to any Public School, City or Private Library. I would recomend it be donated to a school as a resource for students.

James E. Kerrigan
Retired Elemeltary School Teacher and Administrator in Phoenix Arizona.