Customer Reviews

Outrage, Passion, and Uncommon Sense: How Editorial Writers Have Taken On and Helped Shape the Great American Issues o f the Past 150 Years

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There are many indelible words and images in this groundbreaking book that looks at how American editorial writers have handled the big issues: race, death, freedoms, politics, and more. Consider the angry screed written in 1961 by segregationist Jimmy Ward, editor of the Jackson (MS) Daily News, calling the freedom riders "puppets" and "riot-inciting professionals." It appears next to a close-up photo of a badly beaten freedom rider, his eyes swollen shut. Or the 122-word verdict on the "worthless" life of murderer Leonard Edwards that ran in the Philadelphia Daily News in 1975, ending with the curt demand: "Fry him." Or the lyrical, heartbreaking editorial that William Allen White of The Emporia (KS) Daily Gazette wrote when his 16-year-old daughter was killed in a riding accident.
"Outrage, Passion & Uncommon Sense" is full of excellent writing, evocative photographs, forgotten history, and well-remembered history, recalled in a fresh way with original editorials that ran within hours or days of the event. It's a wonder that no one has attempted such a book before. What a useful book for journalism students or any student of American history!

This is a panoramic view of American history from the Civil War to the Clinton impeachment, told through the writings of editorialists at newspapers, large and small. Gartner doesn't restrict himself to editorials that he agrees with, nor to the most courageous, although there are plenty of both here. He includes editorials against women's suffrage (from the New York Times!) and in favor of racial segregation. It soon becomes clear that the characteristics of good, persuasive writing haven't changed since the 1850s, nor has the role of the editorial writer as scold and cheerleader. Of course, the dramatic changes in journalism have reduced the power of editorials today, but Gartner reminds us of what it once was.

I wish Gartner had not focused so much on four specific editorial writers, great though they may have been. I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been more diverse in every way.