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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well Researched and Objective Bio, April 28, 2010
This review is from: The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century (Hardcover)
For me, there were no huge revelations in this book but there were many, many instances that supported the general perception I had formed regarding Luce over the years. Much has been written about Henry Luce. Not a warm and fuzzy type, he avoided intimacies and had few friends. While he wanted to be recognized as a major force in the publishing world and was very successful in that respect, he had an innate sense of what his burgeoning audience wanted. He was reclusive and secretive to certain respect and seemed like an odd choice as a life partner. His second wife Claire Booth Luce seemed to be as ambitious as Luce but far more social; she seemed to be a good choice given CBL's drive and goals and Luce's level of influence. In many ways, it seemed as though their marriage might have been likened to a good business deal. As a parent, he was not of the hands on variety. As with most things, he delegated responsibilities freely when it came to familial duties and parenting.
For an essentially reclusive personality such as Luce, it was interesting just how much information was out there and pieced together to present a complete and fairly consistent picture. What I found of particular interest was Luce's relationship with Time co-founder Britton Haddon. Ostensibly, Haddon was Luce's one and only true friend, but even that friendship dissolved by the time of Haddon's early death in 1929. From that point on, Luce did everything in his power to remove Haddon's name from the history of TIME. It was emotion coldness of this type that ran through this book in relation to Luce and the way he interacted with people. Even his affairs were seemingly bereft of warmth or true intimacy.
What punctuated this book as an exceptionally good bio the level of detail which was dispersed throughout. Supporting this tapestry was solid footnoting and indexing. I often found myself referring to earlier statements made and this was invaluable as I verified information.
While I can't say I liked Luce or had a lot of empathy for this son of missionaries to China, I found his meteoric and sustained success nothing less than fascinating. This book is especially interesting because Luce's career and publications present a detailed picture of 20th century print journalism.
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45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review the book, not Amazon's pricing decisions, April 28, 2010
This review is from: The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century (Hardcover)
It's time to stand up against the 1-star "reviews" of books that are solely based on the Kindle price. This is an excellent work by one of our leading historians. It deserves reviews based on the content. The 1-star "reviews" are misdirected, mistaken, and damaging.
* First, Amazon sets the price of Kindle editions, not the publisher or author. Amazon doesn't care about your 1-star "review"; the author does. And the author has absolutely no power over price, yet these "reviews" are punishing the author, and the author alone.
* Second, when you have not read the book, yet post a 1-star "review," you mislead other buyers into thinking the content of the book is of low quality. Other consumers can see the price and decide for themselves; what they want is input from people who have read the content.
* Third, the claims that e-books are dramatically cheaper to produce are factually false. Printing and distribution represent only about ten to twelve percent of the cost of each book. That's a buck or two, not half the price of the hardcover. The cost of making of a book is not, in fact, largely in the physical production. There's the author's advance and royalties, the cost of editing, copy editing, design, promotion, and countless other ways in which publishers bring books to the public. These comprise the largest share of the cost. Books like this one take years of full-time research and writing. That's what the book's price represents, not the paper.
* If you want to drive down the book's price, then start buying hundreds of thousands more. The fixed costs of acquisition, editing, etc. must be spread out among the units sold. E-books are currently cannibalizing the market, not making it larger. Therefore, the cost (and price) per book will remain abut the same, e-book or hardcover. That's why bestsellers are cheaper than obscure books. It's not because they use less paper! It's because they sell vastly more units, and so the costs can be thinned out, spread among more books sold--and the price goes down.
* Amazon actually takes a loss on Kindle books priced at $9.99. Why do it? To dominate the e-book market, and encourage sales of the Kindle device.
In other words, these 1-star "reviews" about the Kindle price punish an author for Amazon's decision to not take a loss on this particular book. This is much like your boss giving you a terrible performance review because he or she doesn't like the company's health plan. Misguided reviews like this actually hurt authors--and by hurting sales of their books, ironically will make books more expensive, not less.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
On Time, April 30, 2010
This review is from: The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century (Hardcover)
A book almost as much on the famous set of magazines (Time, Fortune, Life, and SI) created by Henry Luce as on the man himself. Anyone interested in the history of American publishing should buy and read it.
Alan Brinkley has written a straightforward biography in clear but unexceptional prose. The material is often interesting because Mr. Luce, his times (the Depression, World War II, the rise of American world power), and his political causes (anti-communism, China, freedom) are interesting. At times, however, the book veers too much into detailing the blasted love episodes of this great, if personally flawed, publisher: essentially--who now cares?
While wrong on some things, Mr. Luce was right on many things, including being early to the threat of both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. And he had the courage to trumpet his well-founded international political fears, which served to annoy many a New York City liberal.
Above all, Henry Luce created a commercial magazine empire from scratch: a feat that is unlikely ever to be duplicated.
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