From Publishers Weekly
With all the "embedded" hoopla, this informative and absorbing study of Edward R. Murrow and his fellow broadcasters at CBS gets back to sources. Bernstein (Grand Eccentrics) and Lubertozzi (The Complete War of the Worlds) give them the lion's share of the credit for inventing broadcast journalism during WWII, and they also document a formidable track record. Murrow himself was first on the scene, in prewar England and later the blitz. He appointed men like William Shirer, in Berlin, and Eric Sevareid, in France, to expand coverage, so that CBS was well positioned when the other radio networks ended European coverage in fear of violating the neutrality act. Sevareid had to get both himself and his wife and newborn twins out of a defeated France, while Shirer was replaced by Howard K. Smith, who barely got over the Swiss border at the time of Pearl Harbor. Less famous names include Larry LeSueur, who spent a year battling shortages, climate and censorship in Stalin's Russia, and Cecil Brown, who swam away from a sinking British warship. "Murrow's boys" (and one woman) also encountered conflicts with the "suits" in New York, including William Paley, president of CBS, and wrestled with the limitations of tape recorders and short-wave transmitters whose technology now seems neolithic. The narrative offers clear journalistic prose throughout, along with 72 well-selected photographs and a 47-track audio CD excerpting significant broadcasts. The authors' handling of the incidents the broadcasters were covering is above-average, backed by CD excerpts of broadcasts on the Anschluss, the invasion of Poland, the blitz, D-Day, the liberation of Buchenwald among other major events. The result is admirable history.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-The authors admiringly describe how Murrow and his "boys" at CBS both covered the Second World War and created modern broadcast journalism. They draw on many primary sources, including several of the reporters' memoirs, to describe the dangers, technical problems, and censorship issues of the time. The authors begin with Murrow and colleague William Shirer's coverage of Hitler and prewar Europe, and then discuss how the network covered the conflict in Europe. In contrast, their discussion of the war in the Pacific is very limited. They also include one- to two-page biographical profiles of the correspondents, many of whom would become giants of broadcast news. The text is supplemented by an audio CD, narrated by Dan Rather, which has 47 clips from aired broadcasts. It can be listened to in its entirety as a documentary or readers can select tracks (identified in the text) that correspond with events being addressed. This book does show the challenges and importance of war coverage on radio, but it is short on general background and is occasionally dry. Norman H. Finkelstein's With Heroic Truth: The Life of Edward R. Murrow (Clarion, 1997) and Sounds in the Air: The Golden Age of Radio (Scribner's, 1993; o.p.) are more readable, research-friendly choices.
Mary Mueller, Rolla Junior High School, MOCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
