Included with a Kindle Unlimited membership.

Read with Kindle Unlimited

Buy used:

$15.57

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Monday, April 11 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon. Order within 11 hrs 51 mins

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by Underdoge

Fulfilled by Amazon

Share <Embed>

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Authors

Stanley Cloud

Lynne Olson

The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism Paperback – October 31, 1997

by Stanley Cloud (Author), Lynne Olson (Author)

232 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$2.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$34.00

$42.00

$1.79

Paperback

"Please retry"

$15.57

$30.50

$1.90

Kindle
$0.00 Read with Kindle Unlimited to also enjoy access to over 1 million more titles $2.99 to buy
Hardcover
$34.00

33 Used from $1.79 5 New from $42.00 3 Collectible from $29.96
Paperback
$15.57

38 Used from $1.90 9 New from $30.50

Publishers Weekly described The Murrow Boys as "a lively, colloquial history of broadcast journalism that is so exciting one's impulse is to read it in a single sitting." It tells the swashbuckling tale of Edward R. Murrow and his legendary band of CBS radio journalists - Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith, William Shirer, Eric Sevareid, and others - as they "paint pictures in the air" from the World War II front. Brimming with personalities and anecdotal detail, it also serves up a sharp-eyed account of where the craft went wrong after the war, when vanity and commercialism increasingly intruded."This is history at its best," said Ted Anthony of AP News.

Print length

445 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Mariner Books
Publication date

October 31, 1997
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

0395877539
ISBN-13

978-0395877531
See all details

Lynne Olson
1,617
Paperback
201 offers from $0.65
Lynne Olson
750
Paperback
117 offers from $1.49
Lynne Olson
333
Paperback
73 offers from $1.99
Lynne Olson
63
Paperback
66 offers from $1.75
Lynne Olson
1,500
Hardcover
143 offers from $2.78
Lynne Olson
595
Hardcover
94 offers from $1.90

Lynne Olson
750
Paperback
117 offers from $1.49
Lynne Olson
1,617
Paperback
201 offers from $0.65
Lynne Olson
1,500
Paperback
61 offers from $2.99
Lynne Olson
333
Paperback
73 offers from $1.99
Lynne Olson
595
Paperback
85 offers from $1.99
Lynne Olson
1,500
Hardcover
143 offers from $2.78

Editorial Reviews

Review

...the book provides a valuable look at the pioneer spirit of Murrow and his protégés. -- The New York Times Book Review, Ruth Bayard Smith

Product information

Technical Details

Publisher

‎Mariner Books (October 31, 1997)

Language

‎English

Paperback

‎445 pages

ISBN-10

‎0395877539

ISBN-13

‎978-0395877531

Item Weight

‎1.1 pounds

Dimensions

‎5.5 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches

Feedback

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Stanley Cloud
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
For 20 years, Stanley Cloud was a foreign and domestic correspondent and bureau chief for Time magazine. He has interviewed five U.S. presidents and has covered politics, international affairs and the Vietnam War. In the late 1970s, he left Time and became managing editor of the Washington Star. Later, he was executive editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. He returned to Time in 1987 and was its Washington Bureau Chief from 1989 to 1993. After retiring from journalism, he co-authored with his wife, writer and historian Lynne Olson, two non-fiction books, The Murrow Boys and A Question of Honor.
The Manhattan Well is his first novel. Visit the website: http//www.the-manhattan-well.com
See more on the author's page
Lynne Olson
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Lynne Olson is a New York Times bestselling author of eight books of history, most of which deal in some way with World War II and Britain’s crucial role in that conflict. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has called her “our era’s foremost chronicler of World War II politics and diplomacy.”
Lynne’s latest book, Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against the Nazis, will be published by Random House in spring 2019. Two of her previous books, Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941, and Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour, were New York Times bestsellers.
Born in Hawaii, Lynne graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a journalist for ten years, first with the Associated Press as a national feature writer in New York, a foreign correspondent in AP’s Moscow bureau, and a political reporter in Washington. She left the AP to join the Washington bureau of the Baltimore Sun, where she covered national politics and eventually the White House.
Lynne lives in Washington, DC with her husband, Stanley Cloud, with whom she co-authored two books. Visit Lynne Olson at http://lynneolson.com.
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

5 star		77%
4 star		18%
3 star		3%
2 star		2%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Kindle Customer

The meteoric rise and fall of a great institution and the people who were behind it

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2017

Verified Purchase

As someone who was proud to be affiliated, in a very minor way, with CBS for 21 years, I was thrilled to learn so much about Murrow's boys and how they made the network great. I was also saddened to see how it declined over the years. Olson does a masterful job of explaining how it all happened, in a very readable way. I bore witness to the long, slow slide from greatness to mediocrity and I can attest to the fact that Olson got the process, and the reasons behind it, exactly right. I would recommend this book to anyone with confidence. Kudos to the author for a job well done.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

R. Patton

See WWII from the other side of the microphone

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is an outstanding page turning account of the beginning of regular radio usage to broadcast vs script stories from WWII as they were happening. These journalists loved being the first to get the scoop but endangered their lives getting the stories from the front, or behind the lines, in foxholes or from inside the bombers. There was also fierce competition amongst the journalists at CBS and with other networks, love affairs and parties. They were also frustrated by the censors.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

K. L Sadler

The way news should be delivered!

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2011

Verified Purchase

The news we receive over television now has for the most part has lost its impact and meaning. What we get is void of any background, color, or substance to make an impact in our lives. Much of the news on television is not on important world stories but on celebrities or entertainment. News has been significantly watered down since Ed Murrow and his boys first started reporting it through the new medium of radio at the onset of World War II in the late 1930's.

The technology back then was in its beginning and often didn't work. These men never knew if the words they spoke over the air were even getting through. But that didn't stop them from the urgency of their jobs to get what they knew concerning Hitler and the war in Europe on the air, trying to light a fire under a complacent American public back home, so that we would become involved in helping to save the world from ruin. Murrow was a genius at encouraging young men and women occasionally (which was amazing at that time) to learn to see beneath just the surface of what was happening and look at how for example the war was impacting people on a daily basis in London, as far as being able to get food, clothing, and other basic needs. This in turn made the war more 'real' to Americans, and helped to bring America into the war (especially to send things that were needed prior to Pearl Harbor over to England).

Murrow and each of these men had their own problems and quirks, but most of them remained strongly attached to one another and to their idea of good journalism through the advent of television. They had to struggle against advertisers and bosses at CBS who wanted to dilute their 'product' and turn it into the lesser entertainment into which news has now become for the most part (except in cases like 60 minutes and some channels devoted just to news now). This book is a phenomenal read...lots of good and detailed information. It includes some printed excerpts of the on-air news reports, but I would have liked more (I know you can get copies of these now, but I'm deaf and cannot hear them...). I found this book a good follow-up to the books I've been reading about World War II and how America was brought into the war. Excellent writing.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

harry a. roselle sr

great history of radio broadcasting WW2

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2019

Verified Purchase

Our book club selected this and it was so interesting and enlightening. The men and rare woman brought news from the areas of action in WW2. The problems of transmission of spoken voice with the now ancient apparatus/transmitters was a constant challenge to the broadcasters. Their lives and loves , wonderful and tragic, make the story so much more human.

Helpful

James Weaver

Some who you think were Murrow Boys, are not.

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

Andy Rooney for one, did not make the cut according to the authors. That kind of destroyed my idea of who these men were. I remember growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s watching CBS news because my grandfather did. It is one reason I purchased this book. So far an interesting subject.

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

I had grown up to reverence Ed Murrow, because of some faint memories as a child (See It Now) and the memories of my parents. This is a very life-like recollection of Murrow, the people he mentored and their general ups, downs and quirks. So sad that he died so young. Damn cigarettes!

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is an important story that really needs to be told. The journalism pioneered by the Murrow boys is an amazing and tapestried story. The reason I gave this book only 3 stars is because it is choppy and in horrible need of an excellent editor.

Helpful

Tom Turbiville

Simply outstanding!!!

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2013

Verified Purchase

One of the best history books I've ever read, if not the best. Olson and Cloud put you with Murrow and the Boys every step of the way, from their beginning to their last days. The book pulls no punches, describing the common love and loathing that transpired over a half century span they lived. I can't wait to go to YouTube (ironically a tech invention the boys would have hated) to find audio and/or video of these guys. Sevareid was one of my personal broadcast idols, but I only knew him from his commentaries on Cronkite's CBS Evening News. This book shows me who he really was, how smart and egotistical he was. Modern CBS, Rather, etc wont like this book. It's too damned honest. If you have any interest in the real history of radio, please read this book, read it slowly like a student studying a text book. I've never enjoyed a read as much as The Murrow Boys.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

RJ Macartney

That nothing has changed and they wonder why no one listens to the fake news anymore

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

Jumps back and forward a bit makes it hard to follow in a book.

Frankie McGrattan

These men changed reporting forever.

Reviewed in Canada on May 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

Ive always admired Murrow. Enjoyed seeing how he & his boys revolutionized reporting on radio & tv during WW2. So exciting watching the Murrow boys run around war zones, ignoring their personal safety to get the news out to the Allies.
Very sad to see in the second half of the book what happened to these great men when the war ended. Almost all had some success in peace time, but didn’t work as well when they didn’t hold all the decision making power. It was hard for all to adjust to work in peace time. Poignant & bittersweet.

One person found this helpful

Zangiku

good history

Reviewed in Japan on April 13, 2015

Verified Purchase

v. interesting history of the beginning of radio news (say what?), which really actually was interesting, & ERM's adventures in the field. well written.

See all reviews

Follow the Authors

Similar authors to follow

Similar authors to follow

The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism Paperback – October 31, 1997

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Customers who bought this item also bought

Editorial Reviews

Review

Product information

Technical Details

Feedback

About the authors

Stanley Cloud

Lynne Olson

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries