From Publishers Weekly
Millions of TV viewers may feel they already know Mitchell—she has reported on politics for NBC for some 30 years and is married to the Fed's Alan Greenspan—but there's lots to learn about her in this engrossing memoir. Mitchell began as a "copyboy" at radio station KYW in Philadelphia in the 1970s. After covering the major political conventions for them, she was hired by NBC and headed to Washington. Shortly after, she flew to Guyana for her first major story: the 1978 Jonestown massacre. She has covered all the presidents from Carter through George W. Bush, done exclusives with Castro, sat in on high-level negotiations in the Middle East and North Korea, and much more. Mitchell's tales are fascinating, but her evolution as a journalist is even more intriguing. She was a gender pioneer, for example, but her gender rapidly became a nonissue. Yet her original insistence on a clear separation of work and social life seems progressively undercut by her own account. She mentions many dinners with dear friends like the Cheneys, and parties with the Bushes, Rice and Rumsfeld, and then wonders why the media got the Iraq WMD question so wrong. Still, this is a treat for political junkies.
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Mitchell, who began her long career as a television reporter at a time when women were severely restricted, gained respect as she faced down a range of powerful figures from Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo to Cuban leader Fidel Castro. In this absorbing memoir, Mitchell recalls her climb to the top of her profession, including stints at NBC Nightly News, Today, and Meet the Press. Mitchell recalls encounters with major figures, from bullying by Don Regan to the kindness of President Reagan even as he was being heavily scrutinized for Iran-Contra. She offers a behind-the-scenes look at powerful Washington politicos, including her husband, Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan. Mitchell also offers a personal glimpse into her life, weighing the personal access that her relationship with Greenspan gave her to powerful figures against worries about her journalistic independence. This is a frank and revealing book by a respected journalist whose career spans three decades. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
From the Back Cover
"There is no human being better at what she does than Andrea Mitchell - and Talking Back shows us how it all happened. This absorbing memoir is really three books in one. It is the life story of one of the most accomplished women in America, a high-level window on a pivotal era in history and a powerful reminder to American women just starting out in their careers of how much they owe Mitchell and other pathbreakers for showing the way."
-Michael Beschloss
"Andrea Mitchell is smart, feisty and irreverent - and so is this book!"
-Tim Russert
About the Author
Andrea Mitchell has been chief foreign correspondent for NBC since 1994, reporting for broadcasts such as NBC Nightly News, Today, and Meet the Press. Previously she was NBCÂs chief White House correspondent and has reported on presidential politics since 1972.
