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Richard Norton Smith

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The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880-1955 Paperback – February 19, 2003

by Richard Norton Smith (Author)

4.6 21 ratings

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This is the acclaimed biography of a giant of American journalism. As editor-publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Robert R. McCormick came to personify his city. Drawing on McCormick's personal papers and years of research, Richard Norton Smith has written the definitive life of the towering figure known as The Colonel.

Print length

640 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Northwestern University Press
Publication date

February 19, 2003
Dimensions

6 x 1.9 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0810120399
ISBN-13

978-0810120396
See all details

Jonathan Dimbleby
205
Hardcover
$25.72
$11.45 shipping

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Richard Norton Smith is a delightful writer, and The Colonel sparkles from start to finish. This is a terrific book, full of insight and surprise, often funny, consistently fair, and as brimming with life as its Chicago setting. Readers are in for a grand time." —David McCullough, author of John Adams

"Richard Norton Smith is everything The Colonel wasn't--judicious, clear-headed, and historically accurate. For all these virtues he's still managed to produce a biography that wonderfully captures his eccentric, pigheaded, impossible (and sometimes even likeable) subject. The Colonel is as big as all Chicago--a fresh, informative, and hugely entertaining book." —Thomas Mallon

"The best book ever written about the press." —Hilton Kramer

About the Author

RICHARD NORTON SMITH is director of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. His other books include Thomas E. Dewey and His Times (Simon and Schuster, 1982), a finalist for the 1983 Pulitzer Prize; and Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation (Mariner, 1997). Smith is also a regular participant in the roundtable discussions on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, so he has visibility on public television.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Northwestern University Press; 1st edition (February 19, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 640 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0810120399
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0810120396
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.17 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.9 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #177,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #228 in Journalist Biographies
- #1,382 in United States Biographies
- #1,813 in U.S. State & Local History

Customer Reviews:
4.6 21 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

21 global ratings

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Don Cusic

The story of a fascinating man

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2022

Verified Purchase

One of the most powerful figures in media in the early and mid 20th century gets a fine book written about him.

Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2014

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long book, but interesting

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Amazon Customer

Great book...well written

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2021

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My husband has just started this book... been reading for 2 nights and so far he thinks it is superb! Well written, informative and he highly recommends it!

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Porcelain

RRMC should be better known to the public but because he leaned to ...

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2016

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RRMC should be better known to the public today but because he leaned to the right in a time when so many liberal icons were formed he is hardly known and it is a shame.

2 people found this helpful

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mullers1973

the colonel

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2009

Verified Purchase

excellant book in capturing the spirit of chicago and most important of the power oif the press the vast right wing conspiracy thatwas then and Holy ruppert murdoch still has power now......mccormick is portrayed not as a one dimensional crank but as a multi- dimensional figure whose family has influenced the nature of our nation....

One person found this helpful

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C. Brown

good history but the man remains a mystery

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2005

This is a lengthy book full of interesting historical material. But, as for the man himself, I never got the feeling that I was getting more than a sketch of him. Could any author do better? McM had more than his share of quirks and he didn't suffer fools, or anyone else, gladly, so perhaps there is no way anyone will ever get too deep into the mind of the man. The main thing I took away from the book is that Robert R. McCormick was a good businessman and the oddest duck of his time. The book is not a difficult read but, after reading it, the man remains a cipher. After a detailed accounting the war with FDR, the author seemed to rush to get to the end of RRM's life. Far from being a sympathetic character, pathetic more easily comes to mind. RRM had lots of power and plenty of money but he lived in a very cold world of his own that it appears no one during his life, or readers of this book today, can enter.

10 people found this helpful

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Borowy26

The Man in the Tower and the World's Greatest Newspaper

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2008

This was an interesting book, but not entirely satisfactory. There is a wealth of material to be found here, but one gets the feeling that the historian did not explore numerous topics in great detail. Many of Robert R. McCormick's relatives are mentioned, but seldom are their lives discussed at length. I was left wanting to know much more than what was provided in the biography. I had the feeling that there was more material that could have been added to the text, but the author or publisher wanted to produce a book of a certain length and did not want to exceed a given number of pages. Still, the book whetted my appetite for further reading on the same topic.

My paternal grandfather listened to the Colonel's broadcasts on WGN Radio each Sunday night and laughed out loud at the publisher's pronouncements according to what I was told by my own father. I have visited McCormick estate at Cantigny and live within walking distance of the North Shore Channel that McCormick built while serving as the President of the Metropolitan Sanitary District, but, even after reading this superb biography, the man's character seems elusive.

The only fault that I found in the text is that Smith likes to move the narrative back and forth too often for my liking. A McCormick family member drops out of the proceedings without a solitary mention for several chapters and just as suddenly reappears and then the reader is informed about all of the significant events that took place in the intervening decade concerning this individual. This becomes tedious.

Smith tells you what the Colonel said and did, but seldom suggests why he acted as he did. For example, McCormick was socially ostracized after his first marriage and forced to relocate from the North Shore to DuPage County, but I still cannot see what possessed him to conduct an affair with a relative's spouse (the couple married after the woman's divorce was granted).

Colonel McCormick was an astute businessman and made wise long term investments in Canadian paper mills that benefitted his publication.
As influential as McCormick was in terms of national politics, his antagonism towards local Republican party bosses and his friendly relations with Democratic city officials may have caused irreparable injury to the fortunes of the Republican party in Illinois.

Chicago certainly could use a newspaper publisher of his caliber today. At least when McCormick headed "The Chicago Tribune" it stood for something. Today, it is a weak middle of the road journal with a declining number of subscribers. Earlier this week, it was announced that the Tribune printing plants handling regional editions of the paper would be closed.

A digression:

Richard Norton Smith is currently the curator for the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois. He formerly headed the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Former US Senator Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois battled to place Smith in his current position when former Governor George H. Ryan (now serving a prison sentence related to official corruption) was attempting to fill the slot with a political hack.

9 people found this helpful

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ConejoBrillante

Great follow-up to visit to Cantigny in Wheaton, IL

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2010

Verified Purchase

Saw this book while touring Cantigny and McCormick's mansion. Sent it to my mother who was with me. It was a great follow-up to a wonderful day in the gardens and touring his mansion (we didn't tour the military museum).
A lot of interesting history and a great book.

2 people found this helpful

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