Best of
Journalism

1990

Unreasonable Behaviour: An Autobiography


Don McCullin - 1990
    He has come back from God knows how many brinks, all different. His experience in a Ugandan prison alone would be enough to unhinge another man - like myself, as a matter of fact - for good. He has been forfeit more times than he can remember, he says. But he is not bragging. Talking this way about death and risk, he seems to be implying quite consciously that by testing his luck each time, he is testing his Maker's indulgence' - John le Carre'McCullin is required reading if you want to know what real journalism is all about' - The Times'From the opening...there is hardly a dull sentence: his prose is so lively and uninhibited... An excellent book' - Sunday Telegraph'Unsparing reminiscences that effectively combine the bittersweet life of a world-class photojournalist with a generous selection of his haunting lifework... A genuinely affecting memoir that reckons the cost and loss involved in making one's way on the cutting edge of conflict' - Kirkus Reviews'If this was just a book of McCullin's war photographs it would be valuable enough. But it is much more' - Sunday Correspondent

Among the Thugs


Bill Buford - 1990
    They like lager (in huge quantities), the Queen, football clubs (especially Manchester United), and themselves. Their dislike encompasses the rest of the known universe, and England's soccer thugs express it in ways that range from mere vandalism to riots that terrorize entire cities. Now Bill Buford, editor of the prestigious journal Granta, enters this alternate society and records both its savageries and its sinister allure with the social imagination of a George Orwell and the raw personal engagement of a Hunter Thompson.

Edhi: A Mirror To The Blind


Tehmina Durrani - 1990
    

Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976


E.B. White - 1990
    B. White. Written for the New Yorker over a span of forty-nine years, they show White’s changing concerns and development as a writer. In matchless style White writes about everything from cicadas to Khrushchev, from Thoreau to hyphens, from academic freedom to lipstick, from New York garbagemen to the sparrow, from Maine to the space age, from the Constitution to Harold Ross and even the common cold.White has been described by one critic as “our finest essayist,” and these short pieces and essays are classics to be read, savored, and read again. Also included are an Introduction and Selective Bibliography by Rebecca M. Dale.

Stick It Up Your Punter!: The Uncut Story of the Sun Newspaper


Peter Chippindale - 1990
    The classic account of modern British journalism, now updated and re-issued.

Voices in the Mirror


Gordon Parks - 1990
    Refusing to succumb to despair, he instead transformed his anger at poverty and racism into a creative force and went on to break down one barrier after another. He was the first black photographer at Vogue and Life, and the first black screenwriter and director in Hollywood, at the helm of such projects as the award-winning Shaft. And his novel, The Learning Tree, has sold more than a quarter of a million copies.Spanning the major events of five decades, Voices in the Mirror takes readers from Minnesota and Washington, D.C., to the glamour of Paris and the ghettos of Rio and Harlem. His intimate portrayals of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini; of the Muslim and African American icons Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad and Muhammad Ali; of the young militants of the civil rights and black power movements; and of the tragic experiences of the less famous, like the Brazilian youngster Flavio, combine to form an unforgettable story.Gordon Parks’s life is a metaphor for the courageous vision and extraordinary resilience of the African American community, while also serving as a testament to the spirit and generosity that are its hallmarks.

A Neutral Corner: Boxing Essays


A.J. Liebling - 1990
    Liebling's abiding passion for the "sweet science" of boxing, A Neutral Corner brings together fifteen previously unpublished pieces written between 1952 and 1963. Antic, clear-eyed, and wildly entertaining, these essays showcase a The New Yorker journalist at the top of his form. Here one relives the high drama of the classic Patterson-Johansson championship bout of 1959, and Liebling's early prescient portrayal of Cassius Clay's style as a boxer and a poet is not to be missed.Liebling always finds the human story that makes these essays appealing to aficionados of boxing and prose alike. Alive with a true fan's reverence for the sport, yet balanced by a true skeptic's disdain for sentiment, A Neutral Corner is an American treasure.

Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s


Robert Christgau - 1990
    Arranged alphabetically by performer for easy reference, these 2,800 capsule reviews concisely recall the musical highlights--and low points--of the last ten years of rock 'n' roll.

Juke Joint


Birney Imes - 1990
    Imes transforms this phenomenon of Delta cultural life into something rich and strange. Introduced by Richard Ford.

Harvey Wang's New York


Harvey Wang - 1990
    As machines and electronics take over, as gentrification or changes in customs occur, a way of life disappears. But Harvey Wang was able to document these lives before it was too late. The photographs and descriptions will entertain and inform us all.

A World of Ideas II (World of Ideas)


Bill Moyers - 1990
    Photos.

Back Where I Came From


A.J. Liebling - 1990
    With wry wit and knowing affection, Liebling describes a host of colorful metropolitan characters, including the mayor of Mulberry Street, a professional faster who weighs 260 pounds, and more.

The Best of Plimpton


George Plimpton - 1990
    Photographs.

Shooting Wars: My Life As A War Cameraman, From Cuba To Iraq


Erik Durschmied - 1990
    

The Mirror at Midnight: A South African Journey


Adam Hochschild - 1990
    Hochschild looks at the tensions of modern South Africa through a dramatic prism: the pivotal nineteenth-century Battle of Blood River -- which determined whether the Boers or the Zulus would control that part of the world -- and its contentious commemoration by rival groups 150 years later. This incisive book offers an unusual window onto a society that remains divided. In his epilogue, Hochschild extends his view to the astonishing political changes that have occurred in the country in recent years -- and the changes yet to be made.

Blues Guitar: The Men Who Made the Music: From the Pages of Guitar Player Magazine


Jas Obrecht - 1990
    King, Albert King, Otis Rush, and Albert Collins.

With the Hammer of Truth: James Thomson Callender and America's Early National Heroes


Michael Durey - 1990
    The book shows that Callender saw his pen as a weapon and used it as an instrument to help stem the federalist tide in Philadelphia in 1790s.

Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow: Our Minamata Disease


Michiko Ishimure - 1990
    Originally published in Japanese in 1972, with this translated edition published by Michigan University Classics in Japanese Studies in 2003 (notes by Livia Monnet).

General Reinhard Gehlen


Mary Ellen Reese - 1990
    Eleven years after the defeat of Germany, Gehlen, Hitler's chief of eastern front intelligence, became head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) for the democratic West German government of Konrad Adenauer. The core of his staff in the BND were the same officers who had served with him under Hitler. The instruments for this metamorphosis were agencies of Gehlen's former enemy: U.S. Army Intelligence and the CIA. How did this happen and why? Was there a Nazi connection? This book answers these questions in detail, combining the elements of a gripping novel of espionage with solid scholarship based on U.S. government documents and interviews with former G-2, CIC and CIA officers.Author Biography: Mary Ellen Reese is a graduate of Harvard and a former member of the editorial staff of "The New Yorker." Her most recent book, "Breaking Cover", was a national bestseller.