Best of
Journalism

2009

Footnotes in Gaza


Joe Sacco - 2009
    Raw concrete buildings front trash-strewn alleys. The narrow streets are crowded with young children and unemployed men. On the border with Egypt, swaths of Rafah have been bulldozed to rubble. Rafah is today and has always been a notorious flashpoint in this bitterest of conflicts. Buried deep in the archives is one bloody incident in 1956, that left 111 Palestinians dead, shot by Israeli soldiers. Seemingly a footnote to a long history of killing, that day in Rafah—cold-blooded massacre or dreadful mistake—reveals the competing truths that have come to define an intractable war. In a quest to get to the heart of what happened, Joe Sacco immerses himself in daily life of Rafah and the neighboring town of Khan Younis, uncovering Gaza past and present. Spanning fifty years, moving fluidly between one war and the next, alive with the voices of fugitives and schoolchildren, widows and sheikhs, Footnotes in Gaza captures the essence of a tragedy. As in Palestine and Safe Area Goražde, Sacco’s unique visual journalism has rendered a contested landscape in brilliant, meticulous detail. Footnotes in Gaza, his most ambitious work to date, transforms a critical conflict of our age into an intimate and immediate experience.

The Good Soldiers


David Finkel - 2009
    In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it the surge. “Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences,” he told a skeptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them.Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel was with them in Bagdad, and almost every grueling step of the way.What was the true story of the surge? And was it really a success? Those are the questions he grapples with in his remarkable report from the front lines. Combining the action of Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down with the literary brio of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers is an unforgettable work of reportage. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, David Finkel has also produced an eternal tale—not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.

It's Our Turn to Eat


Michela Wrong - 2009
    John's tale is the story of how a brave man came to make a lonely decision with huge ramifications.

Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Hunter S. Thompson


Hunter S. Thompson - 2009
    Thompson's first piece for Rolling Stone--the story of his infamous run for sheriff of Aspen in 1970--to his last--an examination of the Kerry/Bush showdown in 2004--FEAR AND LOATHING AT ROLLING STONE presents more than 40 examples of his best work. Thompson takes us on a roller-coaster ride filled with the likes of McGovern and Nixon, Watergate and Vietnam, Ali and Clinton. And buttressing the narrative throughout are letters and memos that illuminate the stories behind the stories--from the original back-and-forth resulting in Thompson's first pieces to the meticulous planning for his reporting of the '72 campaign. Simply put, FEAR AND LOATHING AT ROLLING STONE is the definitive work of the magazine's most popular writer.

On Doubt


Leigh Sales - 2009
    In this personal essay, one of Australia’s most respected journalists argues in favour of a doubtful mind.When society seems to demand confidence and certainty, how much courage does it take to admit doubt, especially self-doubt?MUP’s Little Books on Big Themes series pairs Australia’s leading thinkers and cultural figures with some of the big themes in life.

Our Front Pages: 21 Years of Greatness, Virtue, and Moral Rectitude from America's Finest News Source (Onion Presents)


The Onion - 2009
    As the first decade of this new millennium draws to a close, Our Front Pages shows us the first thing that presidents, kings, prime ministers, and popes saw when they opened their eyes each morning for the last 21 years. Now you, the common reader and citizen, can see what they saw and be as informed as they were with this important retrospective of the past two decades. You, too, will realize what generations before have realized and generations yet unborn will some day realize in turn: The Onion is not merely the chronicle of America. The Onion is America.

Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff


Andrew Kirtzman - 2009
    The New York Times calls Betrayal, “a novelistic, you-are-there sort of narrative,” and the shocking story of the King of the Swindlers—and his hundreds of celebrity and corporation victims, and the everyday people who tragically invested their life savings with him—does indeed read like a page-turning thriller. But it’s all amazingly, disturbingly true.

A Mad Dash (Introspective Exhortations and Geographical Considerations 2008)


Henry Rollins - 2009
    

The Elements of Story: Field Notes on Nonfiction Writing


Francis Flaherty - 2009
    But it could also be of great use to the intelligent common reader, the man or woman who wonders why it’s impossible to finish reading certain stories and why others carry the reader in a vivid rush to the end.”—Pete Hamill, author of A Drinking Life In the spirit of Strunk and White’s classic The Elements of Style, comes The Elements of Story, by Francis Flaherty, longtime story editor at The New York Times. A brilliant blend of memoir and how-to, The Elements of Story offers more than 50 principles that emphasize storytelling aspects rather than simply the mechanics of writing—a relentlessly entertaining, totally accessible writing guide for the novice and the professional alike.

Ross Kemp on Afghanistan


Ross Kemp - 2009
    Now Ross Kemp is taking on perhaps his hardest assignment of all - the Taliban. In order to prepare for this life-threatening ordeal, Ross Kemp trains with the First Battalion Royal Anglians in England's subzero temperatures, practicing firing SA 80 rifles and .50 calibre machine guns, getting to know the soldiers and learning the tactics they use to stay alive. Sent with them to Camp Bastion in Afghanistan's Helmand province, he immerses himself fully: he endures the stifling heat, the constant threat of snipers, RPG attacks, suicide bombers and land mines. In short, he discovers first hand what it's like to fight on the frontline. It's the closest he's ever come to dying - bullets fizzing inches from his head as they hit the ground on either side of him. After two harrowing and arduous months Ross returns to England, but there is little relief to be had as he meets the mothers of soldiers killed in the conflict. Then in September 2008 he goes back to the war zone, to see how the men he grew so close to are faring, to check how many of them are still alive. Ross Kemp on Afganistan is a fascinating, horrifying and often moving insight into the brutal reality ordinary soldiers have to face in one of the world's most dangerous and volatile regions.Ross Kemp was born in Essex in 1964, to a father who was a senior detective with the Metropolitan Police and had served in the army for four years. He is a BAFTA award-winning actor, journalist and author, who is best known for his role of Grant Mitchell in Eastenders. His award-winning documentary series Ross Kemp on Gangs led to his international recognition as an investigative journalist.

Category 5: The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane


Thomas Neil Knowles - 2009
    With winds estimated at over 225 miles per hour, it was the first recorded Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States.Striking at a time before storms were named, the catastrophic tropical cyclone became known as the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, and its aftermath was felt all the way to Washington, D.C. In the hardest hit area of the Florida Keys, three out of every five residents were killed, while hundreds of World War I veterans sent there by the federal government perished.By sifting through overlooked official records and interviewing survivors and the relatives of victims, Thomas Knowles pieces together this dramatic story, moment by horrifying moment. He explains what daily life was like on the Keys, why the veteran work force was there (and relatively unprotected), the state of weather forecasting at the time, the activities of the media covering the disaster, and the actions of government agencies in the face of severe criticism over their response to the disaster.The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 remains one of the most intense to strike America's shores. Category 5 is a sobering reminder that even with modern meteorological tools and emergency management systems, a similar storm could cause even more death and destruction today.

McSweeney's #33


Dave Eggers - 2009
    It'll have news (actual news, tied to the day it comes out) and sports and arts coverage, and comics (sixteen pages of glorious, full-color comics, from Chris Ware and Dan Clowes and Art Spiegelman and many others besides) and a magazine and a weekend guide, and will basically be an attempt to demonstrate all the great things print journalism can (still) do, with as much first-rate writing and reportage and design (and posters and games and on-location Antarctic travelogues) as we can get in there. Expect journalism from Andrew Sean Greer, fiction from George Saunders and Roddy Doyle, dispatches from Afghanistan, and much, much more. We're going to try to sell this thing on the street in San Francisco, but it'll also go out to our subscribers and be in bookstores all over.

Paul Harvey's America: The Life, Art, and Faith of a Man Who Transformed Radio and Inspired a Nation


Stephen Mansfield - 2009
    Holland present a fascinating look at America’s most popular radio host. You’ll discover how the brutal murder of his father shaped Paul Harvey’s life and career; how a high school teacher helped launch him in radio; the truth behind his brief and controversial career in the Air Force; why he was arrested for breaking into a secure research laboratory during the Cold War; why he proposed to his wife, “Angel,” on their very first date—and why it took her a year to say yes; the important role of faith in his life; and how his immeasurable contributions to broadcast history transformed American culture.

Breaking the Sound Barrier


Amy Goodman - 2009
    Make that a year of Sunday talk shows. That's because Amy, as you will discover on every page of this book, knows the critical question for journalists is how close they are to the truth, not how close they are to power."—From the Preface by Bill MoyersAmy Goodman, award-winning host of the daily internationally broadcast radio and television program Democracy Now!, breaks through the corporate media's lies, sound bites, and silence in this wide-ranging new collection of articles. In place of the usual suspects—the "experts" who, in Goodman's words, "know so little about so much, explain the world to us, and get it so wrong"—this accessible, lively collection allows the voices the corporate media exclude and ignore to be heard loud and clear. From community organizers in New Orleans, to the courageous American soldiers who've said "No" to Washington's wars, to the victims of torture and police violence, we are given the extraordinary opportunity to hear ordinary people standing up and speaking out. Written with all of the fierce intelligence and passion for truth that millions have come to expect from Amy Goodman's reportage, Breaking the Sound Barrier proves the power that independent journalism can play in the struggle for a better world, one in which ordinary citizens are the true experts of their own lives and communities.

Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson


Hunter S. Thompson - 2009
    Thompson.Fearless and unsparing, the interviews detail some of the most storied episodes of Thompson's life: a savage beating at the hands of the Hell's Angels, talking football with Nixon on the 1972 Campaign Trail ('the only time in twenty years of listening to the treacherous bastard that I knew he wasn't lying'), and his unlikely run for Sheriff of Aspen. Elsewhere, passionate tirades about journalism, culture, guns, drugs, and the law showcase Thompson's voice at its fiercest.Arranged chronologically, and prefaced with Anita Thompson's moving account of her husband's last years, the interviews present Hunter in all his fractured brilliance and provide an exceptional portrait of his times.

Newspeak in the 21st Century


David Edwards - 2009
    The media responses, collected in Newspeak, are an exposé of the arrogance and servility to power of our leading journalists and editors, starring Andrew Marr, Alan Rusbridger, Roger Alton, Jon Snow, Jeremy Bowen and even George Monbiot.Picking up where the highly acclaimed and successful Guardians of Power (2006) left off, Newspeak is packed with forensic media analysis, revealing the lethal bias in "balanced" reporting. Even the "best" UK media -- the Guardian, the Independent, Channel 4 News and the BBC -- turn out to be cheerleaders for government, business and war. Alongside an A-Z of BBC propaganda and chapters on Iraq and climate change, Newspeak focuses on the demonisation of Iran and Venezuela, the Israel-Palestine conflict, the myth of impartial reporting and the dark art of smearing dissidents.

Citizen Kane


Herman J. Mankiewicz - 2009
    Mankiewicz and Orson Welles which has been specially formatted for Kindle publication.

Long Story Bit by Bit: Liberia Retold


Tim Hetherington - 2009
    His book Long Story Bit by Bit entwines documentary photography, oral testimony, and memoir to map the dynamics of power, tragedy, and triumph in Liberia’s recent history. It depicts a past of rebel camps, rainforest destruction, Charles Taylor’s trial as a war criminal, and other happenings contrasted with the hope for the future.Long Story Bit by Bit brings an extraordinary range of characters to life. Hetherington’s story begins in the rainforest while living with a rebel army during the 2003 battle for Monrovia. During this time he became fascinated by the dynamics of power unraveling in Liberia: from the raw force wielded by young men of rebel groups to the corrupt authority of transitional governments, juxtaposed with the possibilities of a democratically elected president. This book attaches names and faces to the current headlines and provides a background for the present state of Liberia, clarifying the notion that the past decade was not a product of random chaos.

The Idler 42: Smash the System


Tom Hodgkinson - 2009
    

Late Edition: A Love Story


Bob Greene - 2009
    A loving and laughter-filled trip back to a lost American time when the newspaper business was the happiest game in town.In a warm, affectionate true-life tale, New York Times bestselling author Bob Greene (When We Get to Surf City, Duty, Once Upon a Town) travels back to a place where—when little more than a boy—he had the grand good luck to find himself surrounded by a brotherhood and sisterhood of wayward misfits who, on the mezzanine of a Midwestern building, put out a daily newspaper that didn't even know it had already started to die.“In some American cities,” Greene writes, “famous journalists at mighty and world-renowned papers changed the course of history with their reporting.”  But at the Columbus Citizen-Journal, there was a willful rejection of grandeur—these were overworked reporters and snazzy sportswriters, nerve-frazzled editors and insult-spewing photographers, who found pure joy in the fact that, each morning, they awakened to realize: “I get to go down to the paper again.”At least that is how it seemed in the eyes of the novice copyboy who saw romance in every grungy pastepot, a symphony in the song of every creaking typewriter.  With current-day developments in the American newspaper industry so grim and dreary, Late Edition is a Valentine to an era that was gleefully cocky and seemingly free from care, a wonderful story as bracing and welcome as the sound of a rolled-up paper thumping onto the front stoop just after dawn.

American Radical: The Life and Times of I. F. Stone


D.D. Guttenplan - 2009
    Guttenplan puts it in his compelling book, I.F. Stone did what few in his profession could—he always thought for himself. America's most celebrated investigative journalist himself remains something of a mystery, however. Born Isidor Feinstein in Philadelphia, raised in rural New Jersey, by the age of 25 this college drop-out was already an influential newsman, and enjoying extraordinary access to key figures in New Deal Washington and the friendship of important artists in New York.It is Guttenplan’s wisdom to see that the key to Stone’s achievements throughout his singular career—and not just in his celebrated I.F. Stone’s Weekly—lay in the force and passion of his political commitments. Stone’s calm, forensic, yet devastating reports on American politics and institutions sprang from a radical faith in the long-term prospects for American democracy. His testimony on the legacy of American politics from the New Deal and World War II to the era of the civil rights struggles, the Vietnam War, and beyond amounts to as vivid a record of those times as we are likely to have. Guttenplan's lively, provocative book makes clear why so many of his pronouncements have acquired the force of prophecy.

Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss


Craig Pittman - 2009
    It's an important book that should be read by every voter, every taxpayer, every parent, every Floridian who cares about saving what's left of this precious place."--Carl Hiaasen"Pittman and Waite pulled the lid off federal and state wetlands regulation in Florida and peered deep into the cauldron of 'mitigation,' 'no net loss,' 'banking,' and the rest of the regulatory stew. For anyone interested in wetlands generally, and in Florida environmental issues in particular, this is an eye-opening, must-read book."--J. B. RuhlSince 1990, every president has pledged to protect wetlands, and Florida possesses more than any state except Alaska. And yet, since that time Florida has lost more than 84,000 acres of wetlands that help replenish the water supply and protect against flooding.How and why the state’s wetlands are continuing to disappear is the subject of Paving Paradise. Journalists Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite spent nearly four years investigating the political expedience, corruption, and negligence on the part of federal and state agencies that led to a failure to enforce regulations on developers. They traveled throughout the state, interviewed hundreds of people, dug through thousands of documents, and analyzed satellite imagery to identify former wetlands that were now houses, stores, and parking lots.The result was an award-winning series, "Vanishing Wetlands," of more than twenty stories in the St. Petersburg Times, exposing the unseen environmental consequences of rampant sprawl. Expanding their work into book form in the tradition of Michael Grunwald's The Swamp, Pittman and Waite explain how wetland protection has become a taxpayer-funded program that creates the illusion of environmental protection while doing little to stem the tide of destruction.

The Great Anti-War Cartoons


Craig Yoe - 2009
    Noted comics historian Craig Yoe brings the greatest of these artists together in one place, presenting the ultimate collection of anti-war cartoons. Together, these cartoons provide a powerful testament to the old adage, “The pen is mightier than the sword,” and remind us that so often in the last couple of centuries, it was the editorial cartoonist who could say the things his fellow newspapermen and women only dreamed of, enlightening and rallying a nation against unjust aggression.Readers of The Great Anti-War Cartoons will find stunning artwork in a variety of media and forms (pen-and-ink, wash, watercolor, woodcut — single images and sequential comic strips) from the hands of Francisco Goya to Art Young, from Robert Minor to Ron Cobb, and from Honoré Daumier to Robert Crumb, as well as page after page of provocative images from such titans as James Montgomery Flagg, C.D. Batchelor, Edmund Sullivan, Boardman Robinson, William Gropper, Maurice Becker, George Grosz, Gerald Scarfe, Bill Mauldin, Art Spiegelman and many more (see below for a complete list of contributors). The book also includes an Introduction by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus and a Foreword by Library of Congress curator Sara W. Duke.This book is neither ideological nor parochial: The cartoons range across the political spectrum from staunch conservative flag-wavers to radicals and hippies, and span two centuries and the entire globe (Australia, Russia, Poland, France...). But their message remains timeless and universal.

Forward From this Moment: The Columns of Leonard Pitts, Jr.


Leonard Pitts Jr. - 2009
    This book collects his best newspaper columns, along with select longer pieces. The book is arranged chronologically under five broad subject headings: "Living in America" (about the daily triumphs, tragedies, and curiosities of life in the USA); "The Living Years" (about children and family); "Roots, Chains, and Wings" (about human rights); "Keeping the Faith" (about spirituality and ethics); and "Forward from This Moment" (about life post-9/11).

Breaking Ground: The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Unearthing of Tse-Whit-Zen Village


Lynda V. Mapes - 2009
    The place chosen to dig a massive dry dock was atop one of the largest and oldest Indian village sites ever found in the region. Yet the state continued its project, disturbing hundreds of burials and unearthing more than 10,000 artifacts at Tse-whit-zen village, the heart of the long-buried homeland of the Klallam people.Excitement at the archaeological find of a generation gave way to anguish as tribal members working alongside state construction workers encountered more and more human remains, including many intact burials. Finally, tribal members said the words that stopped the project: "Enough is enough."Soon after, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe chairwoman Frances Charles asked the state to walk away from more than $70 million in public money already spent on the project and find a new site. The state, in an unprecedented and controversial decision that reverberated around the nation, agreed.In search of the story behind the story, Seattle Times reporter Lynda V. Mapes spent more than a year interviewing tribal members, archaeologists, historians, city and state officials, and local residents and business leaders. Her account begins with the history of Tse-whit-zen village, and the nineteenth- and twentieth-century impacts of contact, forced assimilation, and industrialization. She then engages all the voices involved in the dry dock controversy to explore how the site was chosen, and how the decisions were made first to proceed and then to abandon the project, as well as the aftermath and implications of those controversial choices.This beautifully crafted and compassionate account, illustrated with nearly 100 photographs, illuminates the collective amnesia that led to the choice of the Port Angeles construction site. "You have to know your past in order to build your future," Charles says, recounting the words of tribal elders. Breaking Ground takes that teaching to heart, demonstrating that the lessons of Tse-whit-zen are teachings from which we all may benefit.A Capell Family Book

Design for Obama: Posters for Change: A Grassroots Anthology


Steven Heller - 2009
    This selection of the very best—curated by Spike Lee and Aaron Perry-Zucker—is a visual document of the most inspirational U.S. presidential campaign in living history. From its inception, the Barack Obama campaign was destined to make history. Its message of inclusion and empowerment was spread by thousands of volunteers, a grassroots organization of unprecedented size and enthusiasm. Design for Obama built on this spirit with an online forum where artists, designers and supporters could upload their artworks and download others. Shepard Fairey’s social realist "Hope" poster became 2008’s enduring image, inspiring scores of designs that appeared on the streets, at rallies and registration drives, and in homes and offices around the country. Edited by designforobama.org founder Aaron Perry-Zucker and filmmaker Spike Lee, this collection showcases over 200 of the best pro-Obama posters. Contributors range from prominent graphic and street artists to young up-and-comers. With essays by Spike Lee, Perry-Zucker, and design historian Steven Heller, this outstanding collection serves as a matchless historical document of the widespread visual creativity that helped spur Obama to victory.

Red Square Blues


Kim Traill - 2009
    It would take some time for the scales to fall from her eyes. Over the next 17 years Kim discovered a Russia few tourists see. She ate some of the world's worst food, went to places few of us would venture, made good friends and met a lot of seriously dodgy people. On collective farms and on 40-hour train journeys, at red carpet parties and in marriage agencies, on nuclear bases and in the frozen wastes of Siberia, she navigated the country's changing fortunes, bearing witness to the horrific events of war, nuclear accidents, drug and alcohol addiction and ethnic rivalries. She even tried to make herself into a good Russian woman, abandoning her uniform of jeans, boots and Russian prison coat for heels and a skin-tight dress. RED SQUARE BLUES a full-blooded charge through a crumbling empire as it lurches from dark power to open society and back again. It is an eye-opening portrait of an eternally surprising country, leavened with the kind of bone-dry humour only life in a repressive police state can produce.

Edward R. Murrow's This I Believe: Selections from the 1950s Radio Series


Dan Gediman - 2009
    Murrow's 1950s This I Believe radio series. Includes such luminaries of the twentieth century as Pearl Buck, Norman Cousins, Margaret Mead, James Michener, Jackie Robinson, and Harry Truman. With an introduction by Edward R. Murrow and a foreword by Dan Gediman, executive producer of the contemporary This I Believe radio broadcasts, heard weekly on public radio.

Second Opinion: A Doctor's Dispatches from the British Inner City


Theodore Dalrymple - 2009
    They all pass through Theodore Dalrymple's surgery, and he uses the experience of treating them to examine life for those unfortunate enough to live at the bottom end of society. He writes with a combination of dry humour, compassion and, occasionally, anger -- mostly at the inhuman bureaucracy of the system, which works against the doctors and nurses as they try to help their patients.

The Fixer and Other Stories


Joe Sacco - 2009
    The Fixer and Other Stories is a new softcover that collects Sacco’s landmark short stories on the Bosnian War that previously comprised the hardcover editions of The Fixer and War’s End.

Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: The Story of America's Most Reviled President


Larry Tagg - 2009
    It was not always so. Larry Tagg's The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln is the first study of its kind to concentrate on what Lincoln's contemporaries actually thought of him during his lifetime. Be forewarned: your preconceived notions are about to be shattered.Torn by civil war, the era in which our sixteenth president lived and governed was the most rough-and-tumble in the history of American politics. The violence of the criticism aimed at Lincoln by the great men of his time on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line is simply startling. Indeed, the breadth and depth of the spectacular prejudice against him is often shocking for its cruelty, intensity, and unrelenting vigor. The plain truth is that Mr. Lincoln was deeply reviled by many who knew him personally, and by hundreds of thousands who only knew of him.Boisterous and venomous enough to be good entertainment, The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln rests upon a wide foundation of research that includes years of searching through contemporary newspapers. Tagg includes extensive treatment of the political context that begat Lincoln's predicament, riding with the president to Washington, and walking with him through the bleak years of war and up to and beyond assassination. Throughout, Tagg entertains with a lively writing style, outstanding storytelling verve, and an unconventional, against-the-grain perspective that is sure to delight readers of all stripes.Lincoln's humanity has been unintentionally trivialized by some historians and writers who have hidden away the real man in a patina of bronze. Once readers learn the truth of how others viewed him, they will better understand the man he was, and how history is better viewed through a long-distance lens than contemporaneously.The bicentennial of Lincoln's birth will be celebrated in 2009 and will be the biggest year ever for public interest in Abraham Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission created and funded by Congress will "inform the public about the impact Abraham Lincoln had on the development of our nation." The year will also witness the release of Steven Spielberg's long-awaited movie on President Lincoln. Of all the Lincoln books slated for publication, The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln will be the "must-read" title for general readers and scholars alike.About the Author: Born in Lincoln, Illinois, Larry Tagg graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. A bass player/singer of world renown, Larry co-founded and enjoyed substantial commercial success with "Bourgeois Tagg" in the mid-1980s. He went on to play bass for Todd Rundgren, Heart, Hall and Oates, and other acts. He currently teaches high school English and drama in Sacramento, California. Larry is the author of the bestselling book The Generals of Gettysburg, a selection of the Military Book Club.

Scott Caan Photographs, Vol. 1


Steve Olson - 2009
    This series of unapologetic photos is directed at art connoiseurs, young Hollywood voyeurs, fashionistas, and street-obsessed youth. Scott's passionate, and gutsy, attitude has distinguished him as a photographer and allowed him to compose intimate images that are without question inaccessible to the masses.

The Rainy Season: Three Lives in the New South Africa


Maggie Messitt - 2009
    The Rainy Season, a work of engaging literary journalism, introduces readers to the remote bushveld community of Rooiboklaagte and opens a window into the complicated reality of daily life in South Africa.The Rainy Season tells the stories of three generations in the Rainbow Nation one decade after its first democratic elections. This multi-threaded narrative follows Regina, a tapestry weaver in her sixties, standing at the crossroads where her Catholic faith and the AIDS pandemic crash; Thoko, a middle-aged sangoma (traditional healer) taking steps to turn her shebeen into a fully licensed tavern; and Dankie, a young man taking his matriculation exams, coming of age as one of Mandela’s Children, the first academic class educated entirely under democratic governance. Home to Shangaan, Sotho, and Mozambican Tsonga families, Rooiboklaagte sits in a village where an outdoor butchery occupies an old petrol station and a funeral parlor sits in the attached garage. It’s a place where an AIDS education center sits across the street from a West African doctor selling cures for the pandemic. It’s where BMWs park outside of crumbling cement homes, and the availability of water changes with the day of the week. As the land shifts from dusty winter blond to lush summer green and back again, the duration of northeastern South Africa’s rainy season, Regina, Thoko, and Dankie all face the challenges and possibilities of the new South Africa.

Skipjack: The Story of America's Last Sailing Oystermen


Christopher White - 2009
    Through these lively characters, White paints a vivid picture of life on a skipjack, a wooden oystering sailboat as they dredge for oysters—a favorite staple of iconic American seafood cuisine for over a hundred years. But this last vestige of American sailing culture is rapidly dying. State officials have mismanaged the waters, putting sport above business, and modernization above tradition. These captains must set aside their rivalry to fight for their very livelihood. With so many obstacles, it is not certain the fleet will survive the season. Hinging on its success, the viability of the nation’s premiere estuary and the survival of a classic American town hang dangerously in the balance.

Jack Kennedy: The Illustrated Life of a President


Chuck Wills - 2009
    Kennedy commanded the world's attentiontoday, his legacy is still very much alive. This rich visual biography tells an unusual personal story by collecting rare memorabilia, everything from doodles and diary entries to drafts of major addresses. Hundreds of photographs and a compelling narrative by presidential scholar Chuck Wills uncover the remarkable tale of an intensely private man, from his rivalry with his older brother and his persistent courtship of Jackie to the inner workings of a historical presidency. Dozens of removable facsimiles and a 60-minute audio CD featuring some of Kennedy's most famous speeches, including hisinaugural address and his speech at the Berlin wall, capture an intimate look at one of the most revered figures in American history.

From Cronkite to Colbert: The Evolution of Broadcast News


Geoffrey D. Baym - 2009
    From Cronkite to Colbert explains why. It examines an historical path that begins at the height of the network age with Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, when the evening news was considered the authoritative record of the day's events and forged our assumptions about what "the news" is, or should be. The book then winds its way through the breakdown of that paradigm of "real" news and into its reinvention in the unlikely form of such popularized shows as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. From Cronkite to Colbert makes the case that rather than "fake news," those shows should be understood as a new kind of journalism, one that has the potential to save the news and reinvigorate the conversation of democracy in today's society.

Completely Superior Person's Book Of Words


Peter Bowler - 2009
    

Fruit of the Sixties: The Founding of the Oregon Country Fair


Suzi Prozanski - 2009
    This book takes the fair - an annual celebration of alternative culture staged near Eugene, Oregon - through its first decade.More than just a gathering, the fair became an event that nurtured the values of change-agents who were experimenting with cooperative ways of living and learning. They may have turned on and tuned in, but most didn't drop out. Instead, many became activists who helped create community organizations as diverse as Saturday Market in Eugene, Urban Ore recycling in Berkeley, California, and Alligator Palace in La Conner, Washington.The story also features legendary icons of the counterculture, including Oregon author Ken Kesey, the Grateful Dead band, and pioneers of the New Vaudeville movement. These intertwined short stories weave a larger tapestry showing the fair's substantial contribution to building a West Coast community that embraced an emerging, alternative culture.

The Spy Who Loved Us: The Vietnam War and Pham Xuan An's Dangerous Game


Thomas A. Bass - 2009
    A friend to all the legendary reporters who covered the Vietnam War, he was an invaluable source of news and a font of wisdom on all things Vietnamese. At the same time, he was a masterful double agent. An inspired shape-shifter who kept his cover in place until the day he died, Pham Xuan An ranks as one of the preeminent spies of the twentieth century.When Thomas A. Bass set out to write the story of An’s remarkable career for The New Yorker, fresh revelations arrived daily during their freewheeling conversations, which began in 1992. But a good spy is always at work, and it was not until An’s death in 2006 that Bass was able to lift the veil from his carefully guarded story to offer up this fascinating portrait of a hidden life.A masterful history that reads like a John le Carré thriller, The Spy Who Loved Us offers a vivid portrait of journalists and spies at war.

The Lost Algonquin Round Table: Humor, Fiction, Journalism, Criticism and Poetry from America's Most Famous Literary Circle


Nat Benchley - 2009
    The dining-room corner was a hot bed of raconteurs and conversationalists." -Harpo MarxIn Jazz Age New York City, no literary lights burned more brightly than those of the legendary Algonquin Round Table. Now between covers for the first time is a collection of writing by 16 members of the group, an all-star gathering that took 90 years to come together. Many of these pieces have never been published before; plucked from private family collections and "lost" pieces from obscure periodicals.● Humor pieces by Robert Benchley, Franklin P. Adams, Heywood Broun, Frank Sullivan and Donald Ogden Stewart. ● Criticism from Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman and Robert E. Sherwood. ● Short fiction by Laurence Stallings and Pulitzer Prize-winners Edna Ferber and Margaret Leech. ● Journalism from Alexander Woollcott, Ruth Hale and Deems Taylor. ● Poetry by Adams, Marc Connelly, Dorothy Parker and John V. A. Weaver.With a foreword by Nat Benchley.

Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives


Stuart Allan - 2009
    This collection of twenty-one original, thought-provoking chapters investigates citizen journalism in the West, including the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia, as well as its development in a variety of other national contexts around the globe, including Brazil, China, India, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Palestine, South Korea, Vietnam, and even Antarctica. It engages with several of the most significant topics for this important area of inquiry from fresh, challenging perspectives. Its aim is to assess the contribution of citizen journalism to crisis reporting, and to encourage new forms of dialogue and debate about how it may be improved in future.

Best of the Web 2009


Lee K. Abbott - 2009
    . . and sometimes exhilarating—not unlike the Web itself.”—Los Angeles Times“The book, which canvasses both fiction and poetry, really cooks . . . in the melding of the two genres. . . . The Internet is built for this work: short and weird, just what one’s attention span wants when clicking through. And Almond and Leslie wisely pick up on that, making the book worth paging through, as well.”—Time Out Chicago“Though publishing online provides us the opportunity to present fiction free from economic imperative, permitting us, our authors, and our readers to relish in the experiment of expression, one of our great regrets is forgoing the sensation of binding it, printing it, holding the work we proudly select in our hands. Then along comes Dzanc Books, and this gift of a book, Best of the Web, that feels, to us, like the presentation of an award.”—Aaron Petrovich and Alex Rose, editors, Hotel St. George PressThis Best of the Web anthology is the first comprehensive print anthology to represent the vast array of contemporary online literature on an annual basis, bringing the world of web journals to a greater audience.In Best of the Web 2009:Waqar Ahmed, Arlene Ang , Michael Baker, Marcelo Ballve, Marge Barrett ,Carmelinda Blagg , Benjamin Buchholz, Blake Butler, Jimmy Chen, Amy L .Clark, Amber Cook, Bill Cook, Michael Czyzniejewski, Darlin’ Neal, MatthewDerby, Ryan Dilbert , Stephen Dixon, Alex Dumont , Claudia Emerson, D.A.Feinfeld, Marcela Fuentes, M. Thomas Gammarino, Cassandra Garbus, MollyGaudr y, Anne Germanacos, Matt Getty, Todd Hasak-Lowy, Karen Heuler, AshHibbert , Philip Holden, Roy Kesey, Hari Bhajan Khalsa, Tricia Louvar, PeterMarkus, Michael Martone, Heather Killelea McEntarfer, Lindsay Merbaum,Corey Mesler, Laura Mullen, Joseph Olschner, Jeff Parker, Elise Paschen,Elizabeth Penrose, Kate Petersen, Glen Pourciau, Sam Rasnake, JonathanRice, Tom Sheehan, Claudia Smith, Lynn Strongin, Terese Svoboda, JonThompson, Davide Trame, Donna D. Vitucci, Helen Wickes, Kathrine LeoneWright , Jordan Zinovich, as well as introductions from series editor NathanLeslie and edition editor Lee K. Abbot , and interviews with select authors.

Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy


Seth C. Kalichman - 2009
    Now from the editor of the journal AIDS and Behavior comes a bold expos� of the scientific and sociopolitical forces involved in this toxic evasion. Denying AIDS traces the origins of AIDS dissidents disclaimers during the earliest days of the epidemic and delves into the psychology and politics of the current denial movement in its various incarnations.Seth Kalichman focuses not on the "difficult" or doubting patient, but on organized, widespread forms of denial (including the idea that HIV itself is a myth and HIV treatments are poison) and the junk science, faulty logic, conspiracy theories, and larger forces of homophobia and racism that fuel them. The malignant results of AIDS denial can be seen in those individuals who refuse to be tested, ignore their diagnoses, or reject the treatments that could save their lives. Instead of ignoring these currents, asserts Kalichman, science has a duty to counter them.Among the topics covered:Why AIDS denialism endures, and why science must understand it.Pioneer virus HIV researcher Peter Duesberg's role in AIDS denialism.Flawed immunological, virological, and pharmacological pseudoscience studies that are central to texts of denialism.The social conservative agenda and the politics of AIDS denial, from the courts to the White House.The impact of HIV misinformation on public health in South Africa.Fighting fiction with reality: anti-denialism and the scientific community.For anyone affected by, interested in, or working with researchers in HIV/AIDS, and public health professionals in general, the insight and vision of Denying AIDS will inspire outrage, discussion, and ultimately action.See http: //denyingaids.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Backstage Pass: Rock & Roll Photography


Thomas Andrew Denenberg - 2009
    Many of the nearly one hundred images have rarely been published, and all reveal fascinating glimpses of celebrities off stage, away from the glare of the spotlights. Shot from the mid-fifties to the mid-nineties, the portraits often have a spontaneous, informal, and everyday feel, and most record their subjects before they had become immensely famous—and well practiced in posing for photographs. The more than fifty photographers who contribute to the volume are among the most talented in their field, including Lee Friedlander, Lynn Goldsmith, Bob Gruen, Mick Rock, and many more. Three original essays address topics suggested by the photographs. The authors discuss the coded nature of celebrity portraiture, the 1970s music scene in New York City, the frank sexuality of rock musicians, and how the Beatles’ look evolved over time. This book will be treasured not only by fans of rock & roll music and admirers of photographic portraits, but also by those who remember the vanished time when photographers had genuine access to performers, and were a crucial element in the worlds they were documenting.

Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks: Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz


Joel Meyerowitz - 2009
    This beautiful body of work is the result of a unique commission Meyerowitz received from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to document the city's parks. During the course of this project, Meyerowitz honed in on the 8,700 acres within the five boroughs of New York City that still exist in their original pristine state, as well as areas within parks that have been left to revert to wilderness. In creating this work, Meyerowitz has drawn on his own childhood memories of a New York that included "green space--open and wild, alive with rabbits, migratory birds, snakes, frogs and the occasional skunk--[that] gave me my first sense of the natural world, its temperament and its seasons, its unpredictability and its mystery." Through this rich compendium of images of parks, shorelines and forests, Meyerowitz's magnificent project transports the viewer into the heart of a lush wilderness, while contextualizing these nooks of nature as an inextricable part of city life today.Joel Meyerowitz (born in New York, 1938) is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. He is a two-time Guggenheim fellow, a recipient of both NEA and NEH awards, as well as a recipient of the Deutscher Fotobuchpreis. He has published over 15 books, including Cape Light (1978) and Aftermath: The World Trade Center Archive (2006). He lives in New York.

Dr. Seuss and Co. Go to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of America's Leading Comic Artists


André Schiffrin - 2009
    --ART SPIEGELMAN, PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF MAUS ON DR. SEUSS GOES TO WAR Hailed by Entertainment Weekly as "a provocative history of wartime politics," Dr. Seuss Goes to War, published nearly a decade ago, sold over one hundred thousand copies and introduced readers to the World War II-era political cartoons of Theodore Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss. Published to great acclaim, the collection included over two hundred cartoons from Geisel's years working for the New York daily newspaper PM. Now Dr. Seuss & Co. Go to War presents a new trove of close to four hundred discoveries from the PM World War II archives, including over one hundred cartoons by Seuss, fifty cartoons by the New Yorker's Saul Steinberg, and works by the leading cartoonists of the time, such as Al Hirschfeld, caricaturist for the New York Times; Polish-born American artist Arthur Szyk; and future New Yorker cartoonists Carl Rose and Mischa Richter. The cartoons and commentary in this handsome volume (to be published in the same format as the original Dr. Seuss Goes to War) cover the five years of the war, illustrating changing attitudes and providing a complex picture of the issues that concerned Americans.

The Nation Guide to the Nation


Richard R. Lingeman - 2009
    The essential lifestyle guide for the millions of progressives on both coasts, The Nation Guide to The Nation will help left-of-center types find left-leaning shops, cultural institutions, and gathering places in their own hometowns and on the road.CULTURAL: Art collectives / activist documentaries / political circuses / film festivals / writers' colonies / left-brained bookstores / arts advocacy groups / indie book publishers / the 25 greatest political movies / detective stories for liberals SOCIAL: Organic and slow food restaurants / political saloons and bars / bookshop cafés and conversational coffeehouses / sexy singles meet-ups / reading clubs and discussion groups / camps for radical kids / parades and festivals / parks and preservesENVIRONMENTAL: Activist groups / monkey wrenchers and sea shepherds / eco-friendly products / favorite green markets / super co-ops / eco-tourism / farm communes / energy solutions ORGANIZATIONS: Peace and anti-nuclear / feminist / GLBT / economic policy / immigrant rights / labor issues / campaign finance reform / civil liberties / radical mouthpieces / liberal think tanks MEDIA: Left-talk radio / press watchdogs / anti-corporate media / regional and local papers / alternative weeklies / a guide to the blogosphereGOODS AND SERVICES: Natural food stores / no-sweat clothing / socially conscious mutual funds / political tours / eco-beers and hemp pretzels / funeral homes and cemeteries (for a green send-off!)

Operation Bite Back: Rod Coronado's War to Save American Wilderness


Dean Kuipers - 2009
    Now his legacy has made him part of a legal battle over whether or not radical environmentalists should be prosecuted as terrorists.With unparalleled access, Dean Kuipers takes us deep into the heart of the campaign that helped give rise to the Animal Liberation Front and its spin-off the Earth Liberation Front, groups of anonymous eco-radicals responsible for over twelve hundred acts of sabotage and a billion dollars in damages and now among the FBI's top domestic terrorist priorities—even in the wake of 9/11. From his teenage association with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Earth First! to his brazen arson campaign to his reconnection with his Native American heritage among the Yaqui, Coronado's story redefines what it means to be green. Neither a biography nor a polemic about animal rights, Operation Bite Back tells the outlaw tale of a man who acted on well-defined principles and put his life on the line for an environmental movement that was ultimately forced to turn its back on him.

Feature Writing: Telling the Story


Stephen Tanner - 2009
    While news reporting remains the staple of contemporary journalism, increasingly opportunities are opening up for feature writers and even those who aspire to longer forms of journalism and creative non-fiction. Using a step-by-step description of styles and techniques this book will show students how to research, structure and write stories, how to navigate legal and ethical issues, and how to market their work: while learning how to tackle different styles of writing, from profiles, to issue-based stories, to columns, to biographies and advertising copy. Along the way they will be introduced to some of Australia's best-known journalists and writers and the hard lessons they have learned from their experience of writing, helping students forge their path to publishing and a career in feature writing.

The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy


Paul Shankman - 2009
    In 1983 anthropologist Derek Freeman published a scathing critique of Mead’s Samoan research, badly damaging her reputation. Resonating beyond academic circles, his case against Mead tapped into important public concerns of the 1980s, including sexual permissiveness, cultural relativism, and the nature/nurture debate. In venues from the New York Times to the TV show Donahue, Freeman argued that Mead had been “hoaxed” by Samoans whose innocent lies she took at face value.    In The Trashing of Margaret Mead, Paul Shankman explores the many dimensions of the Mead-Freeman controversy as it developed publicly and as it played out privately, including the personal relationships, professional rivalries, and larger-than-life personalities that drove it. Providing a critical perspective on Freeman’s arguments, Shankman reviews key questions about Samoan sexuality, the alleged hoaxing of Mead, and the meaning of the controversy. Why were Freeman’s arguments so readily accepted by pundits outside the field of anthropology? What did Samoans themselves think? Can Mead’s reputation be salvaged from the quicksand of controversy? Written in an engaging, clear style and based on a careful review of the evidence, The Trashing of Margaret Mead illuminates questions of enduring significance to the academy and beyond.  2010 Distinguished Lecturer in Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History “The Trashing of Margaret Mead reminds readers of the pitfalls of academia. It urges scholars to avoid personal attacks and to engage in healthy debate. The book redeems Mead while also redeeming the field of anthropology. By showing the uniqueness of the Mead-Freeman case, Shankman places his continued confidence in academia, scholars, and the field of anthropology.”—H-Net Reviews

Britain at War


Daily Mail - 2009
    Over 850 photographs from the archives of the Daily Mail present a true-life record of Britain's 'finest hour'.