| Title | : | America Observed: From the 1940s to the 1980s |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 197 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1988 |
Few journalists have covered the American scene as thoroughly as Alistair Cooke did. In addition to presenting the Sunday-night Letter from America broadcasts for the BBC, Cooke was the Guardian’s chief US correspondent for more than a quarter century, filing daily dispatches about the former colonies for his British readers.
Selected and introduced by Professor Ronald A. Wells, the pieces in America Observed showcase the full range of Cooke’s omnivorous interests and impressive reportorial skills. From baseball to Billy Graham, Harry S. Truman to Chappaquiddick, he depicts the defining characters and events of the American century with elegance and insight. “The Untravelled Road” is a poignant and perceptive snapshot of the civil rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama. “The Legend of Gary Cooper” eloquently summarizes the unlikely career of America’s leading man, and “A Woman of Integrity” delivers the news of Marilyn Monroe’s death with empathy and honesty. “The Ghastly Sixties” is a concise, candid, and ultimately inspirational chronicle of that turbulent decade.
Remarkably prescient and endlessly entertaining, the journalism collected here is some of the twentieth century’s finest.
America Observed: From the 1940s to the 1980s Reviews
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I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of newspaper treats, and now am only left wondering why it sat on my bookshelf, unread, for two years before I finally got to it. And also where I can find more of Alistair Cooke. He's by turns thoughtful, thought-provoking, highly amusing (one of the best ones here was an account of a Harvard/Yale cricket match), and occasionally even a little off, by current standards (what's up with the hate on hippies?). Mostly thoughtful and amusing, though, and as a commenter on America, I love the fact that he jumps around from covering people standing up to McCarthyism to beauty pageants to the civil rights movement to performance evangelists. It's chaos, which is part of [the fun of:] America, and it's also beautifully written chaos.
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An excellent collection of Cooke's reportage for The Guardian over four decades.
