Written into History Pulitzer Prize Reporting of the Twentieth Century from The New York Times

by Lewis, Anthony

• ISBN13: 9780805071788
• ISBN10: 0805071784
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-11-01
• Publisher: Times Books

Summary

With each news day, history unfolds as steadfast journalists uncover facts and public opinion. Drawn from the New York Times's archive of an unparalleled eighty-one Pulitzer Prizes, Written into History offers a fascinating record of the twentieth century. The Times's award-winning reports range from Antarctic dispatches on the Byrd expedition to the eyewitness account of the atomic bomb, from the First Amendment battle to publish the Pentagon Papers to the personal narrative of an interracial friendship. Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Lewis culled the newspaper's most acclaimed writing to chronicle life and history as it was happening, with such highlights as David Halberstam on Vietnam, J. Anthony Lukas on hippies, Anna Quindlen on AIDS, and John F. Burns on the Taliban. Lewis tells the stories behind the stories, describing journalism's changing role in the world. For armchair historians and aspiring reporters, this is a rich and memorable portrait of a century by the men and women who most artfully observed it.

Author Biography

Two-time Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Anthony Lewis is the author of Make No Law and the bestseller Gideon's Trumpet. In his nearly five decades of writing and reporting for The New York Times he served as the Times's London bureau chief for eight years and as a columnist for the paper from 1969 until 2001. A Visiting Lombard Lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, he lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Anthony Lewis

1: What the Government Doesn't Want You to Know
Introduction: A Change of Role by Anthony Lewis
Harrison E. Salisbury on Siberia, 1954
Sydney Gruson on Mao Tse-tung, 1957
A. M. Rosenthal on Poland, 1959
David Halberstam on Vietnam, 1963
John M. Crewdson on Illegal Immigrants, 1980
John Darnton on Solidarity, 1981
Philip M. Boffey on the Space Shuttle, 1986

2: In Danger
Introduction: Serving History by Anthony Lewis
Sydney Schanberg on Cambodia, 1975
Thomas L. Friedman on Beirut, 1982
Thomas L. Friedman on Israel, 1987
John F. Burns on Bosnia, 1992
John F. Burns on the Taliban, 1996
Sam Dillon on Mexican Drug Rings, 1998

3: Around the Globe
Introduction: Dispatches from Abroad by Anthony Lewis
Max Frankel on Nixon, 1972
Hedrick Smith on Sakharov, 1973
Henry Kamm on Refugees, 1977
Bill Keller on Gorbachev, 1988
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn on Tiananmen, 1989
Serge Schmemann on the Berlin Wall, 1990

4: The Public Advocate
Introduction: Taking a Position, Giving Context by Anthony Lewis
James Reston on Eisenhower, 1956
Anthony Lewis on the Supreme Court, 1962
Red Smith on Gambling, 1975
William Safire on Carter, 1977
Russell Baker on Norman Rockwell, 1978
Dave Anderson on George Steinbrenner, 1980
Jack Rosenthal on Poverty, 1981
Anna Quindlen on AIDS, 1991
Robert Semple on the Environment, 1995
Linda Greenhouse on Robert Bork, 1997
Maureen Dowd on Clinton, 1998

5: The Life and Times
Introduction: Cultural Arbiters by Anthony Lewis
Ada Louise Huxtable on Highways, 1969
Harold C. Schonberg on Beethoven, 1970
Paul Goldberger on Open Space, 1983
Donal Henahan on Opera, 1985
Margo Jefferson on Sitcoms, 1994
Michiko Kakutani on Norman Mailer, 1998

6: New Frontiers
Introduction: Reporting Discoveries by Anthony Lewis
Russell Owen on the South Pole, 1929
William L. Laurence on the Atomic Bomb, 1945
John Noble Wilford on Endangered Species, 1983
William J. Broad on Star Wars, 1985
Natalie Angier on Biology, 1990

7: Up Close
Introduction: Private Life and Public Life by Anthony Lewis
Meyer Berger on Rampage Killers, 1949
J. Anthony Lukas on Hippies, 1967
Alex S. Jones on Newspapers, 1987
Isabel Wilkerson on Urban Poverty, 1993
Robert McFadden on Violence, 1995
Rick Bragg on Carjacking, 1995
Mirta Ojito on Race Relations, 2001

8: Personal Stories
Introduction: An Objective Eye by Anthony Lewis
Nan Robertson on Toxic Shock, 1982
Howell Raines on Growing Up in the South, 1991

Appendix: Chronological list of New York Times Pulitzer Prizes

Index