Discussion Sign in to comment
(Be the first to comment)
A prize-winning historian’s revelatory account of a close-knit band of American reporters who, in the run-up to World War II, took on the world’s dictators and rewrote the rules of modern journalism
In the aftermath of World War I, as fledgling democracies emerged from the ruins of defeated empires and strongmen grabbed power across Europe, millions of Americans, desperate to wall themselves off from the chaos, adopted an “America First” stance. But a group of hard-hitting foreign correspondents envisioned a different role for the United States in the world: They warned their readers that tyranny abroad posed a threat even to America, and urged their fellow citizens to see their own fate as tied to global struggles.
As young reporters covering revolutions and coup attempts in the 1920s, John Gunther, H.R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson became friends - and sometimes rivals. By the 1930s, they were interviewing Mussolini, Gandhi, Nehru, and Hitler; sharing cigars with Churchill; and chatting with FDR. They started their careers by reporting the story, but by the outbreak of World War II, they were the story, garnering audiences in the millions. Breaking with the objectivity that was then the mainstay of American reporting, they devised a new kind of journalism, both intimate and subjective. Their work raised urgent questions: When should reporters take sides? Was it possible to cover would-be authoritarians without boosting their fame?
But the fault lines that ran through crumbling nations caused rifts in their own lives as well, threatening marriages, friendships, and careers. To tell those stories, they pioneered a new sort of memoir - like Gunther’s best-selling Death Be Not Proud (1949) - that spoke openly about loss, pain, and love. Together, they brought the most private aspects of their lives into public view, and scrutiny. Drawing on rich troves of archival material, Last Call at the Hotel Imperial examines these astonishing reporters’ legacy and captures history in the making.
Discoverer:
Author / Writer: 0