War Stories: Reporting in the Time of Conflict From the Crimea to Iraq

by Harold Evans

Hardcover, 2003

Status

Available

Call number

070.4333

Collection

Publication

Bunker Hill Publishing Inc (2003), 96 pages

Description

The war correspondent trails clouds of glory. The names of the pioneers of the trade are stardust: Ernest Hemingway, Alexander Dumas, Henry Villard, Winston Churchill, Stephen Crane, John Reed, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Richard Harding Davis, John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, Jack London, George Orwell, Philip Gibbs, Luigi Barzini. The names from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, the Gulf War, and Kosovo are likewise as redolent of adventure and derring-do, with photojournalists and radio and televisioncommentators crowding the pantheon. They are the eyes of history. War Stories: Reporting in the Time of Conflict from The Crimea to Iraq tells their stories, from the very first reports from the Crimean War in 1853 to the Second Gulf War in 2003. War Stories: Reporting in the Time of Conflict From the Crimea to Iraq tells their stories, from the very first reports from the Crimean War in 1853 to the Second Gulf War. Through the notebooks, photographs, headlines, wires, telegrams, and satellite uplinks and direct interviews, Harold Evans describes the personal and professional challenges of these uniquely dedicated men and women as they attempted and succeeded, sometimes at the cost of their own lives, in retelling the most immediate stories of war. Harold Evans is an internationally acclaimed editor, author, and publisher. He was the editor of the Sunday Times and The Times of London. He was subsequently president and publisher of Random House and the editorial director for the publishers of US News & World Report, The Daily News, and The Atlantic. He is the author of The American Century. He guest curated the Newseum exhibition that inspired this book.   Harold Evans is the author of two critically acclaimed best-selling histories of America:  The American Century and They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators. This book was the basis for a four-part documentary of the same title on PBS, which he wrote. It is also being adapted into a college curriculum. His latest book is My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times, a memoir covering his early life, his years in Britain''s newspaper business and his move to America. He is editor at large of The Week magazine, and moderates The Week''s panel discussions with political and economic leaders. Evans graduated M.A. from Durham University and held a Harkness Fellowship at the Universities of Chicago and Stanford. In London, he was the editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981, and editor of The Times from 1981 to 1982. His account of these years was published in his best-selling book Good Times, Bad Times. He was regular presenter on the TV series What the Papers Say. Evans moved to America in 1984. He was the founding editor of Conde Nast Traveler magazine and President and Publisher of Random House Trade Group (1990-1997) From 1997-1999 he was Editorial Director and Vice Chairman of U.S. News & World Report, the New York Daily News, The Atlantic Monthly and Fast Company, a position from which he resigned in January 2000 to write full time. (Evans remains a Contributing Editor at U.S. News & World Report.) Among many recognitions, Evans was awarded the European Gold Medal by the Institute of Journalists. This followed his successful Sunday Times investigation and campaign on behalf of children injured by the pharmaceutical thalidomide. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the UK Press Award Committee, its highest accolade. In 2000, Evans was honored as one of 50 World Press Heroes on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Press Institute in defense of press freedom; for the IPI''s 60th anniversary, he will deliver the keynote address at their 2010 conference in Vienna. In 2001, British journalists voted him the greatest all time British newspaper editor, and in 2004 he was honored with a knighthood in the Queen''s 2004 New Year''s Honors list.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member RobertDay
This short book is based on an exhibition of the same name held at the Newseum, Washington and curated by Harold Evans, one-time editor of the London 'Times'. It starts out fairly simply with the historical story of war journalism, looking at its historical precedents such as Julius Caesar's
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account of the Gallic Wars and Thucydides writing about the Peloponnesian War. But these were accounts from people who were directly involved as protagonists; the first instance of dedicated and independent war reporting was Roger Fenton's reporting from the Crimean War.

There are short pen portraits of important war correspondents from history, though many of them are written in the third person present tense, which some readers find irritating.

But from about the third chapter onwards, the book turns to discussing serious issues, such as the role of the war reporter and their obligation to report honestly and without bias (and the way those objectives have been subverted by politicians and editors). It discusses the way that public opinion can be manipulated to throw up smokescreens, suggesting that the journalist is in some way the enemy in order to conceal the politicians' own shortcomings, errors or duplicity. It puts the question: how far should a war reporter report, and should they intervene in any way? Does their very presence in a conflict zone influence the combatants, for good or ill?

The book asks serious questions that need to be repeated often. In these days of "fake news" and ludicrous accusations of conspiracy and censorship, this is a book whose message will most likely go unheard, which is a shame. The first thing a democratic society needs is accurate and unbiased information. Reporters who go into conflict zones are putting their lives on the line - and losing them - to try to bring us that thing, and those who seek to subvert that free flow of information - politicians of government or opposition, or editors and executives seeking to further their own agendas where truth becomes inconvenient - are the real enemies of the people.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

96 p.; 6 inches

ISBN

1593730055 / 9781593730055
Page: 0.2569 seconds