Reporting the War: The Journalistic Coverage of World War II - Softcover

An outstanding and colorful account of the men and women who covered WW II for newspapers and radio. As we approach the 50th anniversary of D-day, Voss profiles the bravery and high ethical standards of these correspondents, photographers, and battlefield artists. Voss, a curator at the National Portrait Gallery, discusses such legendary figures as Edward R. Murrow, William Shirer, Ernie Pyle, and the cartoonist Bill Maudlin. But Voss is not content merely to recite the biographical details. He grapples with the very contentious issue of censorship when a great democracy goes to war, or as he puts it, ``the nation's security vs. the right to know.'' Two particularly noteworthy chapters deal with women journalists in combat and the African-American press. He chronicles the story of George Schuyler, editor of the black newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier. Schuyler trenchantly pointed out the irony of racism toward blacks in America while the country was fighting fascism abroad. The story of cartoonist Maudlin's run-in with General George Patton, who hardly appreciated Maudlin's satirical jabs at military life, is told with flair. Voss sees comics as having performed the function of editorial pages--rallying support for the war. He concludes his book with a moving discussion of John Hersey's Hiroshima, about the dropping of the atomic bomb. Voss also includes an appendix with Murrow's reporting from the Buchenwald concentration camp following its liberation, and a sample of Schuyler's searing commentary on racism. This book has dozens of photos and illustrations that bring the period to life. As the events of WW II fade from living memory, this book will hopefully preserve the work of that era's journalists for generations to come. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The highlights of this companion volume to an upcoming exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery are 121 photographs and illustrations, including such famous images as Joe Rosenthal's Pulitzer Prize-winning image of Iwo Jima and Margaret Bourke-White's picture of the liberation of the prisoners at Buchenwald. Also compelling are reprints of famous news stories and broadcasts by, among others, Ernie Pyle and Edward R. Murrow. The narrative is thorough and serviceable, if somewhat plodding, but more problematic is the haphazard organization of the chapters. The ten chapters (each of which opens with a brief introduction and a biographical profile) are arranged chronologically by type of media (broadcasting, photojournalism, painting, cartoons), by race or gender, by style ("Mavericks," featuring Hemingway is one example) and by subject ("Dawn of the Atomic Age"). Also troubling is the sometimes inconsistent tone: for instance, after a lengthy cataloguing of General MacArthur's blatant manipulation of the press (tampering with photo captions to make it seem that MacArthur was on the front, for example), these actions are apologetically dismissed: "MacArthur did indeed emerge from the war, in the eyes of many Americans, as a nearly flawless military genius. But in light of his genuinely good performance in the Pacific, that might have occurred without his press office's efforts to make it happen." Still, a general overview of American journalism's place in World War II has been wanting, and this volume satisfies that need quite competently.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.