Cheap booze. Flying fleshpots. Lack of sleep. Endless spin. Lying pols.
Just a few of the snares lying in wait for the reporters who c... read full description
Just a few of the snares lying in wait for the reporters who c... read full description
reviews
Jan 13, 2009
Madhu
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Excellent piece of reporting on an era when the print media actually meant something
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Oct 23, 2011
Bart
rated it: 
This book is every good thing that reviewers originally wrote about it. Some of it is dated, forty years later, sure, but the general idea of pack journalism is alive today as it ever was.
The funniest parts of The Boys on the Bus probably belong to Hunter S. Thompson, Timothy Crouse's coworker at Rolling Stone, but that should surprise no one. In some ways, this book is a making-of account of Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail from 1972.
The book's funniest l More...
The funniest parts of The Boys on the Bus probably belong to Hunter S. Thompson, Timothy Crouse's coworker at Rolling Stone, but that should surprise no one. In some ways, this book is a making-of account of Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail from 1972.
The book's funniest l More...
Jan 11, 2011
Matt
rated it: 
Rolling Stone reporters produced two epochal books documenting the 1972 presidential campaign: Hunter Thompson's "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" and Tim Crouse's "Boys on the Bus." I read this book while I was a totally green reporter -- as Crouse was in 1972 -- covering the 2008 McCain campaign and found myself relating completely. While it was a great read, it was a bit discouraging to find that Crouse already had every insight I was coming up with, precluding
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Dec 04, 2009
Kate
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I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book, as I thought it would be kind of a nostalgic, wasn't-everything-great back in the good old days of reporting kind of tale.
But this account of the reporters covering the 1972 Presidential primaries and general election is anything but.
Author Timothy Crouse gives a superior analysis of problems -- the shallowness of campaign reporting, how reporters are often not allowed to give any intelligent analysis at all, the forc More...
But this account of the reporters covering the 1972 Presidential primaries and general election is anything but.
Author Timothy Crouse gives a superior analysis of problems -- the shallowness of campaign reporting, how reporters are often not allowed to give any intelligent analysis at all, the forc More...
Nov 30, 2008
annemm
rated it:
Timothy Crouse was assigned by Rolling Stone to babysit the frequently stoned Hunter S. Thompson while reporting the 1972 presidential campaign. Thompson produced, and invented, some of the most innovative political journalism ever--the style was labeled Gonzo.
The outcome for Crouse, meanwhile, was a book called Boys on the Bus, written in a more conventional style. Yet it is a classic political text. I read it in grad school. You'd think things would have changed since 1972, but wel More...
The outcome for Crouse, meanwhile, was a book called Boys on the Bus, written in a more conventional style. Yet it is a classic political text. I read it in grad school. You'd think things would have changed since 1972, but wel More...
Sep 15, 2008
Jack
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Another rare reread for me. The companion piece to Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (Thompson and Crouse were both covering the '72 race for Rolling Stone), Crouse provides an insight into the sociology of journalism more than thirty years ago that's still eerily relevant today. Part of it might be that Nixon-McGovern and McCain-Obama contain similar undertones of establishmentarian conservatism versus youthfully energetic reformism; although I gleefully admit that
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May 31, 2010
Riley
rated it:
For being written in 1972, The Boys on the Bus did not seem like a dated campaign account at all. That says something since other standard political books of the time -- for instance The Selling of the Presidency, about Nixon's manipulation of television -- do show their age. One thing I kept thinking about...it seems ironic given today's vapid and understaffed media environment that someone would be bemoaning the state of the press as Watergate unfolded.
Aug 15, 2008
Chloe
rated it:
this book is about the campaign press corps for the '72 election - and is a great companion read to hunter thompson's "fear and loathing on the campaign trail of '72" which i read a couple year ago.
as i read this book i found myself wondering if it was unproductive to be spending so much time learning the details of the '72 campaign when i surely know far less details about the '08 campaign...but just as soon as i would have this thought i would equally notice the overarchi More...
as i read this book i found myself wondering if it was unproductive to be spending so much time learning the details of the '72 campaign when i surely know far less details about the '08 campaign...but just as soon as i would have this thought i would equally notice the overarchi More...
Jul 19, 2010
Ariel
rated it:
Possibly it's blasphemy, but I enjoyed this insider's look at the campaign trail better than fellow Rolling Stoner Hunter S. Thompson's book on the same subject. From someone without firsthand knowledge of the campaign, it read much more straight-forwardly and informatively, while still managing to be entertaining and a great, if depressing, portrait of journalism and the campaign. A must-read for aspiring campaign reporters.
Feb 16, 2009
Amanda
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This was an interesting one in that it focused on the press corps during the 1972 presidential campaign for both Nixon and McGovern. Also interesting in that Watergate was just beginning to spill over, and the writer was aware of the Nixon's camp's manipulation of the White House.
Nov 23, 2008
Brian
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Though it's comforting to know that the White House press corps was just as cowed and petty as it was forty years ago, it's maddening that so little has changed.
Dec 29, 2008
Dave
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Fascinating look at journos during the '72 election. Made a good compainion piece to David Foster Wallace's McCain2000 essay and Frost/Nixon this weekend
Jan 28, 2010
Thaths
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An excellent companion to HST's "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Train". Gives insight into how presidential elections are really covered.
Oct 20, 2007
Jonathan
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This book was written in 1973 but it holds up remarkably well -- more's the pity. Sure, there have been seismic changes in the media landscape. (Never mind the Internet, talk radio and cable TV. If Crouse were writing today, there's no way he'd waste a chapter on the newsweeklies.) But the mainstream media go about covering campaigns and politics in much the same way as they did 30 years ago -- which explains why they are in decline, and why our democracy is in so much trouble.
Dec 16, 2009
Nikki
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I'm a total political junkie and a journalist, so this book totally appealed to me in a way most non-fiction books do not. It was a facinating look at how presidental campaigns are covered, as well as how much access reporters used to get. There supposedly was a more recent book written about the female reports covering a campaign, but I can't remember what it's called now, and when I did remember what it was called, I couldn't find it anywhere to read.
Apr 04, 2010
Doug
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It will shock no one to learn that Nixon was a despicable prick or that McGovern was mismanaged by party bosses, but it's fun to ride the bus for a campaign season with the corps of "drink palsied journalists" who tried to make sense of it all from close range.
Jul 04, 2007
Blythe
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GREAT look into life as a journalist with the 1972 campaign. Also interesting if you've read HST's "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail." Crouse was his assistant with Rolling Stone.
Feb 05, 2008
Joy
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a lot of people are comparing elements (obama) from the current campaign cycle to a variety of things from the '60s (jfk), but i must say, the nail-biting excitement is what i imagine the '72 campaign with nixon and mcgovern was like. it's during times like these that i fervently wish i were a "boy on the bus" entirely because of this book.
Jan 23, 2012
ian
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Imagine what it would be like to shadow a political campaign riding a *bus* writing up your daily dispatch on a portable *typewriter* and filing stories via *Western Union* - that was political reporting in 1972 and Crouse gives us a glimpse into that world and the people (such as Hunter S. Thompson) who lived it.
Dec 17, 2009
Mark
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Crouse warned us all about David Broder and Robert Novak way back in 1974: why didn't we *listen*? Fascinating account about the inner workings of the journalism profession, especially its intimate relationship with power and profit (something that seems to have gotten much worse since then, if you can believe that).
Jul 30, 2008
Matt
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Very fun read. Not terribly well organized, i.e. not really a narrative. More just a collection of pithy—and sometimes cruel—observations about journalists, esp. of the political breed. Seems like he might be kind of an asshole but hey, this was really fun to read.
Jan 23, 2012
David
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"A shy man, [Adam Clymer] communicated most easily by griping." Thirty-six years, nine presidential campaigns and 2 trillion soundbites later, Crouse's press critique reads like a dispatch from an age of innocence but remains insightful and hilarious.
Dec 22, 2007
Paul
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An excellent read on the psychology, personality, and intimacy of what gets reported in national politics and why it gets reported. Extremely fascinating. It is good to have an 'in' somewhere that one usually imagines very exclusive.
Dec 17, 2009
Joseph
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Crouse was Hunter S. Thompson's assistant on the 1972 Presidential campaign, but the assistant delivered the better book. He has an anthropologist's eye for detail, and the reader witnesses the birth of pack journalism.
Jan 21, 2008
Bradley
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The rollicking urtext examining why American campaign journalism sucks via the 1972 Presidential campaign. Still depressingly appropriate today. Different clowns, same circus.
Jan 23, 2012
Megan
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necessary probably only for nerds, but it made me not want to be a journalist anymore.
Jun 28, 2007
Ira
rated it:
Awesome account of covering a Presidential campaign from a Rolling Stone writer.
Dec 16, 2009
the media is complicit in how stupid we are about our political leaders and their agenda
