I was initially attracted to this bio because I love reading history (thanks to my 8th grade teacher, one of the best ever Pat Cahill!). So I was fascinated by the thought of all the history Cronkite was witness to. As I read the reader reviews on various sites, there were many that were very critical with comment about all the typos in the book to the complaint that the author made Cronkite out to be an alcoholic, to only offering scant details on the historical events covered in the book.

Well, I don't know what those readers were talking about or where they were coming from. There were some typos, but no more than I see in any other books. Cronkite came from a generation that enjoyed an evening cocktail, and while the book did touch on some episodes where he went on a bender with a colleague, there were literally only a couple of them. He was never presented as an alcoholic in my reading of the story - I mean if I was meeting up with a friend in London, I'd probably go on a pub crawl too. And the limited details on the events he covered - it the author did provide deep details about all of them the book would be a 4 volume 10,000 page behemoth.

I found this bio extremely readable, entertaining and, I believe, very balanced in it's presentation of the man. Cronkite had an ego, he was human - not a god, and he had some quirks. It was an excellent read and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in history or Walter Cronkite.