Written into History: Pulitzer Prize Reporting of the Twentieth Century from The New York Times

by Anthony Lewis (Editor)

With each news day, history unfolds as steadfast journalists uncover facts and public opinion. Drawn from the New York Times 's archive of an unparalleled eighty-one Pulitzer Prizes, Written into History offers a fascinating record of the twentieth century.

The Times 's award-winning reports range from Antarctic dispatches on the Byrd expedition to the eyewitness account of the atomic bomb, from the First Amendment battle to publish the Pentagon Papers to the personal narrative of an interracial friendship. Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Lewis culled the newspaper's most acclaimed writing to chronicle life and history as it was happening, with such highlights as David Halberstam on Vietnam, J. Anthony Lukas on hippies, Anna Quindlen on AIDS, and John F. Burns on the Taliban.

Lewis tells the stories behind the stories, describing journalism's changing role in the world. For armchair historians and aspiring reporters, this is a rich and memorable portrait of a century by the men and women who most artfully observed it.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Essays, Journalism

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2001

About the author

Anthony Lewis was an American intellectual and columnist for the New York Times.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of Pulitzer winning stories and essays over the decades. Some were a bit dated, naturally, but each had something to say to me. Favourites included the family who was shocked by their daughter's double life discovered after her death ( beginning of the generation gap) and the man who rated heros for a living. Essential for those who consider journalism to be part of our culture

[Migg · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this was not a great red for me, I was still able to immerse in some of the stories, all winners of the prestigius Pulitzer Prize. For the first 2/3 I was regretting picking this book for my first read of 2022, but then some stories got me hooked, like the one by Sheryl Wudunn; Crackdown in Beijing: In the streets, anguish, fury and tears (p133), The intolerable Andrei Sakharov by Hedrick Smith, November 4, 1973. Veteran Kills Twelve in Mad Rampage by Meyer Berger, Camden, NJ, Sep 1949, which describes moment by moment the story of Howard B. Unruh, 28 yo, veteran of a number of battles while shooting people in this neighborhood in East Camden, New Jersey., making him -probably- the first mass shooter in American history. Then there's The Two Worlds of Linda Fitzpatrick by J. Anthony Lukas, Oct 16, 1967, which in my opinion is a story that bears some similarities to the life and times of Patricia "Patty" Hearst, granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst. Also another story tat captivated me, and one that I had not heard before was First Born, Fast Grown: The Manful Life of Nicholas,, Ten by Isabel Wilkerson, Chicago, Il. April 1994. Isabel would later write two great works, The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste, both won (and still selling to date) much acclaim. And so, because only part of this compilation was interesting for me, I feel deserving 3 stars, because some of the stories alluded here are not reproduced in its totality, leaving me unable to give it a fair score. So, while is still a quick reading, once the reader goes to those stories of interest, it doesn't take much to savor it and finish it.

[Pete Iseppi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a collection of several stories that won Pulitzer Prizes for writers at the New York Times. I was hoping for better. I found the first 2/3 of the book boring. However, the final 1/3 was very interesting, which brought the entire book up to the level of just okay.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

mostly war and other gruesome themed articles - hard to read at night others hard to related to