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Interviews with History and Conversations with Power
A posthumous compilation of this award-winning and best-selling writer and journalist’s seminal, historic interviews. Oriana Fallaci was granted access to countless world leaders and politicians throughout her remarkable career. Considering herself a writer rather than a journalist, she was never shy about sharing her opinions of her interview subjects. Her most memorable interviews—some translated into English for the first time—appear in this collection, including those with Ariel Sharon, Yassir Arafat, the former Shah of Iran, Lech Walesa, the Dalai Lama, Robert Kennedy, and many others. Also featured is the famous 1972 interview in which she succeeded in getting Henry Kissinger to call Vietnam a "useless war" and to describe himself as "a cowboy." To this day he calls the Fallaci interview "the most disastrous conversation I ever had with the press."
280 pages, Hardcover
First published October 26, 2010
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About the author
Oriana Fallaci
75 books1,551 followersOriana Fallaci was born in Florence, Italy. During World War II, she joined the resistance despite her youth, in the democratic armed group "Giustizia e Libertà". Her father Edoardo Fallaci, a cabinet maker in Florence, was a political activist struggling to put an end to the dictatorship of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini. It was during this period that Fallaci was first exposed to the atrocities of war.
Fallaci began her journalistic career in her teens, becoming a special correspondent for the Italian paper Il mattino dell'Italia centrale in 1946. Since 1967 she worked as a war correspondent, in Vietnam, for the Indo-Pakistani War, in the Middle East and in South America. For many years, Fallaci was a special correspondent for the political magazine L'Europeo and wrote for a number of leading newspapers and Epoca magazine. During the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre prior to the 1968 Summer Olympics, Fallaci was shot three times, dragged down stairs by her hair, and left for dead by Mexican forces. According to The New Yorker, her former support of the student activists "devolved into a dislike of Mexicans":
The demonstrations by immigrants in the United States these past few months "disgust" her, especially when protesters displayed the Mexican flag. "I don't love the Mexicans," Fallaci said, invoking her nasty treatment at the hands of Mexican police in 1968. "If you hold a gun and say, 'Choose who is worse between the Muslims and the Mexicans,' I have a moment of hesitation. Then I choose the Muslims, because they have broken my balls."
In the late 1970s, she had an affair with the subject of one of her interviews, Alexandros Panagoulis, who had been a solitary figure in the Greek resistance against the 1967 dictatorship, having been captured, heavily tortured and imprisoned for his (unsuccessful) assassination attempt against dictator and ex-Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos. Panagoulis died in 1976, under controversial circumstances, in a road accident. Fallaci maintained that Panagoulis was assassinated by remnants of the Greek military junta and her book Un Uomo (A Man) was inspired by the life of Panagoulis.
During her 1972 interview with Henry Kissinger, Kissinger agreed that the Vietnam War was a "useless war" and compared himself to "the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse".Kissinger later wrote that it was "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press."
She has written several novels uncomfortably close to raw reality which have been bestsellers in Italy and widely translated. Fallaci, a fully emancipated and successful woman in the man's world of international political and battlefront journalism, has antagonized many feminists by her outright individualism, her championship of motherhood, and her idolization of heroic manhood. In journalism, her critics have felt that she has outraged the conventions of interviewing and reporting. As a novelist, she shatters the invisible diaphragm of literariness, and is accused of betraying, or simply failing literature.
Fallaci has twice received the St. Vincent Prize for journalism, as well as the Bancarella Prize (1971) for Nothing, and So Be It; Viareggio Prize (1979), for Un uomo: Romanzo; and Prix Antibes, 1993, for Inshallah. She received a D.Litt. from Columbia College (Chicago). She has lectured at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Harvard University, and Columbia University. Fallaci’s writings have been translated into 21 languages including English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Swedish, Polish, Croatian and Slovenian.
Fallaci was a life-long heavy smoker. She died on September 15, 2006 in her native Florence from breast cancer.
Fallaci began her journalistic career in her teens, becoming a special correspondent for the Italian paper Il mattino dell'Italia centrale in 1946. Since 1967 she worked as a war correspondent, in Vietnam, for the Indo-Pakistani War, in the Middle East and in South America. For many years, Fallaci was a special correspondent for the political magazine L'Europeo and wrote for a number of leading newspapers and Epoca magazine. During the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre prior to the 1968 Summer Olympics, Fallaci was shot three times, dragged down stairs by her hair, and left for dead by Mexican forces. According to The New Yorker, her former support of the student activists "devolved into a dislike of Mexicans":
The demonstrations by immigrants in the United States these past few months "disgust" her, especially when protesters displayed the Mexican flag. "I don't love the Mexicans," Fallaci said, invoking her nasty treatment at the hands of Mexican police in 1968. "If you hold a gun and say, 'Choose who is worse between the Muslims and the Mexicans,' I have a moment of hesitation. Then I choose the Muslims, because they have broken my balls."
In the late 1970s, she had an affair with the subject of one of her interviews, Alexandros Panagoulis, who had been a solitary figure in the Greek resistance against the 1967 dictatorship, having been captured, heavily tortured and imprisoned for his (unsuccessful) assassination attempt against dictator and ex-Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos. Panagoulis died in 1976, under controversial circumstances, in a road accident. Fallaci maintained that Panagoulis was assassinated by remnants of the Greek military junta and her book Un Uomo (A Man) was inspired by the life of Panagoulis.
During her 1972 interview with Henry Kissinger, Kissinger agreed that the Vietnam War was a "useless war" and compared himself to "the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse".Kissinger later wrote that it was "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press."
She has written several novels uncomfortably close to raw reality which have been bestsellers in Italy and widely translated. Fallaci, a fully emancipated and successful woman in the man's world of international political and battlefront journalism, has antagonized many feminists by her outright individualism, her championship of motherhood, and her idolization of heroic manhood. In journalism, her critics have felt that she has outraged the conventions of interviewing and reporting. As a novelist, she shatters the invisible diaphragm of literariness, and is accused of betraying, or simply failing literature.
Fallaci has twice received the St. Vincent Prize for journalism, as well as the Bancarella Prize (1971) for Nothing, and So Be It; Viareggio Prize (1979), for Un uomo: Romanzo; and Prix Antibes, 1993, for Inshallah. She received a D.Litt. from Columbia College (Chicago). She has lectured at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Harvard University, and Columbia University. Fallaci’s writings have been translated into 21 languages including English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Swedish, Polish, Croatian and Slovenian.
Fallaci was a life-long heavy smoker. She died on September 15, 2006 in her native Florence from breast cancer.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
November 6, 2022
There are a few authors that I would love to meet. The late Oriana Fallaci is one of them, although I have a feeling that she might intimidate me, to say the least! I loved two other books that I read by her, The Force of Reason and The Rage and the Pride.
As a teenager in Italy, Oriana fought Nazi-fascism. She would cycle around the hills of Tuscany, delivering messages and transporting explosives in her bike, hiding them in a basket among vegetables.
As an adult, she became a war reporter, covered major conflicts throughout the world, and interviewed many public figures. She was probably the only Western journalist to have interviewed Ayatollah Khomeini twice. I love how she called the chador, “a stupid, medieval rag”. She also interviewed Yasir Arafat, whom she despised; and Qaddafi, whom she also hated.
Here are some of my favorite anecdotes and quotes. I love the first quote, what she says about revolution. I’ve been thinking the exact same thing for years.
The Ayatollah, the supporters in the West having to walk with their tail between their legs, and revolution overall
“The West observed in uncomfortable silence, and those who had greeted the coming of the Ayatollah with enthusiasm were forced to admit, through clenched teeth, that they had been wrong. The so-called left, that left who thinks a revolution should always be forgiven, and that whoever doesn’t agree is a fascist, even attempted to justify the slaughter.
‘You have to understand that a revolution is not a dinner party.’
‘Remember Robespierre and the thousands of guillotines during the Reign of Terror, remember Lenin and the hundreds of thousands liquidated during the Great Purges.’
… Ever since the storming of the Bastille, the West has been living a lie called revolution. Ever since that day, this equivocal word has captured our minds like a holy word, to such a degree that it ends up being a synonym of liberty-equality-fraternity, a symbol of redemption and progress, hope for the oppressed. Ever since that day, the massacres committed in the name of revolution have been forgiven, justified, and accepted, the fact that its children are butchered after having butchered has been accepted. The idea that revolution is the cure for every cancer, a panacea for every illness, has been accepted. We still pronounce this word with respect, we respectfully study it, we respectfully analyze it in political and philosophical treatises. Our respect for the word ‘revolution’ is so great that we dare not contest it, refute it, unmask it and spit it back out in the face of the imbecilic and violent people who use it to advance their careers.
… The storming of the Bastille remains an event that should be honored, a day that should be celebrated. The word revolution is a holy word, and to debate it is sacrilege.”
The Ayatollah on the West
“Oriana: ‘Imam Khomeini, you always talk about the West in hard or critical terms. All of your judgments make it seem as though you view us as champions of every ugliness, every perversity. And yet the West took you in when you were in exile, and took in many of your collaborators, many of whom actually studied in the West. Many studied free of charge with scholarships. Don’t you think that there might be something good in us?’
It was as though he had been hit in the chest, he dropped his head until his chin was resting on his sternum and his turban rolled off and across the carpet, revealing his shiny skull, yellow like old ivory. He gathered it up immediately and put it back on with an angry gesture. Peevish, even.
Ayatollah: ‘There is something. There is. But when the serpent has bitten us, we stay away from sticks that look like serpents from a distance. And you are a serpent who has bitten us too often. You’ve always looked at us and seen a market, nothing more. Good things, like material progress, you kept for yourselves. Yes, we have received a great deal of evil from the West, a great deal of suffering, and now we have every reason to fear you and to prevent our young people from drawing near to you, from letting themselves be influenced even further by the West. I do not like the fact that our young people study in the West, where you corrupt them with alcohol, drugs, and half-naked women. You can keep your scholarships. They do nothing but create ignorance. You don’t give your own young people a diploma unless they’ve studied. You give ours a diploma even if they’re ignorant.’
Oriana: This is true, Imam. Even with your collaborators we’ve been too open-handed, we’ve exaggerated our hospitality. No one can doubt the fact that they learn very little in our universities. Often they don’t even learn the language they should be studying. It is not true, however, that we have denied you material progress. The airplane that you came home in is product of West, not of Islam. The telephone you use to communicate from Qom is a product of the West, not of Islam. The tapes you used to record your speeches, which you sent to Iran to feed the rebellion against the Shah are products of the West, not of Islam. The television which you use daily to communicate with your country is a product of the West, not of Islam. And the air conditioning that you use to stay cool, despite the heat of the desert, is a product of the West, not of Islam. If we are so corrupt and corrupting, why do you use our instruments of evil?”
Here she is with the Ayatollah
Coup D’Etat
“… the huge majority of so-called revolutions are really nothing more than very dull coup d’etats. Nothing more than a power grab made by a small band of uninformed thieves who move furtively in the dark like nighttime burglars. … three quarters of the existing regimes on the planet are the result of a coup d’etat.”
Golda Meir on Emotions and Feelings
“I’ve always felt sorry for people who are afraid of their feelings, of their emotions, and who hide what they feel and can’t cry wholeheartedly. Because anyone who can’t cry wholeheartedly can’t laugh wholeheartedly either.”
Golda Meir on the Feminist Movement
“… those crazy women who burn their bras and go around all disheveled and hate men? They’re crazy. Crazy. But how can one accept such crazy women who think it’s a misfortune to get pregnant and a disaster to bring children into the world? And when it’s the greatest privilege we women have over men! Feminism … Listen, I got into politics at the time of the First World War, when I was sixteen or seventeen, and I’ve never belonged to a women’s organization. When I joined the Zionist labor movement, I found only two other women – ninety percent of my comrades were men. I’ve lived and worked among men all my life, and yet to me the fact of being a woman has never, never I say, been an obstacle. It’s never made me uncomfortable or given me an inferiority complex. Men have always been good to me. …. I’ve never suffered on account of men because I was a woman. … men have never given me special treatment but neither have they put obstacles in my way.”
Golda Meir on Getting Older
“And then there’s my family. I don’t want my grandchildren to say, ‘Grandma behaved badly with her children and neglected them, and later she behaved badly with us and neglected us.’ I’m a grandmother. I don’t have many more years to live. And I intend to spend those years with my grandchildren. I also intend to spend them with my books. I have shelves full of books that I’ve never read. At two in the morning when I go to bed, I take one of them in my hand and try to read it, but after two minutes – pff! – I fall asleep and the book drops.”
Here is Oriana with Golda Meir
Golda Meir on the Palestinians
“… when there’s a war and people run away, they usually run away to countries with a different language and religion. The Palestinians instead fled to countries where their own language was spoken and their own religion observed. They fled to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan – where nobody ever did anything to help them. As for Egypt, the Egyptians who took Gaza didn’t even allow the Palestinians to work and kept them in poverty so as to use them as a weapon against us. That’s always been the policy of the Arab countries to use refugees as a weapon against us.”
On Robert Kennedy
“Rarely have I had an interview as tiring, as difficult. In the thirty-five minutes I spent with him, the only thing I truly wanted was for him to dismiss me. He wasn’t at all rude: on the contrary. He was courteous, patient, and kind. He never seemed displeased, he never refused to answer a question – even if they were brutal, cruel, indiscreet. But the more time passed, the more he closed in on himself, turning to stone on that melancholy, cold pedestal, never moving a muscle: legs crossed, hands folded, voice unchanging; that voice like a monotonous, broken siren; that voice never allowed itself to become cordial, trusting.”
Oriana and Robert Kennedy
As a teenager in Italy, Oriana fought Nazi-fascism. She would cycle around the hills of Tuscany, delivering messages and transporting explosives in her bike, hiding them in a basket among vegetables.
As an adult, she became a war reporter, covered major conflicts throughout the world, and interviewed many public figures. She was probably the only Western journalist to have interviewed Ayatollah Khomeini twice. I love how she called the chador, “a stupid, medieval rag”. She also interviewed Yasir Arafat, whom she despised; and Qaddafi, whom she also hated.
Here are some of my favorite anecdotes and quotes. I love the first quote, what she says about revolution. I’ve been thinking the exact same thing for years.
The Ayatollah, the supporters in the West having to walk with their tail between their legs, and revolution overall
“The West observed in uncomfortable silence, and those who had greeted the coming of the Ayatollah with enthusiasm were forced to admit, through clenched teeth, that they had been wrong. The so-called left, that left who thinks a revolution should always be forgiven, and that whoever doesn’t agree is a fascist, even attempted to justify the slaughter.
‘You have to understand that a revolution is not a dinner party.’
‘Remember Robespierre and the thousands of guillotines during the Reign of Terror, remember Lenin and the hundreds of thousands liquidated during the Great Purges.’
… Ever since the storming of the Bastille, the West has been living a lie called revolution. Ever since that day, this equivocal word has captured our minds like a holy word, to such a degree that it ends up being a synonym of liberty-equality-fraternity, a symbol of redemption and progress, hope for the oppressed. Ever since that day, the massacres committed in the name of revolution have been forgiven, justified, and accepted, the fact that its children are butchered after having butchered has been accepted. The idea that revolution is the cure for every cancer, a panacea for every illness, has been accepted. We still pronounce this word with respect, we respectfully study it, we respectfully analyze it in political and philosophical treatises. Our respect for the word ‘revolution’ is so great that we dare not contest it, refute it, unmask it and spit it back out in the face of the imbecilic and violent people who use it to advance their careers.
… The storming of the Bastille remains an event that should be honored, a day that should be celebrated. The word revolution is a holy word, and to debate it is sacrilege.”
The Ayatollah on the West
“Oriana: ‘Imam Khomeini, you always talk about the West in hard or critical terms. All of your judgments make it seem as though you view us as champions of every ugliness, every perversity. And yet the West took you in when you were in exile, and took in many of your collaborators, many of whom actually studied in the West. Many studied free of charge with scholarships. Don’t you think that there might be something good in us?’
It was as though he had been hit in the chest, he dropped his head until his chin was resting on his sternum and his turban rolled off and across the carpet, revealing his shiny skull, yellow like old ivory. He gathered it up immediately and put it back on with an angry gesture. Peevish, even.
Ayatollah: ‘There is something. There is. But when the serpent has bitten us, we stay away from sticks that look like serpents from a distance. And you are a serpent who has bitten us too often. You’ve always looked at us and seen a market, nothing more. Good things, like material progress, you kept for yourselves. Yes, we have received a great deal of evil from the West, a great deal of suffering, and now we have every reason to fear you and to prevent our young people from drawing near to you, from letting themselves be influenced even further by the West. I do not like the fact that our young people study in the West, where you corrupt them with alcohol, drugs, and half-naked women. You can keep your scholarships. They do nothing but create ignorance. You don’t give your own young people a diploma unless they’ve studied. You give ours a diploma even if they’re ignorant.’
Oriana: This is true, Imam. Even with your collaborators we’ve been too open-handed, we’ve exaggerated our hospitality. No one can doubt the fact that they learn very little in our universities. Often they don’t even learn the language they should be studying. It is not true, however, that we have denied you material progress. The airplane that you came home in is product of West, not of Islam. The telephone you use to communicate from Qom is a product of the West, not of Islam. The tapes you used to record your speeches, which you sent to Iran to feed the rebellion against the Shah are products of the West, not of Islam. The television which you use daily to communicate with your country is a product of the West, not of Islam. And the air conditioning that you use to stay cool, despite the heat of the desert, is a product of the West, not of Islam. If we are so corrupt and corrupting, why do you use our instruments of evil?”
Here she is with the Ayatollah
Coup D’Etat
“… the huge majority of so-called revolutions are really nothing more than very dull coup d’etats. Nothing more than a power grab made by a small band of uninformed thieves who move furtively in the dark like nighttime burglars. … three quarters of the existing regimes on the planet are the result of a coup d’etat.”
Golda Meir on Emotions and Feelings
“I’ve always felt sorry for people who are afraid of their feelings, of their emotions, and who hide what they feel and can’t cry wholeheartedly. Because anyone who can’t cry wholeheartedly can’t laugh wholeheartedly either.”
Golda Meir on the Feminist Movement
“… those crazy women who burn their bras and go around all disheveled and hate men? They’re crazy. Crazy. But how can one accept such crazy women who think it’s a misfortune to get pregnant and a disaster to bring children into the world? And when it’s the greatest privilege we women have over men! Feminism … Listen, I got into politics at the time of the First World War, when I was sixteen or seventeen, and I’ve never belonged to a women’s organization. When I joined the Zionist labor movement, I found only two other women – ninety percent of my comrades were men. I’ve lived and worked among men all my life, and yet to me the fact of being a woman has never, never I say, been an obstacle. It’s never made me uncomfortable or given me an inferiority complex. Men have always been good to me. …. I’ve never suffered on account of men because I was a woman. … men have never given me special treatment but neither have they put obstacles in my way.”
Golda Meir on Getting Older
“And then there’s my family. I don’t want my grandchildren to say, ‘Grandma behaved badly with her children and neglected them, and later she behaved badly with us and neglected us.’ I’m a grandmother. I don’t have many more years to live. And I intend to spend those years with my grandchildren. I also intend to spend them with my books. I have shelves full of books that I’ve never read. At two in the morning when I go to bed, I take one of them in my hand and try to read it, but after two minutes – pff! – I fall asleep and the book drops.”
Here is Oriana with Golda Meir
Golda Meir on the Palestinians
“… when there’s a war and people run away, they usually run away to countries with a different language and religion. The Palestinians instead fled to countries where their own language was spoken and their own religion observed. They fled to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan – where nobody ever did anything to help them. As for Egypt, the Egyptians who took Gaza didn’t even allow the Palestinians to work and kept them in poverty so as to use them as a weapon against us. That’s always been the policy of the Arab countries to use refugees as a weapon against us.”
On Robert Kennedy
“Rarely have I had an interview as tiring, as difficult. In the thirty-five minutes I spent with him, the only thing I truly wanted was for him to dismiss me. He wasn’t at all rude: on the contrary. He was courteous, patient, and kind. He never seemed displeased, he never refused to answer a question – even if they were brutal, cruel, indiscreet. But the more time passed, the more he closed in on himself, turning to stone on that melancholy, cold pedestal, never moving a muscle: legs crossed, hands folded, voice unchanging; that voice like a monotonous, broken siren; that voice never allowed itself to become cordial, trusting.”
Oriana and Robert Kennedy
February 9, 2021
Incredible work from a fascinating journalist I should've heard of far earlier than now. Fallaci interviews some of the despots and dictators that were huge names in the 1960s to the 1980s, their impact on the landscape of Eastern and even Western politics still felt to this day. Her interviews are formatted well, cutting, simple questions that lead to engaging discussion that always leaves a line or two of sheer brilliance.
Interviews with History and Conversations with Power works best without the preamble, of which there are many pages dedicated to few. Some interviews have no introduction to the scope of the political landscape, nor do they offer any semblance of timescale. I preferred these moments, that dive right into the verbal combat would soon show its importance not just as a piece from years gone by, but the quotes throughout have relevance in the modern day.
Essential non-fiction reading, a collection of interviews with people you may not have heard of, but are well worth investing the time into understanding, especially considering how villainous or controversial many of them were. Fallaci paints that picture well.
Interviews with History and Conversations with Power works best without the preamble, of which there are many pages dedicated to few. Some interviews have no introduction to the scope of the political landscape, nor do they offer any semblance of timescale. I preferred these moments, that dive right into the verbal combat would soon show its importance not just as a piece from years gone by, but the quotes throughout have relevance in the modern day.
Essential non-fiction reading, a collection of interviews with people you may not have heard of, but are well worth investing the time into understanding, especially considering how villainous or controversial many of them were. Fallaci paints that picture well.
June 26, 2019
“The main point arises from the fact that I’ve always acted alone,” Kissinger says. “Americans like that immensely. Americans like the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse, the cowboy who rides all alone into the town, the village, with his horse and nothing else.”
February 6, 2019
Fascinating collection of period pieces, the combative Ms Fallaci pitting herself against the prominent political leaders of 60s and 70s - Reza Pahlavi, Meir, Bhutto, Ghaddafi, Ghandi, Sharon, and so on.
Working on the premise that a journalist asks the questions that any reasonably informed citizen would ask given access and research time, Fallaci is correct in considering herself a writer and not a journalist; she inserts herself and her perspectives into the fray, doesn’t muck about with supposed objectivity, considers herself superior to most of her interviewees.
She thrives on her notoriety - more than one interviewer cites, admiringly, the story of her flinging her chador in Khomeni’s face. (One of the many reasons why Khomeni agreed to be interviewed by her was that she has skewered Pahlavi a few years earlier. Both this, and her lengthy account of a week in post-Revolution Iran, are the stand-outs of this volume.)
But fascinating encounters are let down by sub-par presentations. Many of the interviews are, in their own right, historical footnotes (Meir before the Yom Kippur War; Sharon just before Sabra and Chatilla; Deng Xiopeng still maintaining that Hua Guofeng was China’s too dog). But there is no contextualisation, no footnotes, no editorial statements underlining the impact of these encounters at that time and in these places.
Elsewhere, a sea of typographical errors gives the strong impression that this was a rushed affair, and as such a wasted opportunity. Worth reading, no doubt; but be prepared to search far afield for context. (To be fair, this was quite fun. Zulfikar Bhutto led me down a two hour rabbit hole...)
Working on the premise that a journalist asks the questions that any reasonably informed citizen would ask given access and research time, Fallaci is correct in considering herself a writer and not a journalist; she inserts herself and her perspectives into the fray, doesn’t muck about with supposed objectivity, considers herself superior to most of her interviewees.
She thrives on her notoriety - more than one interviewer cites, admiringly, the story of her flinging her chador in Khomeni’s face. (One of the many reasons why Khomeni agreed to be interviewed by her was that she has skewered Pahlavi a few years earlier. Both this, and her lengthy account of a week in post-Revolution Iran, are the stand-outs of this volume.)
But fascinating encounters are let down by sub-par presentations. Many of the interviews are, in their own right, historical footnotes (Meir before the Yom Kippur War; Sharon just before Sabra and Chatilla; Deng Xiopeng still maintaining that Hua Guofeng was China’s too dog). But there is no contextualisation, no footnotes, no editorial statements underlining the impact of these encounters at that time and in these places.
Elsewhere, a sea of typographical errors gives the strong impression that this was a rushed affair, and as such a wasted opportunity. Worth reading, no doubt; but be prepared to search far afield for context. (To be fair, this was quite fun. Zulfikar Bhutto led me down a two hour rabbit hole...)
April 14, 2018
A quirky book -- Fallaci herself is quite neurotic. But some fascinating material in some of these interviews. Some are simply the rantings of lunatics and psychopaths; but this, too, as in the case of Qadaffi, can prove illuminating.
The book, as others have noted is very poorly edited -- which is all the more surprising as I had this on pre-order for nearly 2 years, and these are not even new translations.
The book, as others have noted is very poorly edited -- which is all the more surprising as I had this on pre-order for nearly 2 years, and these are not even new translations.
February 15, 2019
Fallaci’s Interviews are the stuff of legend.
She spoke to everyone who was moving and shaking the world in the 60s-70s-80s
She is forthright and honest. Unbiased - except against dictatorship - whether of left or right.
Her interviews with khomeini and Gaddafi are incredible
Two negatives
First the book badly needed a better proof reading and a better editing
I wont list the typos and interview format mistakes
Also
Good reads said this has 280 pages and it has over 370...
She spoke to everyone who was moving and shaking the world in the 60s-70s-80s
She is forthright and honest. Unbiased - except against dictatorship - whether of left or right.
Her interviews with khomeini and Gaddafi are incredible
Two negatives
First the book badly needed a better proof reading and a better editing
I wont list the typos and interview format mistakes
Also
Good reads said this has 280 pages and it has over 370...
November 4, 2018
This book is about an Italian lady who interviewed a lot of top top politicians and world leaders in the 1960s and 1970s. I have to admit that I really did respect Oriana even though I later found out that she had a very negative view of the Islamic world which is strange in a way because she went to those countries so often as a part of her interviews in the first place. She was brave there is no doubt about that. Some of the questions she asked to some of the leaders she spoke to were brutiful to say the least. Here are some of the best bits from the interviews. She interviewed people like the Dalai Lama, Golda Meir, YAsir Arafat, Ghadaffi, Ayatollah Khomeini, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Ariel Sharon and Lech Walesa:
• Golda Meir: what person with any sense likes himself? I know myself too well to like myself. I know all too well that I’m not what I’d like to be.
• You know how long it takes how much patience and tolerance it takes for a caterpillar to become a butterfly. If you upset it with your haste or torment it with your needs it won’t even become a chrysalis.
• What if my cult of reason and freedom had blinded me in the same way the mullahs were blinded by the cult of Allah and his commandments.
• Indira Ghandi: Look life is always full of dangers and I don’t think one should avoid dangers. I think one should do what seems right. And if what seems right involves danger ... well one must risk danger.
• Indira Ghandi: I’m trained to difficulties. Difficulties can’t be eliminated from life. Individuals will always have them, countries will always have them. The only thing is to accept them, if possible overcome them, otherwise to come to terms with them it’s all right to fight, yes but only when it’s possible. When it’s possible it’s better to stoop to compromise without resisting and without complaining. People who complain are selfish. When I was young I was very selfish now not any more. Now I don’t get upset by unpleasant things. I don’t play the victim and I’m always ready to come to terms with life.
• Lech Walesa: The government began selling lots of televisions to the farmers, tv entered their homes and the programmes they watched made them doubt their religious faith and become atheists.
• Lech Walesa: In Poland he was poor but he was already ready to make sacrifices for others, to share what little he had with others and today he is only think about money and fun. The dollars have gone to his head and we don’t get along any more. Yes it’s great to have money we need money to live decently an raise our children, to feed them and to send them to school, but money isn’t everything and it can’t buy dignity. On the contrary it exposes you to a lot of temptations. It often makes you wicked. I never want to become a millionaire or a capitalist.
• Deng Xiaoping: we think that Stalins contribution to the revolution is much more important than the mistakes that he made. To use the Chinese way, the negative score for stalin would be 30% to 70%: 30 for his errors and 70 for his merits.
• Golda Meir: what person with any sense likes himself? I know myself too well to like myself. I know all too well that I’m not what I’d like to be.
• You know how long it takes how much patience and tolerance it takes for a caterpillar to become a butterfly. If you upset it with your haste or torment it with your needs it won’t even become a chrysalis.
• What if my cult of reason and freedom had blinded me in the same way the mullahs were blinded by the cult of Allah and his commandments.
• Indira Ghandi: Look life is always full of dangers and I don’t think one should avoid dangers. I think one should do what seems right. And if what seems right involves danger ... well one must risk danger.
• Indira Ghandi: I’m trained to difficulties. Difficulties can’t be eliminated from life. Individuals will always have them, countries will always have them. The only thing is to accept them, if possible overcome them, otherwise to come to terms with them it’s all right to fight, yes but only when it’s possible. When it’s possible it’s better to stoop to compromise without resisting and without complaining. People who complain are selfish. When I was young I was very selfish now not any more. Now I don’t get upset by unpleasant things. I don’t play the victim and I’m always ready to come to terms with life.
• Lech Walesa: The government began selling lots of televisions to the farmers, tv entered their homes and the programmes they watched made them doubt their religious faith and become atheists.
• Lech Walesa: In Poland he was poor but he was already ready to make sacrifices for others, to share what little he had with others and today he is only think about money and fun. The dollars have gone to his head and we don’t get along any more. Yes it’s great to have money we need money to live decently an raise our children, to feed them and to send them to school, but money isn’t everything and it can’t buy dignity. On the contrary it exposes you to a lot of temptations. It often makes you wicked. I never want to become a millionaire or a capitalist.
• Deng Xiaoping: we think that Stalins contribution to the revolution is much more important than the mistakes that he made. To use the Chinese way, the negative score for stalin would be 30% to 70%: 30 for his errors and 70 for his merits.
May 21, 2021
A heady and abrasive collection of interviews with some of the most prominent statesmen and women (and dictators) of the 1970s and early 80s, which is let down by some poor editing. Readers should also note that this book is not Interview with History. It contains some of the interviews from that earlier book, but I feel this needs to be clarified, as I was unsure myself before purchasing it. (For reference, the interviewees here are: Robert Kennedy, the Dalai Lama, Vo Nguyen Giap, Henry Kissinger, Golda Meir, Yasir Arafat, Muammar el-Qaddafi, Mohammed Riza Pahlavi (the Shah of Iran), Ayatollah Khomeini, Indira Gandhi, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Ariel Sharon, Lech Walesa and Deng Xiaoping.)
This is the sort of book where the phrase 'they don't make 'em like that anymore' goes through your head. They can't make 'em like that any more, to be honest; not with the slick, PR-coached play-it-safe model politicians use nowadays to snuff out any potential criticism. This affects both the calibre of politicians – I can't think of any today, with the obvious exception of Donald Trump, who would speak with the candidness of any of the interviewees in this book – and journalists. For not only does this book provide a colourful mix of dictators, statesmen and ideologues, it also puts them into conflict with the legendarily pugnacious Italian interviewer Oriana Fallaci.
To get a sense of who Fallaci was, one only has to look to her two most (in)famous interviews: those with Henry Kissinger and the Ayatollah Khomeini. She managed to get the slippery Kissinger to jaw indulgently about himself and commit a number of gaffes: he later called it his worst ever interview with the press. And with the Ayatollah, who was at the time ruthlessly tightening the grip of Islamic fundamentalism on revolutionary Iran, Fallaci – in a heated exchange – tore off the black chador (similar to a burqa) that she had been forced to wear. Khomeini – in the holy city of Qom, at the heart of his power – stormed out. Fallaci refused to leave – hilariously, the male guards were scared to touch her to escort her out, lest contact with a woman put them afoul of the religious zealots – and managed to browbeat everyone involved for a second interview with the Ayatollah. Without her chador. Where she proceeded to challenge him on the very things that had caused him to storm out in the last interview. Yeah. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Sadly.
This Ayatollah interview is the highlight of the book – a surreal 90-page odyssey that reads like a dystopian Alice in Wonderland. Fallaci writes well – though she doesn't often get the chance to show it, as many of the interviews are mere transcripts – and she is able to have detailed, tough and sometimes witty sparring sessions with her interviewees. Some are better than others, of course (aside from the Ayatollah one, the Dalai Lama, Golda Meir, Gaddafi and Indira Gandhi ones are highlights), but all are bracingly heavyweight.
Unfortunately, Interviews with History and Conversations with Power is let down by some poor editing. At first, this was just a blizzard of typos – which is a poor show, but nothing unforgivable, even if they do continue throughout the whole book. But the reader's dissatisfaction is exacerbated by the lack of any introduction to the book that would put Fallaci's career into context, nor do many of the individual interviews do particularly well at providing introduction or context. (Have Google to hand if you want to know what the hell they are talking about sometimes.)
The dissatisfaction is complete when you realize the interviews are not chronological. This in itself would not be a problem if they were compiled in such a way as to enhance narrative flow, but they are not. The failure to make a virtue out of sequencing is most glaringly evident with regards to the Khomeini saga: introducing a November 1972 interview with Golda Meir, Fallaci says that Gaddafi has never granted her an interview. A couple of chapters later, we get a 1979 interview with Gaddafi. (Clearly, the book has ripped the Golda Meir interview from Interview with History without remedying this small detail.) In this Gaddafi interview, a Libyan fixer makes reference to the infamous chador incident with Khomeini. Putting this interview before Khomeini's – just two chapters later, also set in 1979 – seems a mistake. To capstone this blunder, the Khomeini interview ends with a challenge to Gaddafi to allow her to interview him, which would have been a nice segue into the Gaddafi interview had we not already read it two chapters earlier. Clearly, not much thought has gone into the sequencing of this book.
It is an engrossing read; Fallaci and some of the people she interviews are fascinating. (And some are beneath contempt.) It is just a shame that, with the typos and the poor editorial decisions, some of the power of this powerful woman is lost.
This is the sort of book where the phrase 'they don't make 'em like that anymore' goes through your head. They can't make 'em like that any more, to be honest; not with the slick, PR-coached play-it-safe model politicians use nowadays to snuff out any potential criticism. This affects both the calibre of politicians – I can't think of any today, with the obvious exception of Donald Trump, who would speak with the candidness of any of the interviewees in this book – and journalists. For not only does this book provide a colourful mix of dictators, statesmen and ideologues, it also puts them into conflict with the legendarily pugnacious Italian interviewer Oriana Fallaci.
To get a sense of who Fallaci was, one only has to look to her two most (in)famous interviews: those with Henry Kissinger and the Ayatollah Khomeini. She managed to get the slippery Kissinger to jaw indulgently about himself and commit a number of gaffes: he later called it his worst ever interview with the press. And with the Ayatollah, who was at the time ruthlessly tightening the grip of Islamic fundamentalism on revolutionary Iran, Fallaci – in a heated exchange – tore off the black chador (similar to a burqa) that she had been forced to wear. Khomeini – in the holy city of Qom, at the heart of his power – stormed out. Fallaci refused to leave – hilariously, the male guards were scared to touch her to escort her out, lest contact with a woman put them afoul of the religious zealots – and managed to browbeat everyone involved for a second interview with the Ayatollah. Without her chador. Where she proceeded to challenge him on the very things that had caused him to storm out in the last interview. Yeah. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Sadly.
This Ayatollah interview is the highlight of the book – a surreal 90-page odyssey that reads like a dystopian Alice in Wonderland. Fallaci writes well – though she doesn't often get the chance to show it, as many of the interviews are mere transcripts – and she is able to have detailed, tough and sometimes witty sparring sessions with her interviewees. Some are better than others, of course (aside from the Ayatollah one, the Dalai Lama, Golda Meir, Gaddafi and Indira Gandhi ones are highlights), but all are bracingly heavyweight.
Unfortunately, Interviews with History and Conversations with Power is let down by some poor editing. At first, this was just a blizzard of typos – which is a poor show, but nothing unforgivable, even if they do continue throughout the whole book. But the reader's dissatisfaction is exacerbated by the lack of any introduction to the book that would put Fallaci's career into context, nor do many of the individual interviews do particularly well at providing introduction or context. (Have Google to hand if you want to know what the hell they are talking about sometimes.)
The dissatisfaction is complete when you realize the interviews are not chronological. This in itself would not be a problem if they were compiled in such a way as to enhance narrative flow, but they are not. The failure to make a virtue out of sequencing is most glaringly evident with regards to the Khomeini saga: introducing a November 1972 interview with Golda Meir, Fallaci says that Gaddafi has never granted her an interview. A couple of chapters later, we get a 1979 interview with Gaddafi. (Clearly, the book has ripped the Golda Meir interview from Interview with History without remedying this small detail.) In this Gaddafi interview, a Libyan fixer makes reference to the infamous chador incident with Khomeini. Putting this interview before Khomeini's – just two chapters later, also set in 1979 – seems a mistake. To capstone this blunder, the Khomeini interview ends with a challenge to Gaddafi to allow her to interview him, which would have been a nice segue into the Gaddafi interview had we not already read it two chapters earlier. Clearly, not much thought has gone into the sequencing of this book.
It is an engrossing read; Fallaci and some of the people she interviews are fascinating. (And some are beneath contempt.) It is just a shame that, with the typos and the poor editorial decisions, some of the power of this powerful woman is lost.
November 5, 2019
Oriana Fallaci, a journalist, a war correspondent and novelist, in her posthumous book, Interviews with History and Conversations with Power, complies the historic interviews granted to her by countless world leaders and politicians like Henry Kessinger, Ariel Sharon, Yassir Arafat, Golda Meir, the former Shah of Iran, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Lech Walesa, the Dalai Lama, Robert Kennedy, Zulfiqar Bhutto, Indira Gandhi and many others.
Henry Kessinger, at the time of his interview with Fallaci in 1972 considered it as the most “disastrous conversation” her ever had.
Her interview with Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi in 1979 was a bizarre encounter where Fallaci audacious questions seemed to be too much for the Libyan leader and conversation ended up abruptly.
Many of her interviews with the world leaders often stretched to several days and sometimes ending it by screaming or hurling microphones at her and storming out.
Few weeks before her death in 2006, Oriana Fallaci became one of the first people outside the church hierarchy to be granted a private audience by Benedict XVI, despite being all her life a self-described “Christian atheist”. The audience was granted with the condition that she say nothing about what passed between them.
Henry Kessinger, at the time of his interview with Fallaci in 1972 considered it as the most “disastrous conversation” her ever had.
Her interview with Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi in 1979 was a bizarre encounter where Fallaci audacious questions seemed to be too much for the Libyan leader and conversation ended up abruptly.
Many of her interviews with the world leaders often stretched to several days and sometimes ending it by screaming or hurling microphones at her and storming out.
Few weeks before her death in 2006, Oriana Fallaci became one of the first people outside the church hierarchy to be granted a private audience by Benedict XVI, despite being all her life a self-described “Christian atheist”. The audience was granted with the condition that she say nothing about what passed between them.
February 20, 2023
Genlæsning februar 2023: Geniale interviews fra en tid, hvor journalister/stjernerapportere, hvor aviser og papirmagasiner havde deres storhedstid. Den italienske stjernereporter Oriana Fallaci formår at få det bedste af sine "interviewofre", og især samtalerne med Golda Meir, Indira Ghandi, og et interview med en fuldstændig forrykt Oberst Ghadafi i 1960'erne er blandt højdepunkterne.
August 21, 2018
Oriana Fallaci's legacy of incisive journalism and brutal interviews that ask controversial political figures tough questions has been (rightfully) tarnished by her unacceptable and offensive Islamophobia. Whether or not her work can still be enjoyed will depend on the individual reader.
That being said, this book is, an excellent collection of interviews important for anyone interested in journalism. Interviewers like Oriana Fallaci don't exist anymore. It's clear from the collection presented here that she had a way of getting her subjects to lose their composure, and some of the interviewers collected provide fascinating glimpses into the psyches of their subjects. Fallaci's own views can be discerned too - a woman who was beyond determined in her career, passionate in her defence of human life, justice and freedom, and courageous in confronting even dictators with questions about the people they had killed, who famously tore off her chador in front of Khomeini after being told that it was only for "young and respectable" women, and got Kissinger to admit that the Vietnam War was useless. It's hard for me to square these fearless qualities with the views she later espoused, but there's enough here to admire that it makes you want to try to see what can be salvaged.
That being said, this book is, an excellent collection of interviews important for anyone interested in journalism. Interviewers like Oriana Fallaci don't exist anymore. It's clear from the collection presented here that she had a way of getting her subjects to lose their composure, and some of the interviewers collected provide fascinating glimpses into the psyches of their subjects. Fallaci's own views can be discerned too - a woman who was beyond determined in her career, passionate in her defence of human life, justice and freedom, and courageous in confronting even dictators with questions about the people they had killed, who famously tore off her chador in front of Khomeini after being told that it was only for "young and respectable" women, and got Kissinger to admit that the Vietnam War was useless. It's hard for me to square these fearless qualities with the views she later espoused, but there's enough here to admire that it makes you want to try to see what can be salvaged.
December 30, 2024
【2024BOOK09】"Interviews with History and Conversations with Power" by the renowned Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci. Personally, I feel that Fallaci is more like a biographer with a strong stance than a neutral journalist. Many interviews in this book left particularly deep impressions on me:
(1) Fallaci asked Golda Meir, "Will we be able to see this peace in our lifetimes?" And Mrs. Meir answered, "You will, I think. Maybe ... I certainly won't." Looking at the Middle East today, it truly brings a sigh.
(2) Fallaci's confrontations with Gaddafi and Khomeini were truly exhilarating to read. A salute to this brave woman who dared to enter the lion's den.
(3) Fallaci's interview with Deng Xiaoping is indeed a classic. The interviewer is sharp and straightforward, while the interviewee remains firm and masterful in his responses. Reading it is really fascinating.
【2024年的第9本书】意大利著名记者奥莉亚娜·法拉奇的访谈集《Interviews with History and Conversations with Power》。我个人感觉相对于记者，法拉奇更像一个立场鲜明的传记作家。我印象深刻的几篇包括：
（1）法拉奇问梅厄夫人自己能不能在有生之年看到中东和平，梅厄夫人回答“我肯定看不到了，你会的，也许吧……”再看看今天的中东，真的是一声叹息。
（2）法拉奇对决卡扎菲和霍梅尼那两篇读起来真的是跌宕起伏，畅快淋漓。向这位勇闯虎穴的女性致敬。
（3）法拉奇专访邓公那一篇确实经典。采访者则锋芒毕露，直言不讳；被访者则立场坚定，处处圆满。读起来实在是妙趣横生。
(1) Fallaci asked Golda Meir, "Will we be able to see this peace in our lifetimes?" And Mrs. Meir answered, "You will, I think. Maybe ... I certainly won't." Looking at the Middle East today, it truly brings a sigh.
(2) Fallaci's confrontations with Gaddafi and Khomeini were truly exhilarating to read. A salute to this brave woman who dared to enter the lion's den.
(3) Fallaci's interview with Deng Xiaoping is indeed a classic. The interviewer is sharp and straightforward, while the interviewee remains firm and masterful in his responses. Reading it is really fascinating.
【2024年的第9本书】意大利著名记者奥莉亚娜·法拉奇的访谈集《Interviews with History and Conversations with Power》。我个人感觉相对于记者，法拉奇更像一个立场鲜明的传记作家。我印象深刻的几篇包括：
（1）法拉奇问梅厄夫人自己能不能在有生之年看到中东和平，梅厄夫人回答“我肯定看不到了，你会的，也许吧……”再看看今天的中东，真的是一声叹息。
（2）法拉奇对决卡扎菲和霍梅尼那两篇读起来真的是跌宕起伏，畅快淋漓。向这位勇闯虎穴的女性致敬。
（3）法拉奇专访邓公那一篇确实经典。采访者则锋芒毕露，直言不讳；被访者则立场坚定，处处圆满。读起来实在是妙趣横生。
September 12, 2022
The feminism and Italian realism that comes through in the lines of questioning Oriana sets up are intimate and tactical at the same time. I wonder if her celebrity is enough to garner these audiences, but they are rarely prepared: Ariel Shannon barks back and Henry Kissinger fumbles his words; she side swipes Robert Kennedy with an incredible question about being killed three years before he was actually killed. It's Kennedy's answer to her question about just stepping away from it all (rich husband, move with family to a nice island... ?) that really floors us. Fallaci is like a tasteful drummer: you pull the sound out of the cymbal rather than smashing through it. The work ethic of Svetlana Alexievich with the kitchen sink stoicism of Natalia Ginzburg and Elena Ferrante.
April 2, 2022
Some of these interviews were gems- Deng Xiaoping, Nguyen Giap, Dalai Llama, Zulfikar Bhutto, RFK and Golda Meir, for instance. Some were plain boring- Reza Shah Pahalvi, the Ayaltollah.
Kissinger was enigmatic as always. Qadaffi was the real shocker. He was stark raving mad.
What I liked most about the book is some of the interviews include a background on the subject- RFK, Golda Meir, Qadaffi- where you get great insight into how these people behaved, their character, quirks etc.
One of my favourite bits was the continuous rants by Bhutto on his predecessor Gen Yahya Khan. That interview in its entirety is chuckle worthy.
Kissinger was enigmatic as always. Qadaffi was the real shocker. He was stark raving mad.
What I liked most about the book is some of the interviews include a background on the subject- RFK, Golda Meir, Qadaffi- where you get great insight into how these people behaved, their character, quirks etc.
One of my favourite bits was the continuous rants by Bhutto on his predecessor Gen Yahya Khan. That interview in its entirety is chuckle worthy.
April 4, 2021
Not all of the interviews have the impact that they might have done at the time, but worth reading for the pieces on Castro, the Shah of Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini alone. A masterful and brave interviewer; her kind is needed now more than ever.
Oh - and to the publisher: if you ever bring out a paperback addition, please please get it proofread -the quantity of typographical errors is shocking!
Oh - and to the publisher: if you ever bring out a paperback addition, please please get it proofread -the quantity of typographical errors is shocking!
December 1, 2018
Oriana Fallaci’s Interviews with History and Conversations with Power is a fantastic book, filled with her most riveting, thought-provoking and controversial political interviews. A fascinating insight into people such as Ayatollah Khomeini, Muammar el-Qaddafi, Yasir Arafat, Robert Kennedy, Reza Pahlavi, Golda Meir and the infamous Henry Kissinger.
March 6, 2024
This is a must-read book for every political science or history major and anyone else interested in the events of the middle 20th century. Some parts are a bit hard to stomache. But then the truth is usually that way. I started reading this just after Henry Kissinger died, so that was an interesting beginning to the book.
August 27, 2020
WOW! Me ha impresionado, los personajes a los que entrevista son superinteresantes y da cosa leer lo varios de ello dicen unos años antes de ser asesinados. Ella me parece increíblemente valiente e inteligente.
February 25, 2018
I read each chapter separately, I enjoyed Fallaci's story telling style, her choice of personalities , but did not agree with lots of her impressions and opinions .
October 19, 2018
It's amazing that this woman lived as long as she did considering some of the questions she put to some of the most brutal leaders the world has seen.
May 25, 2019
Absolutely fascinating . The structure was interesting bc of the paired interview sets of rivals, and her style was absolutely ferocious :)
October 31, 2019
Exquisite set of interviews by an unapologetic women in an era when the powerful agreed to multi-hour, on-the-record conversations. Great reading.
March 7, 2020
Oh, how I wish she was still with us.
July 28, 2020
Read and re-read in spanish. Un clásico del periodismo, entrevista entendida como desafío y conversación en profundidad.
June 30, 2024
History repeats itself!
July 23, 2016
The temptation must have been great indeed to refuse an interview with Oriana Fallaci, journalist, war correspondent and novelist. There were those who claimed they never gave interviews, but consented to her request, all with prior knowledge of her work. Henry Kissinger called his interview, "the most disastrous conversation I ever had with the press." And this from the former Secretary of State who had negotiated with his political counterparts from the world's toughest neighborhoods. Maybe the challenge itself, to prevail over this particular journalist, was enough for world leaders, filled with hubris, to consent.
At times she too was challenged. She confessed that the toughest interview was the most brief and most difficult, and she could not wait for it to end, not because the man was rude, but because he was so closed and became increasingly less responsive as the interview proceeded. It was with Robert F. Kennedy.
Her questioning style was probing, prosecutorial and she was judge and jury. She never hid her opinions and, when deeply enraged, could be intemperate about them especially after the 9/11 attacks. Elena Poniatowska was her equal in bravery, with both reporting on the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City. This is Poniatowska's history of that event, Massacre in Mexico by Elena Poniatowska. Christopher Hitchens may be comparable in his audacious irreverence.
Read these interviews for the questions and the methodology; read them with a view to past and present world history. Especially with world events, read these interviews and judge if she fulfilled the job of a journalist to get at some truths and/or elicit reasons for actions taken or not by well-known world leaders.
Rizzoli Publishing reissued these previously published interviews and they are admonished for releasing this book with far too many printing/typographical errors.
Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian II, Literature & Fiction Dept.
At times she too was challenged. She confessed that the toughest interview was the most brief and most difficult, and she could not wait for it to end, not because the man was rude, but because he was so closed and became increasingly less responsive as the interview proceeded. It was with Robert F. Kennedy.
Her questioning style was probing, prosecutorial and she was judge and jury. She never hid her opinions and, when deeply enraged, could be intemperate about them especially after the 9/11 attacks. Elena Poniatowska was her equal in bravery, with both reporting on the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City. This is Poniatowska's history of that event, Massacre in Mexico by Elena Poniatowska. Christopher Hitchens may be comparable in his audacious irreverence.
Read these interviews for the questions and the methodology; read them with a view to past and present world history. Especially with world events, read these interviews and judge if she fulfilled the job of a journalist to get at some truths and/or elicit reasons for actions taken or not by well-known world leaders.
Rizzoli Publishing reissued these previously published interviews and they are admonished for releasing this book with far too many printing/typographical errors.
Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian II, Literature & Fiction Dept.
November 17, 2018
This was very interesting book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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