What do you think?
Rate this book
World War II on the Air: Edward R. Murrow and the Broadcasts That Riveted a Nation
The journalists and the reports that brought World War II to life share accounts of the London Blitz, Eric Sevareid's parachuting over Burma from a crippled aircraft, Howard K. Smith's narrow escape from Nazi Germany on December 6, 1941, and more, in a volume that also includes an audio CD of the actual radio reports of the time. 50,000 first printing.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2003
1 person is currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Alex Lubertozzi
5 books27 followersAlex Lubertozzi has been a writer and editor since the late 1900s and has coauthored two works of nonfiction—World War II on the Air (2003, w/ Mark Bernstein) and The Complete War of the Worlds (2001, w/ Brian Holmsten). He has written for numerous books and magazines and had his short fiction published in
The Arcanist
and Sundial Magazine.
He has been composing fiction for most of his life (if you count lying), but Any Other World Will Do (Aug. 2021) is his first novel.
In addition to writing, Alex co-owns and is the publisher of Top Five Books, an Oak Park, Illinois–based publisher of fiction and nonfiction, as well as the Top Five Classics series of illustrated great works.
He lives in the Chicago area with his wife Helen and son Nick.
He has been composing fiction for most of his life (if you count lying), but Any Other World Will Do (Aug. 2021) is his first novel.
In addition to writing, Alex co-owns and is the publisher of Top Five Books, an Oak Park, Illinois–based publisher of fiction and nonfiction, as well as the Top Five Classics series of illustrated great works.
He lives in the Chicago area with his wife Helen and son Nick.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 16, 2018
This, and the accompanying cd of audio clips, makes an excellent resource for the classroom! Below are some of my favorite lines:
"The questions those 'thoughtful Englishmen' most often asked, Murrow said, was 'If America comes in, will she stay in? Does she have any appetite for the greatness that is being thrust upon her? Does she realize that this world or what is left of it will be run from either Berlin or Washington?' Murrow closed by noting that America would reach its decision by democratic means. 'Coming as I do from the creeping blackout of liberty all over Europe,' he said, 'I am grateful that our decision will be taken in the full light of free and better informed debate and discussion than exists anywhere else in the world. For such is our heritage and may it always be our habit.' That decision was closer than Morrow likely though. The date of the dinner was December 2, 1941."-p.119
Brown's account of his survival after the destruction of battle cruiser Repulse.-p.129
As early as 1942, Murrow broadcasts on the horrors of the extermination camps. In a report on December 13, 1942, he says, "One is almost stunned into silence by some of the information reaching London...What is happening is this: millions of human beings, most of them Jews, are being gathered up with ruthless efficiency and murdered..."-p.141
The story of the ship Manhattan burning at sea due to a carelessly tossed cigarette butt. p.143
The detail of the Italian fighting campaign. p. 163
The story of Gertrude Stein and her partner living in Culoz, unmolested by the Nazis, during the war. p.181
Sevareid's broadcast, regarding Victory day: "Your map tells you that this going has been rapid, but you seem to have forgotten that war is still war, that feet still swell in wet boots, that one can still shiver and ache on the ground all night, that the stomach still contracts when a shell bursts nearby, and that a dead boy with punctured lungs, with the little rivulet of blood dried on his chin, remains a sight that does not bring thoughts of gaiety, organized or otherwise....The civilians will want to make noise for once, and the soldiers will want to be quiet for once. They are so very, very tired of noise." p. 192
"One rumor-which also proved true-was that Germans dressed in American uniforms had infiltrated English-speaking infantry. For security, American sentries fell back on popular culture. They dropped formal passwords and asked questions only an American would know..." -p.195
"Collingwood returned to Paris for V-E Day celebrations. They were, he reported, more tempered than might be expected. Parisians 'are physically too tired and emotionally too exhausted to throw themselves in the wild and uproarious celebration one might have expected.' London, Murrow reported earlier in the day, was likewise largely quiet. Murrow said he was struck by the number of serious faces-people were reflecting, perhaps, on the memories of friends who had died and buildings that had fallen.' He closed, 'Six years is a long time. I have observed today that people have very little to say, There are no words.'" -p.206
Bennie Smith, Howard K. Smith's wife, had some well remembered words: "No matter what terrible things happen in the future, we must remember this: we won. We might not have. They might have won. Think of what the world would have been life if they had won. Nothing can ever be as terrible as that." -p.208
"Peace did not end the fighting. The liberation of Greece in late 1944 ushered in a civil war...atomic bomb...era in which the horror of future war was exponentially increased." -p.213
Re: the dropping of the bomb-Murrow said "Was it 23:59 o'clock or 00:01? Was there to be still another cycle of affliction, appeasement, and annihilation? Or had we walked through midnight towards the dawn without knowing it." -p.215
"...the distance between the observer and the event. Sevareid understood something of this. In a late 1944 commentary, he spoke about the gap between who fought the war and those who covered that fight. The soldier, he wrote, lives the war; the reporter does not. The reporter 'may share the soldier's outward life and dangers,' but not his inner life. The reporter is free to leave; the soldier is not. The 'mere knowing' of this makes a crucial difference. It happens to one man alone. It can never be communicated. That is the tragedy-and perhaps the blessing...And, I am sorry to say, that is also why in a certain sense you and your sons from the war will be forever strangers.'" -p.224
"The questions those 'thoughtful Englishmen' most often asked, Murrow said, was 'If America comes in, will she stay in? Does she have any appetite for the greatness that is being thrust upon her? Does she realize that this world or what is left of it will be run from either Berlin or Washington?' Murrow closed by noting that America would reach its decision by democratic means. 'Coming as I do from the creeping blackout of liberty all over Europe,' he said, 'I am grateful that our decision will be taken in the full light of free and better informed debate and discussion than exists anywhere else in the world. For such is our heritage and may it always be our habit.' That decision was closer than Morrow likely though. The date of the dinner was December 2, 1941."-p.119
Brown's account of his survival after the destruction of battle cruiser Repulse.-p.129
As early as 1942, Murrow broadcasts on the horrors of the extermination camps. In a report on December 13, 1942, he says, "One is almost stunned into silence by some of the information reaching London...What is happening is this: millions of human beings, most of them Jews, are being gathered up with ruthless efficiency and murdered..."-p.141
The story of the ship Manhattan burning at sea due to a carelessly tossed cigarette butt. p.143
The detail of the Italian fighting campaign. p. 163
The story of Gertrude Stein and her partner living in Culoz, unmolested by the Nazis, during the war. p.181
Sevareid's broadcast, regarding Victory day: "Your map tells you that this going has been rapid, but you seem to have forgotten that war is still war, that feet still swell in wet boots, that one can still shiver and ache on the ground all night, that the stomach still contracts when a shell bursts nearby, and that a dead boy with punctured lungs, with the little rivulet of blood dried on his chin, remains a sight that does not bring thoughts of gaiety, organized or otherwise....The civilians will want to make noise for once, and the soldiers will want to be quiet for once. They are so very, very tired of noise." p. 192
"One rumor-which also proved true-was that Germans dressed in American uniforms had infiltrated English-speaking infantry. For security, American sentries fell back on popular culture. They dropped formal passwords and asked questions only an American would know..." -p.195
"Collingwood returned to Paris for V-E Day celebrations. They were, he reported, more tempered than might be expected. Parisians 'are physically too tired and emotionally too exhausted to throw themselves in the wild and uproarious celebration one might have expected.' London, Murrow reported earlier in the day, was likewise largely quiet. Murrow said he was struck by the number of serious faces-people were reflecting, perhaps, on the memories of friends who had died and buildings that had fallen.' He closed, 'Six years is a long time. I have observed today that people have very little to say, There are no words.'" -p.206
Bennie Smith, Howard K. Smith's wife, had some well remembered words: "No matter what terrible things happen in the future, we must remember this: we won. We might not have. They might have won. Think of what the world would have been life if they had won. Nothing can ever be as terrible as that." -p.208
"Peace did not end the fighting. The liberation of Greece in late 1944 ushered in a civil war...atomic bomb...era in which the horror of future war was exponentially increased." -p.213
Re: the dropping of the bomb-Murrow said "Was it 23:59 o'clock or 00:01? Was there to be still another cycle of affliction, appeasement, and annihilation? Or had we walked through midnight towards the dawn without knowing it." -p.215
"...the distance between the observer and the event. Sevareid understood something of this. In a late 1944 commentary, he spoke about the gap between who fought the war and those who covered that fight. The soldier, he wrote, lives the war; the reporter does not. The reporter 'may share the soldier's outward life and dangers,' but not his inner life. The reporter is free to leave; the soldier is not. The 'mere knowing' of this makes a crucial difference. It happens to one man alone. It can never be communicated. That is the tragedy-and perhaps the blessing...And, I am sorry to say, that is also why in a certain sense you and your sons from the war will be forever strangers.'" -p.224
December 30, 2012
The text is well-written and engaging. The book focuses on the career of Edward Murrow and a handful of other key reporters that worked for CBS just before and during WW II. The focus is exclusively CBS and almost exclusively the European Theater. The focus is not the way so much as the development of war reporting on the radio. Given these limits, the book itself is great.
The audio CD is the reason I picked up the book and it's disappointing. It runs just over an hour but about half of that is Dan Rather narrating what you're about to hear. I have no problem with Dan Rather, but what I really wanted to hear was the WW II radio broadcasts. They have been edited down to just a few pithy sentences bracketed by introduction and scene setting. Still interesting, still compelling, but far short of what I was hoping for.
The audio CD is the reason I picked up the book and it's disappointing. It runs just over an hour but about half of that is Dan Rather narrating what you're about to hear. I have no problem with Dan Rather, but what I really wanted to hear was the WW II radio broadcasts. They have been edited down to just a few pithy sentences bracketed by introduction and scene setting. Still interesting, still compelling, but far short of what I was hoping for.
February 6, 2008
Murrow. the man that invented Radio News reporting. Aside form chronicling the the life Murrow, during the WWII decade, there are undertones of something more dramatic happening....The act that radio (news reporting in general) arrived in popularity right on the eve of the last big war and ended right after, dying out to TV. So for 10years alot of the networks that we are all too familiar with really got their boost from WWII. Onlky to spawn into TV at the end of the 40's. AS for Murrow...What a time to live to do what he did during that time. Another history text. I think it was given to me, however I enjoyed picking it up and reading more on a general interest level.
May 4, 2020
Excellent for our year's study of WWII . The broadcasts really helped my 6th and 8th graders to "see" the realities of war through the eyes of the news reporters , who were "blazing the trails " at that time in our nation's history . I was impressed myself with the thoroughness incorporated in both the book and CD. Recommended for upper elementary , junior high , and high school , as well as adults who want to know more about this particular war that shaped America !
January 1, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was born in 1945 and although I missed hearing Mr. Murrow's radio reports, all of the reporters in this book are people who I grew up listening to and later watching. The team CBS had in the 1930s and 1940s was incredible. I think that is the reason I still enjoy listening to AM radio and also the old radio stations on SiriusXM channel 148. Radio creates a situation where your mind and imagination can take you into the report or episode. I will listen to the accompanying CD now.
June 11, 2013
The attraction was to hear much of what was recorded before my time and I wasn't disappointed by the material included. Especially enjoyed Dan Rather sounding a lot more like the reporter I remember doing the narration of the disc that is included. Learning that this was not all Edward R. Murrow, but many of the journalists (newspaper, radio and TV) that I grew up with after the war made it easy to relate to while reading along with the book.
September 14, 2012
Really neat to be able to hear some of the actual broadcasts done during WWII, especially some really famous ones that I've only read about. Also really interesting to hear what the broadcasters actually sounded like. Murrow had a slower, deeper delivery than I had imagined.
May 15, 2012
Just received this for Christmas from a thoughtful son and daughter-in-law! So exciting to read of the important events of WWII AND to hear the live broadcasts at the same time!
May 5, 2019
Outstanding anecdotal overview of the early days of news broadcasting, particularly involving Edward R. Murrow and his talented crew during World War II. The accompanying CD provides great snippets from many of the momentous news broadcasts -- the Blitz, liberating Buchenwald, air raids, etc. This is not a comprehensive historic reference but a great glimpse of the European War highlights.
May 23, 2019
I admit that I am an avid reader of all WWII books, plus I will be traveling this summer to Oxford for classes on the BBC in the war--so I loved this volume. Murrow was a hero in our home when I was growing up: another reason to like it. Highly recommended for those who share the interest.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews