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The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century
As the founder of Time, Fortune, and Life magazines, Henry Luce changed the way we consume news and the way we understand our world. Born the son of missionaries, Luce spent his childhood in rural China, yet he glimpsed a milieu of power altogether different at Hotchkiss and later at Yale. While working at a Baltimore newspaper, he and Brit Hadden conceived the idea of Time: a "news-magazine" that would condense the week's events in a format accessible to increasingly busy members of the middle class. They launched it in 1923, and young Luce quickly became a publishing titan. In 1936, after Time's unexpected success—and Hadden's early death—Luce published the first issue of Life, to which millions soon subscribed.
Historian Alan Brinkley shows how Luce reinvented the magazine industry in just a decade. The appeal of Life seemingly cut across the lines of race, class, and gender. Luce himself wielded influence hitherto unknown among journalists. By the early 1940s, he had come to see his magazines as vehicles to advocate for America's involvement in the escalating international crisis, in the process popularizing the phrase "World War II." In spite of Luce's great success, happiness eluded him. His second marriage—to the glamorous playwright, politician, and diplomat Clare Boothe—was a shambles. Luce spent his later years in isolation, consumed at times with conspiracy theories and peculiar vendettas.
The Publisher tells a great American story of spectacular achievement—yet it never loses sight of the public and private costs at which that achievement came.
Historian Alan Brinkley shows how Luce reinvented the magazine industry in just a decade. The appeal of Life seemingly cut across the lines of race, class, and gender. Luce himself wielded influence hitherto unknown among journalists. By the early 1940s, he had come to see his magazines as vehicles to advocate for America's involvement in the escalating international crisis, in the process popularizing the phrase "World War II." In spite of Luce's great success, happiness eluded him. His second marriage—to the glamorous playwright, politician, and diplomat Clare Boothe—was a shambles. Luce spent his later years in isolation, consumed at times with conspiracy theories and peculiar vendettas.
The Publisher tells a great American story of spectacular achievement—yet it never loses sight of the public and private costs at which that achievement came.
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First published April 20, 2010
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About the author
Alan Brinkley
206 books48 followersAlan Brinkley was an American political historian who has taught for over 20 years at Columbia University. He was the Allan Nevins Professor of History until his death. From 2003 to 2009, he was University Provost.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
August 28, 2013
This is a full-rounded biography of the life of Luce. The author paints a complex man who (among many other things) was raised in China, traveled solo in Europe at the age of fourteen and made a publishing empire that survives to this day (even with the internet).
Possibly due to his upbringing in China, where he viewed the U.S. from afar, he always held unto an idealized view of America’s role in the twentieth century. In many ways he wanted the entire world to emulate U.S. values and concepts. Luce had a tremendous creative force. He constantly strived to learn through-out his entire life.
He never seemed to establish personal friendships. His two marriages were fraught with problems. I had the feeling that he never related well with his two children from the first marriage, who he seldom saw; or with his siblings.
The author explains the rise of Time magazine from virtually nothing and then Fortune, Life and much later, Sports Illustrated in the 1950’s. Time and Life are now icons in the news media.
Luce’s idealism spread to other areas of his life as well. He had utopian views of what the U.S. could accomplish with Chiang Kai-shek in China. The reality was that both Chiang and his wife were corrupt and ruthless people. He was also a staunch Republican until Kennedy was elected in 1960. These two above areas infiltrated the journalism of his magazines, at times much to the annoyance of his staff – some of who rebelliously left due to Luce’s lack of objectivity.
This is a good readable biography. We are presented with a thorough portrait of both the personal and public person. We come away with an outlook of a troubled and awkward man. As Mr. Brinkley points out, in many ways he seemed more comfortable in his skin when he was younger (as in traveling in Europe as a teenager) than when he became older where he avoided small talk with his associates and was sometimes conversationally inept. I did feel that the 1960’s were rushed in this book There was so much going in this era, such as Civil Rights, the struggle for women’s equality and the increasing involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam that more pages could have been devoted to it. Sometimes there is too much focus on Luce’s internationalist views then what is going on in his own country. There is nothing mentioned on when his mother died.
All in all we do get a view of a stunning individual who created a news empire.
Possibly due to his upbringing in China, where he viewed the U.S. from afar, he always held unto an idealized view of America’s role in the twentieth century. In many ways he wanted the entire world to emulate U.S. values and concepts. Luce had a tremendous creative force. He constantly strived to learn through-out his entire life.
He never seemed to establish personal friendships. His two marriages were fraught with problems. I had the feeling that he never related well with his two children from the first marriage, who he seldom saw; or with his siblings.
The author explains the rise of Time magazine from virtually nothing and then Fortune, Life and much later, Sports Illustrated in the 1950’s. Time and Life are now icons in the news media.
Luce’s idealism spread to other areas of his life as well. He had utopian views of what the U.S. could accomplish with Chiang Kai-shek in China. The reality was that both Chiang and his wife were corrupt and ruthless people. He was also a staunch Republican until Kennedy was elected in 1960. These two above areas infiltrated the journalism of his magazines, at times much to the annoyance of his staff – some of who rebelliously left due to Luce’s lack of objectivity.
This is a good readable biography. We are presented with a thorough portrait of both the personal and public person. We come away with an outlook of a troubled and awkward man. As Mr. Brinkley points out, in many ways he seemed more comfortable in his skin when he was younger (as in traveling in Europe as a teenager) than when he became older where he avoided small talk with his associates and was sometimes conversationally inept. I did feel that the 1960’s were rushed in this book There was so much going in this era, such as Civil Rights, the struggle for women’s equality and the increasing involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam that more pages could have been devoted to it. Sometimes there is too much focus on Luce’s internationalist views then what is going on in his own country. There is nothing mentioned on when his mother died.
All in all we do get a view of a stunning individual who created a news empire.
February 18, 2021
Who is Henry Luce? You might not be familiar with his name, but you probably picked up one of his magazines in your lifetime. Henry Luce is known as the publisher of Time, Fortune, Life and Sports Illustrated. I have subscriptions to both Time and Fortune.
Henry Luce was a lonely individual. He was shuttled to Chinese , English and American boarding schools. From the boarding schools, Luce attended Yale University. He rarely saw his family. However, he met one good friend
Briton Hadden
Hadden and Luce dreamed of starting a news magazine. This magazine would be a weekly magazine that would present readable and short articles on what happened over the last week in news, books arts, and sports. Hadden and Luce didn’t have writers for their first edition, they used rewritten articles from The New York Times. Obviously, this changed as Time grew.
His magazines were very popular and reached millions of Americans. With this readership, Luce was able to express his opinions. He used Time and Life to politicize his views: that of a conservative Republican. (Urrrrrgh) He tried to push his choice of presidents, views on war and life in America on his readers.
This book is very interesting and detailed. At one point the book tells of his impotence with his second wife. Really? However the book does provide very interesting information on such icons as Time and Life magazines.
Henry Luce was a lonely individual. He was shuttled to Chinese , English and American boarding schools. From the boarding schools, Luce attended Yale University. He rarely saw his family. However, he met one good friend
Briton Hadden
Hadden and Luce dreamed of starting a news magazine. This magazine would be a weekly magazine that would present readable and short articles on what happened over the last week in news, books arts, and sports. Hadden and Luce didn’t have writers for their first edition, they used rewritten articles from The New York Times. Obviously, this changed as Time grew.
His magazines were very popular and reached millions of Americans. With this readership, Luce was able to express his opinions. He used Time and Life to politicize his views: that of a conservative Republican. (Urrrrrgh) He tried to push his choice of presidents, views on war and life in America on his readers.
This book is very interesting and detailed. At one point the book tells of his impotence with his second wife. Really? However the book does provide very interesting information on such icons as Time and Life magazines.
August 2, 2010
Though it is very interesting, this is not a very intimate biography. With the exception of Luce's marriages and love affairs, Brinkley doesn't much discuss his private life. At the end, when Brinkley refers to one of Luce's sister as being very close to him, I blinked for a couple of minutes since she hadn't appeared at all for most of the book.
Luce's strengths were also his greatest weaknesses (who can not say that about themselves, of course?). The idealism, the imagination, the confidence that allowed him to start up Time, Life, Fortune & Sports Illustrated, also made it difficult for him to separate his own opinions and politics from those of the magazines or to open himself up to criticism.
He made mistakes but he also came out against racism and segregation and was one of the only publishers to cover lynching--Time magazine in fact kept up a running total of the number of victims which probably made the problem more vivid for many readers.
Brinkley does an especially good job in showing how blinkered Luce became about China, which he loved & where he was raised. In contradiction to his stands against racism, the magazine was caught up in the anti-Japanese hysteria during the war and promoted racist stereotypes about the Japanese. Part of it was simply the magazine being part of the culture but it was also due to his fierce hatred of the Japanese because of their acts in China.
A complex and interesting man.
Luce's strengths were also his greatest weaknesses (who can not say that about themselves, of course?). The idealism, the imagination, the confidence that allowed him to start up Time, Life, Fortune & Sports Illustrated, also made it difficult for him to separate his own opinions and politics from those of the magazines or to open himself up to criticism.
He made mistakes but he also came out against racism and segregation and was one of the only publishers to cover lynching--Time magazine in fact kept up a running total of the number of victims which probably made the problem more vivid for many readers.
Brinkley does an especially good job in showing how blinkered Luce became about China, which he loved & where he was raised. In contradiction to his stands against racism, the magazine was caught up in the anti-Japanese hysteria during the war and promoted racist stereotypes about the Japanese. Part of it was simply the magazine being part of the culture but it was also due to his fierce hatred of the Japanese because of their acts in China.
A complex and interesting man.
July 26, 2010
Alan Brinkley’s historical profile of Time magazine founder, Henry Luce, is as much a history of a titan of industry as it is an overview of the global and political times of what Luce himself referred to as ‘the American Century.’ Brinkley (who has written extensively on FDR and penned a series of American history books known as ‘The Unfinished Nation’) assembles a thorough biography that runs parallel along three distinct tracks.
The first, is the story of a man and his publishing empire, originally founded with his Hotchkiss and Yale student buddy and publishing co-conspirator Brit Hadden (who despite a heavy role in the business, died early in the empire – 1929) and the business machinations of taking a small-time newsweekly and building it into the leading American news magazine empire of the 20th century. (Time, then eventually Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated).
The second, much like many news publishing scions (from W. R. Hearst to Murdoch) pertains to Luce’s often failed attempts to influence political opinion in his support for both Republican front-runners as well as his desire to shape world events from China’s battle with and eventual yielding to communism (much space in the second half of the book is devoted to Luce’s obsession with Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek and the possibility, and failure of, sustained democracy throughout China – described by Brinkley as “the greatest disappoint of Luce’s life”) to the never-ending quagmire of Vietnam.
The third track involves Luce’s personal life through his two marriages, including his second to the high-profile Claire Booth Luce (nee Brokaw), and his distant and oft-times troubled personal relationships with associates, co-workers and others in his immediate circle.
Brinkley’s portrayal of Luce as a hard-driving, sometimes reclusive, singularly focused media mogul is not unlike stories we hear of other power brokers of the post-industrial world. That the journey his publishing enterprise took him politically, socially and in the halls of power is not surprising given the prominence he was able to amass through his never ending work and mainstream ethos. In the end, and despite other works on the subject, the author renders a throughly detailed and complete assemblage of the story of the most important American magazine publisher of the last 100 years. On many levels it is a story that is well worth absorbing.
The first, is the story of a man and his publishing empire, originally founded with his Hotchkiss and Yale student buddy and publishing co-conspirator Brit Hadden (who despite a heavy role in the business, died early in the empire – 1929) and the business machinations of taking a small-time newsweekly and building it into the leading American news magazine empire of the 20th century. (Time, then eventually Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated).
The second, much like many news publishing scions (from W. R. Hearst to Murdoch) pertains to Luce’s often failed attempts to influence political opinion in his support for both Republican front-runners as well as his desire to shape world events from China’s battle with and eventual yielding to communism (much space in the second half of the book is devoted to Luce’s obsession with Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek and the possibility, and failure of, sustained democracy throughout China – described by Brinkley as “the greatest disappoint of Luce’s life”) to the never-ending quagmire of Vietnam.
The third track involves Luce’s personal life through his two marriages, including his second to the high-profile Claire Booth Luce (nee Brokaw), and his distant and oft-times troubled personal relationships with associates, co-workers and others in his immediate circle.
Brinkley’s portrayal of Luce as a hard-driving, sometimes reclusive, singularly focused media mogul is not unlike stories we hear of other power brokers of the post-industrial world. That the journey his publishing enterprise took him politically, socially and in the halls of power is not surprising given the prominence he was able to amass through his never ending work and mainstream ethos. In the end, and despite other works on the subject, the author renders a throughly detailed and complete assemblage of the story of the most important American magazine publisher of the last 100 years. On many levels it is a story that is well worth absorbing.
October 10, 2018
Alan Brinkley writes an even-handed account of publisher Henry Luce. Neither fawning nor overly critical, Brinkley attempts to place Luce within the time period that he lived, and show how he responded to world events and how they shaped his thoughts and actions. Because he was not born wealthy, Luce had to build his publishing empire primarily on hard work, contributions from wealthy patrons, and a bit of luck. Luce became one of the most influential media magnates of the mid 20th century, yet few people today can probably identify who he was. That may in part be because we as a society have continually moved away from printed media and towards electronic versions of publications.
To be frank, I did not find Luce to be a likeable person. He eagerly craved wealth and material things, often trying to ingratiate himself with people of great wealth such as Nettie McCormick. He attended Yale, in part because that is where his father also went. While not overtly racist, he unfortunately held views of white superiority that were all too common for that time (1910s), and was occasionally anti-Semitic as well. As his publishing empire expanded, he became more and more isolated from his staff, and from everyday people. The houses got larger; the travel always first class. He coldly divorced his first wife, Lila, because he fell for Clare Boothe Brokaw, and was – at best – an absent father to his two children. Luce wanted to be important before he was important, and once he was important he made sure that others knew he was important.
Brinkley goes into great detail about the founding of Time magazine, and how it was the creation of Luce and a fellow Yale classmate, Briton Hadden. From what Brinkley writes, Hadden sounded insufferable, and made Luce seem like a really nice guy in contrast. Hadden was out of control, and looked down his nose at everyone. While I do not question what Brinkley writes, I do wonder if there is another side that is not quite as critical of Hadden. In other words, is the description of Hadden based more on Brinkley being Luce's biographer, or was he really as bad as portrayed? Hadden burned himself out early in life, and died in his early 30s, leaving Luce in sole control of Time.
Luce never seems to wield as much power as he would like to, or as people thought he had. While certainly he largely controlled his publications, even then he did not always have complete control. Despite having a relatively close relationship with Dwight Eisenhower, he had little to no influence on national politics. His primary contribution and legacy seems to be more in his creation of a new type of journalism, one that tried broadly to cater to many Americans and infuse them with a purpose and pride of being American. Luce would not recognize today's totally fragmented media landscape.
Brinkley is a very good writer. He knows how to weave together Luce's often complicated professional and personal lives, never dwelling too much on one or the other. He does not shy away from criticizing Luce, especially for his many blind spots. But there is no score to settle here either. He does wrap up with a brief epilogue about what happened to Life following Luce's death. Missing in that is what became of Luce's second wife Clare, whom Luce had such a contentious relationship with, and after Luce's divorce from his first wife, Lila, she is not heard from again either. Anyone interested in media history, or mid 20th century American history, will find this a worthy read.
Grade: B+
To be frank, I did not find Luce to be a likeable person. He eagerly craved wealth and material things, often trying to ingratiate himself with people of great wealth such as Nettie McCormick. He attended Yale, in part because that is where his father also went. While not overtly racist, he unfortunately held views of white superiority that were all too common for that time (1910s), and was occasionally anti-Semitic as well. As his publishing empire expanded, he became more and more isolated from his staff, and from everyday people. The houses got larger; the travel always first class. He coldly divorced his first wife, Lila, because he fell for Clare Boothe Brokaw, and was – at best – an absent father to his two children. Luce wanted to be important before he was important, and once he was important he made sure that others knew he was important.
Brinkley goes into great detail about the founding of Time magazine, and how it was the creation of Luce and a fellow Yale classmate, Briton Hadden. From what Brinkley writes, Hadden sounded insufferable, and made Luce seem like a really nice guy in contrast. Hadden was out of control, and looked down his nose at everyone. While I do not question what Brinkley writes, I do wonder if there is another side that is not quite as critical of Hadden. In other words, is the description of Hadden based more on Brinkley being Luce's biographer, or was he really as bad as portrayed? Hadden burned himself out early in life, and died in his early 30s, leaving Luce in sole control of Time.
Luce never seems to wield as much power as he would like to, or as people thought he had. While certainly he largely controlled his publications, even then he did not always have complete control. Despite having a relatively close relationship with Dwight Eisenhower, he had little to no influence on national politics. His primary contribution and legacy seems to be more in his creation of a new type of journalism, one that tried broadly to cater to many Americans and infuse them with a purpose and pride of being American. Luce would not recognize today's totally fragmented media landscape.
Brinkley is a very good writer. He knows how to weave together Luce's often complicated professional and personal lives, never dwelling too much on one or the other. He does not shy away from criticizing Luce, especially for his many blind spots. But there is no score to settle here either. He does wrap up with a brief epilogue about what happened to Life following Luce's death. Missing in that is what became of Luce's second wife Clare, whom Luce had such a contentious relationship with, and after Luce's divorce from his first wife, Lila, she is not heard from again either. Anyone interested in media history, or mid 20th century American history, will find this a worthy read.
Grade: B+
October 17, 2023
Great read! I knew nothing about Luce before picking up this book. And all I knew of Time/Life was that they were periodicals. This book really drew me in and shines a fascinating light on the first half of the 20th century.
February 9, 2020
Great story and history of major publications. Just boring and so dry. So much wasted potential.
June 17, 2010
Invariably drawing comparisons with the political slant of his subject's magazines, reviewers praised Alan Brinkley's evenhandedness in The Publisher. They portrayed the book as an antidote not only to earlier, more negative biographies but to a generation that cannot comprehend the influence once held by Time brethren, especially in this age of digital information. Above all, critics praised Brinkley's feel for the particular prose style of Luce and his magazines, which gave birth to many an expression now considered cliché. A few reviewers commented that while the book is extraordinarily well researched, Brinkley still holds his subject at arm's length. Then again, for a man of such public titanic proportions, he remained a lonely, private man. This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.
August 12, 2011
Although at times long-winded and slightly repetitive, this biography of the founder of Time, Inc., provided an interesting glimpse into the history of journalism and showed how one man, with the help of his print empire, attempted to influence and guide middle-class American thinking at mid-century.
July 11, 2017
It is fantastic biography which connect the most interesting and important era of American history.
Henry Luce is a complex person with sharp characteristic, he build up the Times, Fortune, and life in America, his fame is fully connected with the three most suscessfull media, and they shape the motivate American from many angles including political, business, social , and life style. he is not famous as president, while his influence is more extensively than any president in the period.
Henry is lucky, he witness and interact the most dynamic period of American history which including WW2, china relationship, Korean war and the transition of American modernization and towards to world super power.
Henry is real, he don't hide his personal feeling even in the public, he dare to express his preference and idea in any situation even though it conflict with most powerful people such as president of USA, his presence enrich the American life.
Henry spend all his life' time to create fortune for both himself and for American people.
Henry Luce is a complex person with sharp characteristic, he build up the Times, Fortune, and life in America, his fame is fully connected with the three most suscessfull media, and they shape the motivate American from many angles including political, business, social , and life style. he is not famous as president, while his influence is more extensively than any president in the period.
Henry is lucky, he witness and interact the most dynamic period of American history which including WW2, china relationship, Korean war and the transition of American modernization and towards to world super power.
Henry is real, he don't hide his personal feeling even in the public, he dare to express his preference and idea in any situation even though it conflict with most powerful people such as president of USA, his presence enrich the American life.
Henry spend all his life' time to create fortune for both himself and for American people.
August 3, 2024
This is a well-written biography of a man who shaped the publishing industry and to some extent American public opinion in the 20th century. Henry Luce was born in China, a child of missionary parents, who did not reach United States until he was an older child. his parents allowed him to travel around Europe by himself when he was just 15 years old! A brilliant student, he was driven to be the first in his class at prep school, and then at Yale. The story of his creation of Time magazine, together with his friend/rival Brett Hadden, is fascinating. The narrative remains gripping during the 1920s and 1930s when Luce is creating Fortune magazine and then Life magazine. However, the latter half of the book is poor in interest because Luce was essentially a solitary man with few if any friendships. He sat atop a publishing empire, and wielded his power to further conservative causes, usually without much success. For example, he militated in favor of armed US support for the Chinese government led by Chiang Kai-shek against Mao’s communists. Even his relationship with the fascinating Clare Boothe Luce, while interesting at first, mires into a distant marriage of convenience. Glad I read it, mostly just for information about this influential figure.
February 2, 2019
The power that Luce wielded as an American figure seem to be far above what he may have deserved. One need only consider that from Gutenberg to the magazine took around four centuries, and for sixty years the magazine held sway but with the digital age may be waning before our eyes. Luce was a huge part of magazine publishing, and his publications went into American homes with Luce's stamp of approval for three or four generations that take us up to the internet age. But Luce was well-placed in time with literary skills that resonated with the culture. Time, Look, Fortune, and then Sports Illustrated all had their places, and made Luce and Time a great deal of money. Overall a well done narrative.
November 25, 2025
born to christian missionaries in china to prestigious boarding school scholarship kid to ivy league to pioneering magazines Time, Life and Sports Illustrated... other reviewers said the book and his life are boring... but i found interesting how his ideological/political/cultural bents, helped shape the ethos of "being a good american", through his publications... we're all so naive at the power of the media to choose what to report or how to report it, to advance or retard political ends, even under the assumption of a free press...
and dude notoriously slung trash D; guess it helps he became rich and powerful, from those humble beginnings... though in this book, i agree, nada of his love life [wealth/pursuits/scandals] is written in a page turning fashion.
and dude notoriously slung trash D; guess it helps he became rich and powerful, from those humble beginnings... though in this book, i agree, nada of his love life [wealth/pursuits/scandals] is written in a page turning fashion.
December 3, 2020
An admirable fair portrait of the life of the greatest publisher of all time. The co-founder of Time, founder of Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustration speaks volumes about this missionaries sons drive for greatest. A missionaries son who rose too heights that no one could have foretold. From China where he was born to one of the great figures of the 20th Century. A remarkable, complex and troubled man who built an empire. Well worth reading. This is not only a biography of Henry R Luce but a telling of his time as well.
August 18, 2019
It's an interesting history of the modern American publishing (Time/Life/Sports Illustrated) and how HL profoundly influenced it and was influenced and affected by the major players. But Luce isn't compelling. He's not noble. He's not chaste. He's not heroic. He's a downer. Surprised I stuck through to the end. Shameful end to a boy who grew up with such spiritual and mental advantage.
January 25, 2022
Nothing wrong with the prose or the pace , and the writer gives us a good idea of Luce's world in those days.
The problem is Luce does not come off as a very interesting, or likeable person. At times I was wondering why am I spending my time knowing more about him?
The problem is Luce does not come off as a very interesting, or likeable person. At times I was wondering why am I spending my time knowing more about him?
August 17, 2018
I am very interested in the American publishing industry. Although I had heard of the Luce family, I didn't really know who they were. Very interesting biography.
March 30, 2020
So much detail into Luce’s working and professional life- especially enjoyed the chapters on the origins of Time and Life, and Time Inc. during the 1960s.
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
August 16, 2021
Great picture of the times. A man from humble beginnings becomes a media tycoon. Interesting look at history through the lens of Henry Luce.
October 22, 2021
Good reminder of the never-ending hamster wheel of self-made significance.
February 6, 2024
A man of unadulterated ambition and near-constant unhappiness
January 24, 2020
After reading Alan Brinkley's biography of Henry Luce, I understand why people didn't want to go out for dinner with him. Despite his many accomplishments and accumulation of a great fortune, he was a boring man. He was intensely interested in the world, especially in shaping its future. But in the day to day, he lacked charm, insisted on getting his own way, and of course was the boss.
Many people thought and think of Luce as a reactionary, but this response may be an oversimplification. He definitely feared the forces of Communist aggression which as we now know was and is a legitimate concern. However his rationale for supporting Chang Kai-shek may have ultimately benefited the Chinese as well as the West. Obviously, I need to study this fascinating issue more thoroughly.
Many people thought and think of Luce as a reactionary, but this response may be an oversimplification. He definitely feared the forces of Communist aggression which as we now know was and is a legitimate concern. However his rationale for supporting Chang Kai-shek may have ultimately benefited the Chinese as well as the West. Obviously, I need to study this fascinating issue more thoroughly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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June 18, 2012 The Publisher is the story of Henry Luce, the founder of the Time publishing empire – Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated – and a major figure in the American 1940s-1960s. It is a conventional biography – boy is born, boy does Great Things (but encounters troubles too), boy reflects on his achievements, boy dies – but is well-researched and benefits from an interesting subject.
Luce was born to missionary parents in China at the turn of the century before coming to the US for education at Hotchkiss and Yale. In Time and Life he founded two of the most successful publishing ventures in history, which defined, in a way that is unthinkable today, a national basis of understanding what it meant to be American for much of the 20th century. I think of Time as a staid and bland common-purpose newsmagazine, but it was originally known as much for being an irreverent writer’s magazine; Time in its early days had a unique style and tone, where no noun ever wanted for an adjective (my favorite: “…little, nut-brown Mahatma Gandhi…”). Time and Life both sought to bring sophisticated commentary, sleek design, and top-notch photojournalism to the growing American middle class, and later, to indoctrinate them into Luce’s fervent anti-Communism and Republicanism. I was interested to read that his defined philosophy on politics and world affairs did not develop until he was in his 40s; until then he’d been a bit all over the place, except for a deep and abiding belief in the goodness of the American way of life and the indispensability of American leadership in the world. This was chauvinistic at times, and just wrong at others (e.g. his bitter-enderism with Chiang Kai Shek and the KMT in China), but I at least found that it came from a pure place, and one that encompassed progressive views on a number of issues, like race (Luce insisted his magazines be pro-civil rights early in the 1940s), or McCarthyism (he thought the witch hunt for domestic subversives was a distraction). Luce was abrasive and insistent in his opinions, but he wasn’t cynical.
The book is a good read not only because Luce was an important figure and had an interesting biography himself, but for the picture it paints of the times in which he lived – the accepted social stratification of his youth (at Hotchkiss, where he was a scholarship student, he couldn’t eat meals with the ‘regular’ students because he had to wait on them); the very real debate about the merits of getting into WWII, which seems so obvious in retrospect; American communism when it was a real thing with a real following rather than a figment of crazy people’s imaginations; a media landscape that in some ways didn’t have the insidious partisanship of today, but where media outlets had clearly defined political views.
But ultimately I found it a sad portrait of the person. Luce comes across as a deeply lonely figure, almost driven crazy by his intense views and frustration that not everyone held them. He was ambitious not only in the normal professional sense but had a profound drive to shape the world in the way he thought right. Hated by many, flattered by others, but with no close friends and two failed marriages, Luce had access to the most influential men and women of his era, but very little human warmth in his life. He wanted to be both great and good, and one gets the sense that he never truly felt he was either.
Luce was born to missionary parents in China at the turn of the century before coming to the US for education at Hotchkiss and Yale. In Time and Life he founded two of the most successful publishing ventures in history, which defined, in a way that is unthinkable today, a national basis of understanding what it meant to be American for much of the 20th century. I think of Time as a staid and bland common-purpose newsmagazine, but it was originally known as much for being an irreverent writer’s magazine; Time in its early days had a unique style and tone, where no noun ever wanted for an adjective (my favorite: “…little, nut-brown Mahatma Gandhi…”). Time and Life both sought to bring sophisticated commentary, sleek design, and top-notch photojournalism to the growing American middle class, and later, to indoctrinate them into Luce’s fervent anti-Communism and Republicanism. I was interested to read that his defined philosophy on politics and world affairs did not develop until he was in his 40s; until then he’d been a bit all over the place, except for a deep and abiding belief in the goodness of the American way of life and the indispensability of American leadership in the world. This was chauvinistic at times, and just wrong at others (e.g. his bitter-enderism with Chiang Kai Shek and the KMT in China), but I at least found that it came from a pure place, and one that encompassed progressive views on a number of issues, like race (Luce insisted his magazines be pro-civil rights early in the 1940s), or McCarthyism (he thought the witch hunt for domestic subversives was a distraction). Luce was abrasive and insistent in his opinions, but he wasn’t cynical.
The book is a good read not only because Luce was an important figure and had an interesting biography himself, but for the picture it paints of the times in which he lived – the accepted social stratification of his youth (at Hotchkiss, where he was a scholarship student, he couldn’t eat meals with the ‘regular’ students because he had to wait on them); the very real debate about the merits of getting into WWII, which seems so obvious in retrospect; American communism when it was a real thing with a real following rather than a figment of crazy people’s imaginations; a media landscape that in some ways didn’t have the insidious partisanship of today, but where media outlets had clearly defined political views.
But ultimately I found it a sad portrait of the person. Luce comes across as a deeply lonely figure, almost driven crazy by his intense views and frustration that not everyone held them. He was ambitious not only in the normal professional sense but had a profound drive to shape the world in the way he thought right. Hated by many, flattered by others, but with no close friends and two failed marriages, Luce had access to the most influential men and women of his era, but very little human warmth in his life. He wanted to be both great and good, and one gets the sense that he never truly felt he was either.
December 2, 2011
Alan Brinkley, Columbia University Provost and son of the late newscaster David Brinkley, does a fine job detailing the life of one of the most remarkable men of the 20th century: Henry Robinson Luce, cofounder of TimeLife, publisher of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated magazines. This is a much better bio than W.A. Swanberg’s Luce and far more detailed than David Halberstam’s Powers That Be, though Halberstam writes with more verve and better captures the intensity and contrary aspects of Harry Luce’s personality.
This son of missionaries to China and a scholarship student at Hotchkiss and Yale, always had the air of feeling less than, but used that insecurity and through sheer drive and intelligence, rose to be a leading opinion maker (decades before the advent of focus groups) and kibitzer to the world's decision makers. His was a voice that was heard. Time, in its day, was America's unofficial equivalent of Pravda while Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated made him fabulously rich. Harry Luce, everyone called him Harry, was no Hearst, who inherited a Croesus-like fortune and sank to demagoguey, nor Murdoch, though self made, is still a demagogue. With Brit Hadden, he invented the idea of the news magazine.
Luce was a true believer. He believed in Christianity, America, and capitalism. But because he was a true believer, though his enemies loathed him, he confounded those that many assumed would be his natural allies. He defended, lobbied, and protected the corrupt Chiang Kai-shek regime to his dying day because he believed in the idea of a free, independent (and Christian) China. Yet he was one of the earliest champions of America’s intervention in Europe pre –Pearl Harbor, the promotion of civil liberties to minorities, and opposed and vocally criticized Joe McCarthy’s red baiting tactics. He hired the best writers and editors that money could buy, almost invariably progressives and liberals with views diametrically opposed to his own (often he would lament why he could not find good and intelligent conservative writers), and alternately despaired over and battled with them (the best example being Teddy White).
He also seemed dissatisfied and unhappy. An absent father he was at best. His long second marriage to the glittering and vain Clare Booth Luce drifted from passion, recriminations, to détente. What began as a dazzling marriage sequed to bitterness, mutual infidelities, and finally acceptance. It became more of a merger than marriage with Clare always the junior partner. She had the star power; Luce had the determination, influence, and a lot of money. Clare may be a playwright and former editor of Vanity Fair, but she had no say in his magazines to her chagrin.
Unhappiness may have been but self pity was certainly not his lot. Bitter, abrupt, and hopelessly socially awkward, Harry channeled all his energies into his endless curiosity and ambition. There was no bemoaning or gnashing of teeth at his fate. Luce lacked that self-awareness that makes depressives. He just rolled up his sleeves and began changing America and the World to his and God’s plan. While not a nurturer, he was a crusader and a champion. He was quite a guy.
This son of missionaries to China and a scholarship student at Hotchkiss and Yale, always had the air of feeling less than, but used that insecurity and through sheer drive and intelligence, rose to be a leading opinion maker (decades before the advent of focus groups) and kibitzer to the world's decision makers. His was a voice that was heard. Time, in its day, was America's unofficial equivalent of Pravda while Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated made him fabulously rich. Harry Luce, everyone called him Harry, was no Hearst, who inherited a Croesus-like fortune and sank to demagoguey, nor Murdoch, though self made, is still a demagogue. With Brit Hadden, he invented the idea of the news magazine.
Luce was a true believer. He believed in Christianity, America, and capitalism. But because he was a true believer, though his enemies loathed him, he confounded those that many assumed would be his natural allies. He defended, lobbied, and protected the corrupt Chiang Kai-shek regime to his dying day because he believed in the idea of a free, independent (and Christian) China. Yet he was one of the earliest champions of America’s intervention in Europe pre –Pearl Harbor, the promotion of civil liberties to minorities, and opposed and vocally criticized Joe McCarthy’s red baiting tactics. He hired the best writers and editors that money could buy, almost invariably progressives and liberals with views diametrically opposed to his own (often he would lament why he could not find good and intelligent conservative writers), and alternately despaired over and battled with them (the best example being Teddy White).
He also seemed dissatisfied and unhappy. An absent father he was at best. His long second marriage to the glittering and vain Clare Booth Luce drifted from passion, recriminations, to détente. What began as a dazzling marriage sequed to bitterness, mutual infidelities, and finally acceptance. It became more of a merger than marriage with Clare always the junior partner. She had the star power; Luce had the determination, influence, and a lot of money. Clare may be a playwright and former editor of Vanity Fair, but she had no say in his magazines to her chagrin.
Unhappiness may have been but self pity was certainly not his lot. Bitter, abrupt, and hopelessly socially awkward, Harry channeled all his energies into his endless curiosity and ambition. There was no bemoaning or gnashing of teeth at his fate. Luce lacked that self-awareness that makes depressives. He just rolled up his sleeves and began changing America and the World to his and God’s plan. While not a nurturer, he was a crusader and a champion. He was quite a guy.
June 7, 2010
Alan Brinkley’s historical profile of Time magazine founder, Henry Luce, is as much a history of a titan of industry as it is an overview of the global and political times of what Luce himself referred to as Luce ‘the American Century.’ Brinkley (who has written extensively on FDR and penned a series of American history books known as ‘The Unfinished Nation’) assembles a thorough biography that runs parallel along three distinct tracks.
The first, is the story of a man and his publishing empire, originally founded with his Hotchkiss and Yale student buddy and publishing co-conspirator Brit Hadden (who despite a heavy role in the business, died early in the empire – 1929) and the business machinations of taking a small-time newsweekly and building it into the leading American news magazine empire of the 20th century. (Time, then eventually Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated).
The second, much like many news publishing scions (from W. R. Hearst to Murdoch) pertains to Luce’s often failed attempts to influence political opinion in his support for both Republican front-runners as well as his desire to shape world events from China’s battle with and eventual yielding to communism (much space in the second half of the book is devoted to Luce’s obsession with Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek and the possibility, and failure of, sustained democracy throuout China – described by Brinkley as “the greatest disappoint of Luce’s life”) to the never-ending quagmire of Vietnam.
The third track involves Luce’s personal life through his two marriages, including his second to the high-profile Claire Booth Luce (nee Brokaw), and his distant and oft-times troubled personal relationships to associates, co-workers and others in his immediate circle.
Brinkley’s portrayal of Luce as a hard driving, sometimes reclusive, singularly focused media mogul is not unlike stories we hear of other power brokers of the post-industrial world. That the journey his publishing enterprise took him politically, socially and in the halls of power is not surprising given the prominence he was able to amass through his never ending work and mainstream ethos. In the end, and despite other works on the subject, the author renders a throughly detailed and complete assemblage of the story of the most important American magazine publisher of the last 100 years. On many levels it is a story that is well worth absorbing.
The first, is the story of a man and his publishing empire, originally founded with his Hotchkiss and Yale student buddy and publishing co-conspirator Brit Hadden (who despite a heavy role in the business, died early in the empire – 1929) and the business machinations of taking a small-time newsweekly and building it into the leading American news magazine empire of the 20th century. (Time, then eventually Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated).
The second, much like many news publishing scions (from W. R. Hearst to Murdoch) pertains to Luce’s often failed attempts to influence political opinion in his support for both Republican front-runners as well as his desire to shape world events from China’s battle with and eventual yielding to communism (much space in the second half of the book is devoted to Luce’s obsession with Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek and the possibility, and failure of, sustained democracy throuout China – described by Brinkley as “the greatest disappoint of Luce’s life”) to the never-ending quagmire of Vietnam.
The third track involves Luce’s personal life through his two marriages, including his second to the high-profile Claire Booth Luce (nee Brokaw), and his distant and oft-times troubled personal relationships to associates, co-workers and others in his immediate circle.
Brinkley’s portrayal of Luce as a hard driving, sometimes reclusive, singularly focused media mogul is not unlike stories we hear of other power brokers of the post-industrial world. That the journey his publishing enterprise took him politically, socially and in the halls of power is not surprising given the prominence he was able to amass through his never ending work and mainstream ethos. In the end, and despite other works on the subject, the author renders a throughly detailed and complete assemblage of the story of the most important American magazine publisher of the last 100 years. On many levels it is a story that is well worth absorbing.
April 7, 2016
When I was in journalism school one of my professors used a case study of Henry Luce to illustrate how one man can slant news to fit his preconceived attitude of the world. During the semester in which I took the course, we religiously read Time every week and had class discussions about the bias that was evident in many "news" stories essentially turning them into opinion pieces.
When I picked up The Publisher, Alan Brinkley's biography about Luce I was curious to determine if the author merely glossed over these issues in some type of artificial history of this man. I was not disappointed. Brinkley has done a remarkable job of illustrating all of the ways Luce as the publisher of Time and Life attempted to bend the news to his reality.
But beyond journalism, I was intrigued by the portrait of an intensely lonely man who had few close friends and a tumultuous marriage. I came away with a much better understanding of this complex man while re-living some of the most dramatic events in recent American history.
Print journalism will never again achieve the importance it had during Luce's lifetime. He would probably be profoundly depressed about the media landscape we face today despite the obvious bias that is so apparent in much of today's reporting.
When I picked up The Publisher, Alan Brinkley's biography about Luce I was curious to determine if the author merely glossed over these issues in some type of artificial history of this man. I was not disappointed. Brinkley has done a remarkable job of illustrating all of the ways Luce as the publisher of Time and Life attempted to bend the news to his reality.
But beyond journalism, I was intrigued by the portrait of an intensely lonely man who had few close friends and a tumultuous marriage. I came away with a much better understanding of this complex man while re-living some of the most dramatic events in recent American history.
Print journalism will never again achieve the importance it had during Luce's lifetime. He would probably be profoundly depressed about the media landscape we face today despite the obvious bias that is so apparent in much of today's reporting.
July 1, 2011
As much a scholarly review of the Cold War as an historical biography of a media titan, Alan Brinkley's The Publisher is a highly entertaining look at an individual who helped transform the United States into the media center of the world in the first half of the 20th century. Students in my history classes tend to learn about William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer and Yellow Journalism, but beginning next year they will also hear more about Henry Luce and his role on bringing a different kind of news coverage to the masses.
As a biography, The Publisher left me saddened as Luce is not a very likable individual and you wonder at times what was going on inside this mogul's head. But as a history teacher, this book provides me stories and insight into various historical events such as the Cold War, Boxer Rebellion, Great Depression, and perhaps even World War II and the Sixties that offer a new perspective.
I'm just about to conclude a week-long seminar listening to Alan Brinkley lecture on the Cold War in New York City and am personally excited that I've been able to ask him some questions about some aspects of this fine book.
As a biography, The Publisher left me saddened as Luce is not a very likable individual and you wonder at times what was going on inside this mogul's head. But as a history teacher, this book provides me stories and insight into various historical events such as the Cold War, Boxer Rebellion, Great Depression, and perhaps even World War II and the Sixties that offer a new perspective.
I'm just about to conclude a week-long seminar listening to Alan Brinkley lecture on the Cold War in New York City and am personally excited that I've been able to ask him some questions about some aspects of this fine book.
July 20, 2012
Informative biography of a man who had a profound impact on 20th-century journalism. It was interesting to read this concurrently with the recent Steve Jobs biography, and note the parallels:
--Man who revolutionizes an industry with a successful business that he micromanages for decades
--A prescient grasp of consumer tastes leads to tremendous mass-market adoption of the product
--Starts off young and ambitious, with a co-founder -- who is only in the picture for the first few years
--Personalities of the two co-founders are strikingly different, yet complementary
--Luce and Jobs were both socially awkward, odd guys
3 stars because this wasn't a very well-crafted book. There are fascinating themes to explore with Luce's life and impact, but this book hid these away in epilogue and didn't orient the full narrative around them.
--Man who revolutionizes an industry with a successful business that he micromanages for decades
--A prescient grasp of consumer tastes leads to tremendous mass-market adoption of the product
--Starts off young and ambitious, with a co-founder -- who is only in the picture for the first few years
--Personalities of the two co-founders are strikingly different, yet complementary
--Luce and Jobs were both socially awkward, odd guys
3 stars because this wasn't a very well-crafted book. There are fascinating themes to explore with Luce's life and impact, but this book hid these away in epilogue and didn't orient the full narrative around them.
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July 31, 2011This book is fascinating--Henry Luce, a rabidly competative man, started Time magazine with his hottest competitor at Yale--who had the bad luck to die very young and let Henry go on to create Fortune, Life, and Sports Illustrated--the book is absoultely strong when talking about the professional side of Luce's life and what motivated him. . The weakness lies in it's complete lack of analysis of his personal life--his marriage to Clare, which seems without sex fromt he beginning, and yet he reamins married to her. Whaat about his children from his forst wife, and what does all of this say about his life. All left for us to ponder. Still, sharply and wittily written. Recommended. Four star writing, three star coverage.
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