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Interview | Civil Rights | Cold War | Immigration
The Emergence of Martin Luther King pgs. 472-473
Mr Khrushchev Comes to Town pgs 478-479
FREE excerpt  History
for Browsers Joe:
I would like to give a warm welcome to our guest today, Harold Evans. His latest
book, The
American Century is a real tour-de-force in terms of the extensive
material it covers with wonderful text and pictures. Despite its incredible volume and
depth, it is accessible to the reader because it is written almost as if it were a series
of magazine articles taking you through 100 years of US history. For many of our readers
who are homeschoolers, each of the bite-size pieces would make a wonderful jumping off
point for a discussion or a research report for your children. Just to give you a flavor
of the book, Harold Evans has also graciously permitted us to reprint two of the essays in
his book along with pictures. I hope you enjoy them. They are:
A bit more about our guest....
 Harold Evans first came to
America in 1956 as an English journalist and academic Fellow. He was impressed by
America’s affluence, freedom and especially with its kaleidoscope of cultures. Over
the last four decades he has been in the heart of America – from meeting the last
surviving member of Geronomo’s tribe, campaigning for Adlai Stevenson in the 1956
presidential race, traveling through the deep south in the wake of the Brown
school desegregation ruling and editing the papers of Henry Kissenger. His career has been
varied and fascinating from being editor of the Sunday Times of London, founding
editor-in-chief of Conde Nast Traveler, President and Publisher of Random House,
and currently Editorial Director & Vice Chairman of U.S. News & World Report,
The Atlantic Monthly and The New York Daily News. He is one of England’s
most celebrated journalists with a gold meal for his Sunday Times Thalidomide
campaign. As General Colin L. Powell said, Evans has created a "riveting, panoramic
sweep of the forces of the last century that helped shape America."
Joe:
So it is with great pride that I’d like to present Harold Evans here on the
Zone as our guest, where we discuss some of the important issues here in America supported
by a couple of extended excerpts from his wonderful book. Thank you Harold for stopping by
to visit with us.
Harold, you have a unique perspective on the
American century
as a person who originally came to America in 1956 on a fellowship where you
traveled the US. How do you think this was an advantage in looking at America?
Harold Evans
Americans who have lived here any time take their freedoms for granted.
I was struck by this when I first traveled in the U.S. in the fifties. Then when
I became a newspaper editor in Britain, exposing various scandals such as the fate of the
thalidomide children who did not have proper compensation, I realized that none of the
governmental and legal restrictions would apply in the U.S. I gave a speech called The
Half Free Press, pointing out that British newspapers would never have been able to do
Watergate in the way the Washington Post did - not because we were inferior journalists,
but because of the laws of contempt and confidence and libel. On my visits,I also found -
sadly - that many Americans do not know their own history and the individuals whose
efforts brought us nearer the ideals of the constitution.
It is too flattering am flattered to be compared to the
French observer de Tocqueville, as I have been, but the point is that a good many acute
observers of the American scene have been from abroad - Kipling, Bryce, Dickens, Brogan,
Cooke. And Americans are good natured enough to take it!
Joe:
You refer to the way the book is organized as "history for browsers."
How did you come to think that this would be the best approach? With so much of
history to cover you have to make some tough editorial decisions. Could you give some
insight in your editorial policy in choosing what sort of things would stay in and what
would have to be edited out?
 See the
answer from Harold Evans
FREE excerptHistory for Browsers
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The American
Century
by Harold Evans, Gail Buckland, Kevin Baker
 
Although most of this sprawling book is set in the 20th century, it begins on
April 29, 1889, when Benjamin Harrison commemorated the first centennial of American
government. This 11-year jump-start allows Harold Evans to write about the last major push
to settle the Western territories, the gradual dwindling of Native American societies, the
rise to prominence of William Jennings Bryan, and other quintessentially American moments
of the 19th century.We Interrupt This
Broadcast:
Relive the Events That Stopped Our Lives...from the
Hindenburg to the Death of Princess Diana
by Joe Garner, Walter Cronkite, Bill Kurtis
 Beginning
with the explosion of the dirigible Hindenburg in 1937, this book and double-CD
collection of audio broadcasts recalls a series of dramatic events so urgent that they
interrupted regularly scheduled broadcasting in America. The text of this package includes
capsule explanations of such events as the attack on Pearl Harbor and the death of Elvis,
accompanied by dramatic black-and-white stock photos. Introduced by the sonorous voice of
TV journalist Bill Kurtis, the recordings of the news broadcasts revive the panic and
thrill of some of the defining moments (mostly American) of the 20th century. |
