Dan Rather

When routine coverage of JFK's Dallas visit suddenly evolved into reporting a worldwide tragedy, KRLD reporters assumed the duty of reassuring a shocked nation and an anxious world. Broadcast journalism came of age in that crisis, and KRLD News earned the profession's highest honor for its on-the-scene reporting. The writers worked in support of Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite as they reported the first on-camera murder and initiated the first continuous live coverage. Reporters who were part of this watershed in broadcast journalism have had four decades to consider events that were too fast and stunning to allow emotional detachment or reflection. They have never written their account of what happened on the scene in Dallas in 1963 until this book, and no other group had quite the behind-the-scene perspectives these four shared.

All of Which I Saw captures the United States Marine Corps during some of the most dramatic and important moments of the Iraq War. The book takes the viewer across the Pacific aboard ship, into the Battle of Najaf and Second Battle of Fallujah—where Read took his now-iconic photograph of a wounded Sergeant Major Bradley Kasal—and beyond into the bloody streets of Ramadi and the darkness of the Haditha massacre . . . only to return to the light of homecoming. During the Iraq War, no other photojournalist spent more time with the Marines, and this is a singular, stunning, and indispensable record of the conflict and the Marine Corps at war. Throughout, the book also contains Read’s own contemporaneous accounts that tell the stories behind the photos and capture the grim truths about the war in all its violence, tragedy, heroism, and sacrifice.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “I find myself thinking deeply about what it means to love America, as I surely do.” —Dan Rather“A tonic for our times . . . Rather's writing shows why he has won the admiration of a new generation. In these essays, he gives voice to the marginalized and rips off the journalistic shield of objectivity to ring the alarm bell when he witnesses actions he fears undermine the principles of American democracy. That, undoubtedly, is patriotic. And it takes courage.” —USA Today At a moment of crisis over our national identity, venerated journalist Dan Rather has emerged as a voice of reason and integrity, reflecting on—and writing passionately about—what it means to be an American. Now, with this collection of original essays, he reminds us of the principles upon which the United States was founded. Looking at the freedoms that define us, from the vote to the press; the values that have transformed us, from empathy to inclusion to service; the institutions that sustain us, such as public education; and the traits that helped form our young country, such as the audacity to take on daunting challenges in science and medicine, Rather brings to bear his decades of experience on the frontlines of the world’s biggest stories. As a living witness to historical change, he offers up an intimate view of history, tracing where we have been in order to help us chart a way forward and heal our bitter divisions. With a fundamental sense of hope, What Unites Us is the book to inspire conversation and listening, and to remind us all how we are, finally, one.

Over a career spanning more than 50 years, veteran journalist Marvin Scott has seen it all. From international headlines to local heroes, the eleven-time Emmy Award–winner and member of the New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame has covered the news with objectivity and integrity, bringing journalistic excellence to every level of reporting. Scott has interviewed six presidents, visited the frontlines of war in the Middle East and Asia, and witnessed the rise of America’s space program—all in a day’s work.Now, in As I Saw It: A Reporter’s Intrepid Journey, Scott reflects on the stories that have stuck with him personally over the years, and the people who gave them life. Alongside marches with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and tense meetings with Yasser Arafat, Scott brings us Burt and Linda Pugach, the couple whose lifelong marriage was forged in deadly obsession; Abraham Zapruder, who shot history’s most infamous piece of film; Charlie Walsh, the everyman hero who gave the banks a run for their money; and Stephanie Collado, the eleven-year-old girl who needed a heart and touched his. From political scandals to hauntings at Amityville, local tragedies, triumphs and absurdities find their place alongside accounts of crime and redemption, war and celebrity on a national scale, all told with Scott’s signature passion and candor.As I Saw It pairs Scott’s unique storytelling and photography to give readers a new look at the singular experiences of a lifelong reporter, and the stories that shaped a generation.

In this provocative study, Shelly Brivic presents the history of the twentieth-century American novel as a continuous narrative dialogue between white and black voices. Exploring four of the most renowned and challenging works written between 1930 and 1990 - William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, Richard Wright's Native Son, Thomas Pynchon's V., and Toni Morrison's Beloved - Brivic traces how these works progress through the interaction of white and black perspectives toward confronting the calamity of slavery and its reverberating aftermath and continuing legacy. Brivic shows how one novel leads ineluctably to the next and how the four works in a sense form one continuous narrative: with Faulkner's attack on the racial system in Absalom, Absalom! in the 1930s, a literary space opened for Wright's devastating novel of protest. Through the character of Bigger Thomas, Wright's Native Son exposes a virtually incurable division in American ideologies, which leads to the multiplying perspectives of postmodernism in Pynchon's V. Arriving at the crest of the civil rights movement, V. questions Western systems of control, laying a foundation for a world outside the white one, and so providing a basis for the African view of reality presented in Morrison's Beloved. The emergence of African consciousness in American literature exemplified across these works has had, and continues to have, Brivic concludes, the potential not only to redress ongoing injustices but to bring about a new conception of the American universe and its laws of reality. Striking in both the selection of novels and the connections Brivic draws among them, Tears of Rage advances understanding of the destructive nature of racism and the possibilities for overcoming its effects through literature.

The minutes, hours, and days after President John F. Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963, provided no ready answers about what was going on, what would happen next, or what any of it meant. For millions of Americans transfixed by the incomparable breaking news, television—for the first time—emerged as a way to keep informed. But the journalists who brought the story to the television airwaves could only rely on their skill, their experience, and their stamina to make sense of what was, at the time, the biggest story of their lives. President Kennedy’s assassination was the first time such big breaking news was covered spontaneously—this book tells the stories of four men who were at the epicenter of it all. Bob Huffaker, Bill Mercer, George Phenix, and Wes Wise were among those responsible for covering the assassination and its aftermath for Dallas’s KRLD. These reporters fed news and footage to Walter Cronkite and all of the other CBS affiliates around the country. From the presidential motorcade to Parkland Hospital, from Lee Harvey Oswald’s shooting to the trial and lonesome death of Jack Ruby, these men were there, on the inside. The view they were afforded of these events was unparalleled; the tales they have to tell, one-of-a-kind. This 50th anniversary edition includes new photos, insights, and reflections on the state of news (and faux news) today from the four men who were active participants in television news' pivotal moment.

This memoir by Dan Rather is told in a straightforward and conversational voice, and covers all the important moments of his journalistic career, including (but certainly not limited to) a frank accounting of his dismissal from CBS, the Abu Ghraib story, the George W. Bush Air National Guard controversy, new insights on the JFK assassination, the origin of "Hurricane Dan" as well as inside stories about all the top personalities Dan has either interviewed or worked with over his distinguished career. The book will also include Dan's thoughts on the state of journalism today and what he sees for its future, as well as never-before-revealed personal observations and commentary.

In The House of Marriage, Erin Hanusa searches ruthlessly and compassionately for deep and strange truth in a world we only believe we know. Whether set in a field in Tennessee, the lunar beauty of Egypt's White Desert, or a rain-soaked Plymouth on a midwestern highway, Hanusa's passionate, candid verse reconciles longing with understanding. The opening poems deal with objects close and familiar: animals, landscapes, and the body. Later poems trace an arc of familial betrayal and forgiveness, while others spiral through lyric, erotic mystery. Yet each of these transcendent poems is ultimately concerned with ""knowing the finite ways we possess / to love, / in learning them all."" With this remarkable debut, Hanusa affirms her place among America's most promising young poets. From The House of Marriage: ""No other proof or clue remains, // no photographs, no bed. // This place is as fearfulas they said. // I want to see them // move through it like water, // luscious and damaging, // toward the moment // that made me.

Hurricane Katrina was a stunning example of complete civic breakdown. Beginning on August 29, 2005, the world watched in horror as- despite all the warnings and studies- every system that might have protected New Orleans failed. Levees and canals buckled, pouring more than 100 billion gallons of floodwater into the city. Botched communications crippled rescue operations. Buses that might have evacuated thousands never came. Hospitals lost power, and patients lay suffering in darkness and stifling heat. At least 1,400 Louisianans died in Hurricane Katrina, more than half of them from New Orleans, and hundreds of thousands more were displaced, many still wondering if they will ever be able to return. How could all of this have happened in twenty-first-century America? And could it all happen again? To answer these questions, the Center for Public Integrity commissioned seven seasoned journalists to travel to New Orleans and investigate the storm's aftermath. In City Adrift: New Orleans Before and After Katrina, they present their findings. The stellar roster of contributors includes Pulitzer Prize-winner John McQuaid, whose earlier work predicted the failure of the levees and the impending disaster; longtime Boston Globe newsman Curtis Wilkie, a French Quarter resident for nearly fifteen years; and Katy Reckdahl, an award-winning freelance journalist who gave birth to her son in a New Orleans hospital the day before Katrina hit.They and the rest of the investigative team interviewed homeowners and health officials, first responders and politicians, and evacuees and other ordinary citizens to explore the storm from numerous angles, including health care, social services, housing and insurance, and emergency preparedness. They also identify the political, social, geographical, and technological factors that compounded the tragedy. Comprehensive and balanced, City Adrift provides not only an assessment of what went wrong in the Big Easy during and following Hurricane Katrina, but also, more importantly, a road map of what must be done to ensure that such a devastating tragedy is never repeated.

At a time when we are once again talking and thinking about the meaning of America, bestselling author and award-winning journalist Dan Rather provides a powerful look at Americans who struggle to achieve their desires and ambitions. With the stories of ordinary men and women accomplishing the extraordinary, Rather demonstrates how the American dream brings us together and guides us, as it has for more than 200 years.For some, the American dream is simply to own a home or rise out of poverty. Some wish to serve God, country, or community. There are those who want to learn to read or run their own business. Still others simply wish to exercise fundamental American rights: to openly practice their religion and to speak what is in their minds and hearts.Stirring and provocative, The American Dream illustrates that the basic American desire for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is alive and well. It also confirms what our founding fathers always believed: that we are a country of visionaries, in ways big and small.