America Inside Out: At Home & Abroad from Roosevelt to Reagan

David Schoenbrun was one of the most distinguished print and television journalists of his generation. In this work he surveys fifty years of American history, from the Roosevelt to the Reagan Administrations. He was a correspondent in the Depression and through the Second World War, through Truman and Eisenhower administrations. With the coming into power of Kennedy he was transferred by CBS from Paris where he had long been Bureau Head of CBS to the biggest beat of all, Washington. Schoenbrun tells of dramatic meetings with leaders from DeGaulle and HoChiMinh in his early Paris days to Kennedy and Johnson later on. A patriotic American who fought in the second world war he found himself strongly criticized for his negative reports on the Vietnam War. In this work he sets out his journalistic credo which he learned from the great Edward R. Murrow.This means first of all studying and knowing one's subject thoroughly. And secondly, it means getting to all the sources, all the people that can provide key information on the subject. It also means expressing the truth of the situation no matter what authority or power it might offend. Schoenbrun is a good and fluent writer, who provides anecdotes of interest on every page. He confesses that he sometimes made the journalistic error of working to be a participant in the making of history, and not simply a reporter of it. For instance he tells how Chip Bohlen was appointed US Ambassador to Paris after he suggested this to President Kennedy. And he tells of how he vainly tried to convince the French about the futility of their efforts in Vietnam. Schoenbrun was a great supporter of the New Deal, and found himself opposing many Reagan policies which he thought were aimed at taking this apart. He is warm in his appreciation of professional colleagues like Murrow, Howard K. Smith and producer Don Hewitt. He is less so about Fred Friendly, and the latter- stage William Paley. Schoenbrun's book is not simply an excellent book of journalism it is a fascinating tour through half a century of American history. I very much enjoyed it.