Frontlines: Snapshots of History

This must be the ultimate in fly on the wall literature. This well illustated book recounts in excellent journalistic style how reuter's correspondents visited hotspots and met hotshots over the last sixty years. The composition of the book gives the reader the feeling of "being there" and you can relive the tension of many of the situations and empathise with the man on the spot who had to contend with such traumas as hearing someone being clubbed to death outside his prison cell in an unstable African state.Also the charismatic atmosphere surrounding some of the big names that the reporters met comes through the text to the reader, from Elvis Presley to Margaret Thatcher and many more, the great and the not so good are there.One surprise was to discover that Derek Jameson began his career by landing a job as a messenger boy at Reuters and subsequently impressed his superior so much that he was made a trainee reporter, which eventually launched him on his future path as a journalist and broadcaster.Having finished reading this excellent work I would commend the reader to place it on the bookshelf with other historical works for future generations to refer to.

Frontlines will appear to many to be a book of photography, and the book certain does contain several dozen fine images of world-significant events since 1944. However, the bulk of this intriguing volume tells the story behind the story by 40 on-the-scenes correspondents for Reuters who broke the news. In most cases, these essays will provide new details to you that will put much of recent history into a different perspective."Where the action is, Reuters is always there . . . ." You will be impressed by the derring-do of the correspondents here. For example, Doon Campbell was born with one arm. Despite that, he came in on an LST with the first wave of Royal Marines on D-Day, and crossed the Rhine with the first gliders (being considered unable to parachute by the authorities). Although the book covers a tremendous number of world-shaking events (D-Day, the bombing of Hiroshima, the first landings over the Rhine, the Six Day War, building and tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the Iranian Revolution, OPEC's price increases and the Arab Oil Embargo, and space feats), it also covers many many areas of mass culture (Elvis in Germany, over the hill celebrities in Hollywood, and the Thrilla in Manila). To me, the most interesting essays were the ones that covered getting the story in Communist countries. Usually, the local laws had to be broken to get the story, broken again to get the story out, and then the correspondent had to deal with the angry officials afterwards. You will be moved by the many times that these reporters faced long-term sentences in prison or even execution for covering important stories. One of the most interesting stories is by thriller writer Frederick Forsyth who recalls getting a story about an American bomber shot down in East Germany after World War II. His tale of getting the story and getting out seems just like one of his novels, and you will read those novels differently in the future realizing that he has been there and done that.The book also has a lot of humor, such as the description of the failed American test of a "space loo" which was wired the wrong way and ejected the material involved instead of sucking it in. One of the funniest was the story of accidentally stepping on Chairman Mao's toes. If you are a news junkie, journalist, or just someone who likes to know the behind-the-scenes detail, this book will be a favorite in your library for many years to come. After you finish enjoying the book, I suggest that you take events that most interest you and find the latest books on them. In that way, you can combine perspectives to get a better flavor of what interests you. Look carefully to see the art and courage behind the bare bones design!