Peace, War, and Politics: An Eyewitness Account

Product Description The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist shares his own eyewitness accounts of more than fifty years of American history as he sheds new light on the events and personalities–from Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover to Boris Yeltsin and Joe McCarthy–that transformed twentieth-century America. 100,000 first printing. From Publishers Weekly In this memoir, as in his columns, Anderson is happy to make himself as much of an issue as the stories he has covered during a long and successful journalistic career as a syndicated columnist, first working for Drew Pearson’s “Washington Merry-Go-Round” column and then taking over the column outright in 1969 for the Washington Post. A Mormon, the teetotaling Anderson has always been a maverick figure among American political journalists and has styled himself a muckraker extraordinaire, taking on everything from petty kickbacks among congressmen to John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the Iran-Contra scandal. Ironically, despite his healthy ego, Anderson reveals little of himself, either directly or indirectly, in this memoir. Instead, the book is a series of anecdotes strung together. Among these stories, however, are some gems: Anderson’s account of his feud with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is simultaneously hilarious and frightening; his investigation of possible mob ties to the Kennedy assassination yields a persuasive story at odds with the one eventually put forth by the Warren Commission. Anderson describes himself upon his arrival in Washington after WWII as having “a style that was more bluff than experience.” Since then, he has certainly gained experience (and a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for exposing President Nixon’s tilt toward Pakistan in its war with India), but he hasn’t lost the bluff attitude, which is evident in his frequent boasts about how effectively he got under the skin of the high and mighty. $100,000 ad/promo; TV satellite tour; radio satellite tour. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Theodore Roosevelt first used the term muckraker to castigate those who constantly peered into the muck of his presidency. Anderson takes on that moniker with pride, and after 50 years of peering into the seamy and steamy side of WashingtonAfirst with Drew Pearson and, after 1969, on his ownAit fits. Anderson’s latest book updates his 1979 autobiography Confessions of a Muckraker and covers not only his earlier investigations but also his crusades against the shenanigans of the Carter (Billy Carter and Libya), Reagan (Iran-contra), Bush, and Clinton administrations. Anderson tells his story as he wishes it to be heard, so we, of course, will probably never know what is true and what is pure balderdash. He says he knows the truth behind Kennedy’s assassination, but he admits that despite his best efforts he never learned who “Deep Throat” was. This is a fun book that should be enjoyed by audiences far and wide who like a little dirt with their politics.AEdward Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Anderson has been part of the “Washington Merry-Go-Round” for more than 50 years: he joined Drew Pearson’s team of investigative reporters in 1947 and took over the column when Pearson died in 1969. The intervening decades have produced a Pulitzer Prize, thousands of columns, and a healthy array of scoops on major stories. Anderson’s targets have included everyone from Joe McCarthy to Charles Keating, plus just about every president, dozens of legislators, and more than a few business hotshots. In this memoir, Anderson reprises many of his biggest stories, but here he lets readers in on how his team found the facts others hoped to hide. There’s a chatty, “inside journalism” quality to much of the narrative, with sidebars providing brief portraits of sources or spelling out a principle that Anderson feels a particular incident illustrates. The acknowledgments include data on all the reporters wh