Covers all aspects of the book trade, including a history of the book, authorship, marketing, etiquette, and the Library of Congress.

Casanova Was a Book Lover: And Other Naked Truths Provocative Curiosities abt Writing Selling Reading Books

Literature & Fiction

Hamilton, John Maxwell

Literary

Penguin??Books

Long ago dubbed the fourth branch of government, the American press remains to most of the general public an inscrutable enterprise whose influence and behavior are alternately welcomed and maligned; yet the proper functioning of a democracy depends upon a media-literate populace to act as the ultimate watchdog. With wit and authority, John Hamilton and George Krimsky lead readers through the whirl of print journalism. They offer a curiosity-satisfying blend of explanation and interpretation, history, anecdotes aplenty, and statistical analysis to show what's wrong and what works with today's newspapers.

Hold the Press: The Inside Story on Newspapers

Politics & Social Sciences

Krimsky, George A.

Social Sciences

Louisiana State Univ Pr

Long ago dubbed the fourth branch of government, the American press remains to most of the general public an inscrutable enterprise whose influence and behavior are alternately welcomed and maligned; yet the proper functioning of a democracy depends upon a media-literate populace to act as the ultimate watchdog. With wit and authority, John Hamilton and George Krimsky lead readers through the whirl of print journalism. They offer a curiosity-satisfying blend of explanation and interpretation, history, anecdotes aplenty, and statistical analysis to show what's wrong and what works with today's newspapers.

LSU Press

Everyone knows which books people buy; they can just look at the best-seller lists. But who knows which books people steal? Who, for that matter, knows that authors ruin the book market by writing too much? Or why book critics are not critical? Or why librarians need to throw out more books? Who, indeed, knows the answer to that all-important question in our democracy: should presidents and presidential candidates write books? (The answer is no.) In this irreverent analysis of the book industry, John Maxwell Hamilton -- a longtime journalist and public radio commentator -- answers these questions and many more, proving that the best way to study books is not to take them too seriously. He provides a rich history of the book -- from the days when monks laboriously hand-copied texts to the tidal wave of Titanic tie-ins -- and gives a succinct overview of the state of the industry today, including writing, marketing, promoting, reviewing, ghostwriting, and collecting. Throughout, Hamilton peppers his prose with spicy tidbits of information that will fascinate bibliophiles everywhere. For instance, did you know that Walt Whitman was fired from a government job because his boss found Leaves of Grass, and its author, immoral? Or that the most stolen book in the United States is the Bible, followed by The Joy of Sex? How about that Dan Quayle's 1989 Christmas card read, "May our nation continue to be a beakon of hope to the world"? Or that Casanova was an ardent lover of books as well as women? Hamilton offers an inside look at the history and business of book reviewing, explaining why, more often than not, reviewers resemble "counselors at a self-esteem camp" and examining the enormous impact of the "Oprah effect" on the market. As the self-appointed Emily Post of the book world, he advises publishers, authors, and readers on proper etiquette for everything from book parties ("Feel free to build a party around a theme in a book, no matter how tacky") and jacket photos ("You should not show off your new baby unless [your] book [is] about raising kids"), to book signings ("Just because an author has given you an autograph does not mean they want to become your pen pal") and promotion by friends and relatives ("They should carry the book at all times on public transportation with the cover showing"). Both edifying and enjoyable, Casanova Was a Book Lover fills a Grand Canyon--sized void in the literature on literature. It is indispensable for book enthusiasts who want to know the naked truth about reading, writing, and publishing.

Casanova Was A Book Lover: And Other Naked Truths and Provocative Curiosities about the Writing, Selling, and Reading of Books

Edgar Snow (1905--1972) was one of the most notable Western journalists to report on China in both the revolutionary and postrevolutionary periods. He first became famous in the mid-1930s when he broke through a Nationalist blockade and reached the Communists in northwest China. For nearly a decade, no foreign reporter had seen the Communists, who were widely regarded as a ragtag bandit army. Snow took them seriously as a national movement. His reporting in the now-famous book Red Star over China was major news, even to the Chinese, thousands of whom joined the Communists after reading it. It has remained a seminal reference on the early Chinese Communist movement. In this award-winning biography, journalist John Maxwell Hamilton follows Snow from his birth in Kansas City to his rise as a celebrated foreign correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post, his ostracism during the cold war, and his role as a singular journalistic bridge between Communist China and the United States. With a new preface by the author, this revealing portrait of the widely misunderstood Snow firmly establishes him as a model for the kind of committed reporting that is crucial to understanding our interdependent world.

Edgar Snow: A Biography

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

In all of journalism, nowhere are the stakes higher than in foreign news-gathering. For media owners, it is the most difficult type of reporting to finance; for editors, the hardest to oversee. Correspondents, roaming large swaths of the planet, must acquire expertise that home-based reporters take for granted―facility with the local language, for instance, or an understanding of local cultures. Adding further to the challenges, they must put news of the world in context for an audience with little experience and often limited interest in foreign affairs―a task made all the more daunting because of the consequence to national security. In Journalism’s Roving Eye, John Maxwell Hamilton―a historian and former foreign correspondent―provides a sweeping and definitive history of American foreign news reporting from its inception to the present day and chronicles the economic and technological advances that have influenced overseas coverage, as well as the cavalcade of colorful personalities who shaped readers’ perceptions of the world across two centuries. From the colonial era―when newspaper printers hustled down to wharfs to collect mail and periodicals from incoming ships―to the ongoing multimedia press coverage of the Iraq War, Hamilton explores journalism’s constant―and not always successful―efforts at “dishing the foreign news,” as James Gordon Bennett put it in the mid-nineteenth century to describe his approach in the New York Herald. He details the highly partisan coverage of the French Revolution, the early emergence of “special correspondents” and the challenges of organizing their efforts, the profound impact of the non-yellow press in the run-up to the Spanish-American War, the increasingly sophisticated machinery of propaganda and censorship that surfaced during World War I, and the “golden age” of foreign correspondence during the interwar period, when outlets for foreign news swelled and a large number of experienced, independent journalists circled the globe. From the Nazis’ intimidation of reporters to the ways in which American popular opinion shaped coverage of Communist revolution and the Vietnam War, Hamilton covers every aspect of delivering foreign news to American doorsteps. Along the way, Hamilton singles out a fascinating cast of characters, among them Victor Lawson, the overlooked proprietor of the Chicago Daily News, who pioneered the concept of a foreign news service geared to American interests; Henry Morton Stanley, one of the first reporters to generate news on his own with his 1871 expedition to East Africa to “find Livingstone”; and Jack Belden, a forgotten brooding figure who exemplified the best in combat reporting. Hamilton details the experiences of correspondents, editors, owners, publishers, and network executives, as well as the political leaders who made the news and the technicians who invented ways to transmit it. Their stories bring the narrative to life in arresting detail and make this an indispensable book for anyone wanting to understand the evolution of foreign news-gathering. Amid the steep drop in the number of correspondents stationed abroad and the recent decline of the newspaper industry, many fear that foreign reporting will soon no longer exist. But as Hamilton shows in this magisterial work, traditional correspondence survives alongside a new type of reporting. Journalism’s Roving Eye offers a keen understanding of the vicissitudes in foreign news, an understanding imperative to better seeing what lies ahead.

Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting

Professionals & Academics

Winner of the Goldsmith Prize, the Tankard Book Award, and the American Journalism Historians Association’s Book of the Year, John Maxwell Hamilton’s Journalism’s Roving Eye has quickly become the definitive history of American foreign reporting. This edition includes a new preface and updated text that reflects the most current developments in foreign reporting. Beginning with the colonial era, the book focuses on underlying factors―such as technology and public opinion―as well as a cavalcade of personalities who bring the narrative to life in arresting detail, making this an indispensable resource for anyone eager to understand the evolution of foreign newsgathering.

Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting (From Our Own Correspondent)

Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda

Winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize by the Harvard Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy Manipulating the Masses tells the story of the enduring threat to American democracy that arose out of World War I: the establishment of pervasive, systematic propaganda as an instrument of the state. During the Great War, the federal government exercised unprecedented power to shape the views and attitudes of American citizens. Its agent for this was the Committee on Public Information (CPI), established by President Woodrow Wilson one week after the United States entered the war in April 1917. Driven by its fiery chief, George Creel, the CPI reached every crevice of the nation, every day, and extended widely abroad. It established the first national newspaper, made prepackaged news a quotidian aspect of governing, and pioneered the concept of public diplomacy. It spread the Wilson administration?s messages through articles, cartoons, books, and advertisements in newspapers and magazines; through feature films and volunteer Four Minute Men who spoke during intermission; through posters plastered on buildings and along highways; and through pamphlets distributed by the millions. It enlisted the nation?s leading progressive journalists, advertising executives, and artists. It harnessed American universities and their professors to create propaganda and add legitimacy to its mission. Even as Creel insisted that the CPI was a conduit for reliable, fact-based information, the office regularly sanitized news, distorted facts, and played on emotions. Creel extolled transparency but established front organizations. Overseas, the CPI secretly subsidized news organs and bribed journalists. At home, it challenged the loyalty of those who occasionally questioned its tactics. Working closely with federal intelligence agencies eager to sniff out subversives and stifle dissent, the CPI was an accomplice to the Wilson administration?s trampling of civil liberties. Until now, the full story of the CPI has never been told. John Maxwell Hamilton consulted over 150 archival collections in the United States and Europe to write this revealing history, which shows the shortcuts to open, honest debate that even well-meaning propagandists take to bend others to their views. Every element of contemporary government propaganda has antecedents in the CPI. It is the ideal vehicle for understanding the rise of propaganda, its methods of operation, and the threat it poses to democracy.

History

Americas

The French 75 (Iconic New Orleans Cocktails)

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Beverages & Wine

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hamilton, John Maxwell. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hamilton, John Maxwell

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hamilton, John Maxwell. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Casanova Was a Book Lover: And Other Naked Truths Provocative Curiosities abt Writing Selling Reading Books

Hold the Press: The Inside Story on Newspapers

Hold the Press: The Inside Story on Newspapers

Casanova Was A Book Lover: And Other Naked Truths and Provocative Curiosities about the Writing, Selling, and Reading of Books

Edgar Snow: A Biography

Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting

Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting (From Our Own Correspondent)

Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda

Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda

The French 75 (Iconic New Orleans Cocktails)