A thoughtful interpretation of the roles of four print news media in the origins of the abrasive relationship between the Soviet Union and the US after WW II. It is based on a content analysis of the "Chicago Tribune," the "New York Herald Tribune," the "San Francisco Chronicle," and "Time" magazine. Liebovich describes the idiosyncrasies in the staffs and leadership of each medium and links those unique characteristics to their positions on the Cold War. . . . Liebovich is a veteran newsman who has amassed excellent data to support his thesis. The writing is clear and concise. "Choice"

This unprecedented study of the media's role during the early stages of the cold war focuses on four major news organizations: the "New York Herald Tribune," the "Chicago Tribune," the "San Francisco Chronicle," and "Time" magazine. Based on interviews with journalists who covered the news from 1944 to 1947, the book details the attitudes and predilections of the organizations involved and reveals the concerns of the writers themselves. The author rejects previously held views on the inevitability of the cold war--demonstrating that news coverage not only included but also reinforced popular images of the Soviet Union after World War II.

Through a long public life and short presidency, Herbert Hoover carefully cultivated reporters and media owners as he rose from a relief administrator to president of the United States. During his service to government, he held the conviction that journalists were to be manipulated and mistrusted. When the nation fell into economic disaster, Hoover's misconceptions about the press and press relations exacerbated a national calamity. This book traces the entire history of Hoover's relationship with magazines, newspapers, newsreel organizations, and radio, and demonstrates how an attitude toward the U.S. press can help or hinder a public figure throughout his career. The book draws upon diaries of Hoover aides, oral histories from journalists and other media figures, newspaper and magazine clippings, radio broadcasts, newsreels, public documents, archival manuscripts, and a plethora of published secondary books and articles. This may be the most complete and best-documented study of a single president and the media.

Scandal and sex sell, even in the serious business of presidential news coverage. The media deference shown to Kennedy and the scrutiny applied to Clinton illustrate the changed relation between the two, and bookend this pertinent, updated 1998 Choice Outstanding Academic Book award-winner. Liebovich tackles misconceptions about the media's role in politics; how chief executives cooperate with and manipulate the press as it suits their needs; and how ratings pressures have bent coverage of elections and the Executive Branch for the worse. Well-written, thorough, and the only book to explore the changing relation between the press and the presidency in the later twentieth century, students and researchers alike will profit from reading this work written by one of America's leading scholars in the field. For students interested in communications, history, or contemporary American politics, it is an unparalleled administration-by-administration introduction to the complex and intertwined workings of two of the most powerful and influential forces at work in American politics today. It furthermore provides researchers with a solid historical explanation of how both presidential politics and political news coverage have come to be popularly reviled and discounted.

News Coverage of the presidency and presidential elections has changed for the worse between the Kennedy and Clinton Administrations. Liebovich traces the forces that have led the media to zero in on titillating scandals and encouraged presidential attempts to bend the media to its will. The result is a corrosive spiral of sour mistrust pitting the White House against the Press Corps, and interfering with the real work at hand: responsibly reporting news to the citizenry, and running the most powerful country on earth. Updated and revised to include the Lewinski scandal, Clinton's impeachment, and the remarkable 2000 election, Liebovich presents an insightful examination of the causes of the popular revulsion to present-day politics. Clearly written and thorough, this revised 1998 Choice Outstanding Academic Book award-winner is the only scholarly book examining the complex and changing relationship between the press and the presidency in the later twentieth century. This is an unparalleled administration-by-administration introduction to the intricate workings of two of the most powerful and influential forces at work today in American politics, written with students of communications, U.S. history, and contemporary American politics in mind. Scholars will find Liebovich's meticulous research and notes valuable, and his narrative of the press's movement from an ethos of balanced reporting to unstinting criticism of the presidency convincing.

An important new primary source for Holocaust studies, this unusual memoir contains the recollections of a Holocaust survivor who lived in a small Polish town 55 miles from Warsaw. From his earliest memories of a closely knit community where Jews and Christians lived harmoniously side by side through the horrors of a town torn apart by hatred, Shraga Bielawski details the systematic destruction of Wegrow by the Nazis. How does a town go completely mad? How do neighbors who have attended school together become murderers and victims on opposite sides? What is the process by which an invading army sends innocent civilians to their deaths--leaving only traces of a former civilized culture? Bielawski explores these and similar questions as he chronicles the experiences of his friends and neighbors under the Nazis and shows how he used all the tools of creativity at his disposal in order to survive.

Throughout, Bielawski and co-author Louis Liebovich offer historical background and political discussion to place the events of the book in perspective. The reader learns first-hand about life in occupied Poland, the virtual extinction of Jewish culture in that country, and the ways in which the Nazis preyed upon latent anti-Semitism to accomplish their goals. The book also offers some penetrating observations on the nature of bigotry, concluding that it is a disease that must be addressed by both the dominant culture and the minority culture if another Holocaust is to be avoided. Far more than a simple memoir, "The Last Jew of WegroW" is a sweeping saga of imagination and perseverance--an enriching educational experience for high school and college students as well as general readers who seek insights into the Holocaust and its roots.

Though subjected to years of criticism, Four Theories of the Press remains a core text in communications. Its influence on the field, impact on generations of journalists, and ability to spark debate on why the press acts as it does continue to make it an oft-quoted source and classroom staple. In Last Rights, eight communications scholars critique and expand on the classic text. The authors argue that Four Theories spoke to and for a world beset by a cold war ended long ago. At the same time, they praise the book for offering an alternative view of the press and society and as a useful tool for helping scholars and citizens alike grapple with contradictions in classical liberalism. They also raise important questions about the Internet and other major changes in communications systems and society since the original publication of Four Theories. Contributors: William E. Berry, Sandra Braman, Clifford Christians, Thomas G. Guback, Steven J. Helle, Louis W. Liebovich, John C. Nerone, and Kim B. Rotzoll