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Best known for his novels 1984 and Animal Farm, George Orwell's mastery of clear language is nowhere more evident than in his essays. New Yorker staff writer George Packer, who has compiled some of these shorter works into two volumes, says Orwell's voice was irascible and witty and, above all, direct.
Hear more of Brooke's conversation with George Packer
Economic misery has spread to journalism and newspeople everywhere are being laid-off. But The New Republic's Mark Pinsky has found hope for reporters in a previous economic downturn. He advocates a resurrection and re-imagining of the Work Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project.
The Federal Writers' Project put thousands of people to work including Zora Neale Hurston, Stetson Kennedy, and John Steinbeck. They recorded oral histories, folkways, music and wrote everything from state guides to children's books. Jerrold Hirsch, author of Portrait of America describes the legacy of "introducing America to Americans," and how the program upended the American story.
Lee Atwater became one of the most complicated and successful Republican political operatives in history by employing a triple threat; spin when you can, change the subject when you can’t and if all else fails – mine the voters’ resentment, and fear, usually of blacks. Stefan Forbes, director of Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, explains the dark legacy of Atwater’s Southern strategy.
Founded in 1924, the Daily Worker – which ceased to be a daily 50 years ago – was the de facto house organ of American Communism. Historian Vernon Pedersen says the paper was strident and ideological, yes, but also an important cultural artifact.
In the 1950s, the mainstream American press had very little experience covering segregation and its impacts. In The Race Beat, Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff tell the story of how the civil rights struggle gradually made its way onto the front pages.
Nearly a century ago, Aimee Semple McPherson became the model of the modern, self-made media sensation. In a biography, Matthew Avery Sutton argues that ‘Sister’ Aimee’s savvy brand of religion brought Christian evangelicalism into the mainstream.
The AK-47, one of Russia’s most popular exports, turned 60 this year. Michael Hodges, author of AK47: The Story of the People’s Gun, says that the weapon Mikhail Kalashnikov invented to defend his motherland has become a symbol of Third World revolutionary struggle and Islamic jihad.
