Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nation's Journalism

Acknowledgments

[ 513 ] Acknowledgments - In a work of this scale, a writer accumulates many debts. My debts are certainly numerous and deep, and I want to acknowledge them. Covering America builds on many preceding studies, and I am the first to recognize that this book rests on decades of previous scholarship. I also want to thank the many friends and colleagues who have contributed directly to the writing of this book. As Ben Franklin said when launching a new newspaper, it would be well if the author “could make up among his Friends what is wanting in himself.” First, I thank my father-in-law, Jim Fishel, who encouraged this project all along. As I came to topics in the twentieth century (most of which he lived through), I found him an invaluable guide. He supported me with his vast memory and his endless good cheer. My neighbor and “tech guru” Dan Bricklin was an early and faithful supporter. His enthusiasm, his expertise, and his editing were invaluable. I was also fortunate to enlist a number of family members at various stages of this project. I thank Nate Houghteling for his sharp insights about American history and literature. I am also indebted to Elizabeth Fishel, Will Houghteling, and Bob Houghteling, who all helped me to see further. My work on this book has also benefited enormously from the generous efforts of two “teams” of readers—historians and journalists. Friends and colleagues [ 514 ] ACkNOwlEDgmENTs from both fields have contributed much and kept me from error. Among the historians I thank Jim Green, who read the entire manuscript with great care and wisdom. Bruce Schulman, my colleague at Boston University, provided invaluable insight and warm support. I am also grateful to my old graduate school adviser, Leon Fink, who is still, I am happy to say, correcting me. Bob Korstad was greatly encouraging, and David Nord guided me through areas he knows best. Among the journalists, who are also colleagues of mine at Boston University, I thank Mitch Zuckoff for our breakfasts and for his most encouraging words. Every writer should have such a reader. I am also grateful to Elizabeth Mehren for her sharp insights and her relentless enforcement of style matters. Thanks, too, to Nick Mills for his careful editing and to Elissa Papirno for her many thoughts and suggestions. The members of the justly obscure Penultimate Society—Mark Starr, Howard Bauchner, Don Goff, and Michael Miller—lent me their support, their wit, and their monthly companionship. I owe a particular debt to Michael Miller, who also gave me many valuable suggestions away from the dinner table. Boston University has supported this project in several ways. Dean Thomas Fiedler generously supported this work with a grant to help underwrite the cost of illustrations. The university granted me a sabbatical that allowed me to set the book on a firmer footing. I thank my B.U. colleagues for listening to drafts and suggesting many productive avenues. The university also supplied research assistants , who greatly increased my range. Thanks to Caitlin Tunney, Paul Crocetti, Neil St. Clair, Lauren Gniazdowski, John Eagan, Marc Lanza, Adam Tamburin, and Solomon Syed, and a special thanks to Ken Holmes. I also thank Peter Umans; every teacher should have such a student. Boston University also provided invaluable aid through the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, which houses the most important collection of papers relating to journalism in the country. I am especially grateful to archivist Charles Niles for his vast knowledge and his equally vast generosity. Thanks, too, to the incomparable Vita Paladino, the archive director, and her associate Sean Noel for many courtesies. I have been fortunate in the writing of this book to have had several opportunities to try out drafts in various forums. Thanks to Dan Bricklin, I was able to post the draft chapters on my website (www.journalismprofessor.com), which allowed me to make the book-in-progress available to hundreds of my students at Boston University. In addition, I thank Christopher Callahan, dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, for deciding to adopt Covering America for classroom use while it was still in progress. The feedback from those students and from Kristin Gilger of the Walter Cronkite School was very helpful. Some of the ideas in this book got public tryouts at various academic conferences , including the Organization of American Historians, the Association for [3.131.110.169] Project MUSE (2024-04-24 23:42...