By James Boylan
The Man Everybody Knew: Bruce Barton and the Making of Modern America
by Richard M. Fried
Ivan R. Dee
286 pp. $27.50
The name of Bruce Barton (1886-1967) has faded. He is recalled occasionally through Franklin Roosevelt’s 1940 campaign epithet, “Martin, Barton, and Fish,” or disdainfully noted by professors as the author of The Man Nobody Knows, a 1925 book that portrayed Jesus as a businessman and the disciples as a crackerjack sales force. In this crisp biography, Richard M. Fried of the University of Illinois-Chicago shows the extent of Barton’s true influence — as a founder of modern advertising through the agency that became known as Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn and, even more significantly, as a pioneer in modern political advertising, starting with publicity for Calvin Coolidge. Until his final years, Barton was a whirlwind, spinning off magazine articles, making speeches, producing aphorisms, counseling politicians, and even serving in Congress himself. Fried concludes that “he remained, if not a generalist, someone with an ability to hopscotch among the various avenues of his life.”
Vigilante Newspapers: A Tale of Sex, Religion, & Murder in the Northwest
by Gerald J. Baldasty
University of Washington Press
189 pp. $22.50
Here is a case from the time a hundred years ago when newspapers had a monopoly on covering sensational murders such as the killing of the architect Stanford White by Harry Thaw, and of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette (the basis of Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy). In this instance, one George Mitchell shot down a David Koresh-like evangelist, Edmund Creffield, on a Seattle street in 1906. Two Seattle newspapers, the Star and the Times, instantly set about to vindicate the killer as the defender of his wronged sisters, who were Creffield’s disciples. The newspapers got what they wanted, an acquittal, only to have one of the sisters gun down her brother. Only then did the newspapers begin to have second thoughts about unpunished murder. Gerald Baldasty of the University of Washington tells the story vividly, exploring the implications for both the journalism and the gender assumptions of the time.
Just Enough Liebling: Classic Works by the Legendary New Yorker Writer
by A.J. Liebling; introduction by David Remnick; editorial advice by James Barbour and Fred Warner
North Point Press
534 pp. $27.50, $15 paper
A.J. Liebling (1904-1963) deserved better. This anthology, evidently designed to commemorate the centennial of his birth, seems to have been assembled offhandedly, according to no distinguishable principle beyond a few loose categories, such as Paris, World War II, and boxing. James Barbour and Fred Warner, English professors emeriti at the University of New Mexico, have edited Liebling anthologies in the past, but in this instance they are merely given thanks for their “invaluable insights”; no editor is listed. Nor does the brief biography and appreciation by David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker (who arrived at the magazine nearly three decades after Liebling died), really explain much about the contents. The Liebling reprints are, of course, worthwhile reading as always, but, dismayingly for those of us who regarded him as the spiritual leader of insurgent journalism, there is a mere handful of his critiques from “The Wayward Press” department, squeezed into a slim segment near the end. Maybe the best thing about the book is the fine dust-jacket photo portrait, by Liebling’s colleague Lillian Ross.
Through Their Eyes: Foreign Correspondents in the United States
By Stephen Hess
Brookings Institution Press
195 pp. $44.95, $18.95 paper
This is the sixth volume in the series called “Newswork” that the scholar Stephen Hess first undertook for the Brookings Institution in 1981; the best known remains the first, The Washington Reporters. Here he studies the work of foreign journalists in the United States, now numbering about two thousand, and concludes that their work is difficult, but that on the whole they provide a mediating effect on the often strident anti-Americanism of their home offices.
Enjoy this piece? Consider a CJR trial subscription.
