Edgar Snow: A Biography - Hardcover

Hamilton, Hopkins P Breazeale Professor Of Journalism John Maxwell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253319099 ISBN 13: 9780253319098

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1988

Synopsis

"Hamilton's book illuminates the career of Edgar Snow... a fine job of relating Snow's remarkable story and his role in America's relations with China." -- J. William Fulbright

"Hamilton's well-informed biography scrutinizes both Ed Snow's career and the America that lionized him in World War II and ostracized him during the Cold War.... Hamilton's objective and scathing critique of America's anti-communist obsession makes one hope that publication of this book marks our entrance into a more constructive era in international relations." -- John K. Fairbank

"Snow's classic Red Star Over China was a journalistic coup.... But Snow... told Americans things they did not want to hear....[Edgar Snow: A Biography] is as plainspoken as its down-to-earth subject." -- Publishers Weekly

"... superb... [Hamilton's] writing style is a delight." -- Kansas City Star

"[A] vivid, discerning biography... Hamilton... has written the most comprehensive of the biographies of Snow. The result is a better-than-fiction tale of the adventures of a remarkable American and a portrait of Asia in transition from the colonial period.... tells us more about the realities and illusions of United States-China relations than most formal histories." -- New York Times Book Review

"... a remarkable and thorough job in bringing to life the adventures and writings of the independent Snow." -- Editor and Publisher

"... superb new biography... " -- Los Angeles Times

"... thoughtful new biography of the first man to report on Mao Zedong and the Chinese revolution that would change much of the world." -- Jay Mathews, Washington Monthly

"Well written and researched, Hamilton's book should help provide Snow with a richly deserved exemplary place in history." -- Robert Stevens, Missouri Historical Review

A study of the most important western journalist to work in and on China in both the revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods.

About this title

About the Author:

John Maxwell Hamilton is author or coauthor of five books, most recently Casanova Was a Book Lover: And Other Naked Truths and Provocative Curiosities about the Writing, Selling, and Reading of Books. He is dean and Hopkins P. Breazeale Foundation Professor of Journalism at Louisiana State University and a longtime commentator on Public Radio International's Marketplace.

From Publishers Weekly:

Snow's classic Red Star Over China was a journalistic coup. Based on interviews with Mao Zedong and his followers, who were in hiding, cut off from Western observers for a decade, his bestseller revealed that Chinese Communism was a chohesive popular movement, not a ragtag army of bandits. But Snow (1905-1972), the adventurous reporter from Kansas City, Miss., and stowaway to the Far East, told Americans things they did not want to hear. The Cold War public ignored his measured portrayal of a protectionist Soviet Union crippled by WW II and not bent on spreading communism. During the McCarthy witch-hunt period, this romantic idealist, who once called Mao an agrarian democrat, was blamed for misleading Americans. Even as Snow's political opinions matured, his message that China wanted closer ties with the U.S. went unheeded. Written by a journalist who worked in the U.S. Agency for International Development, this serviceable biography is as plainspoken as its down-to-earth subject. The early chapters on Snow's incredible adventures across Asia are the best.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0253319099
• ISBN 13: 9780253319098
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360