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Staff Pick
After a long career as one of our best-known and loved journalists, Dan Rather has made himself one of the most essential voices to read in our current political climate. What Unites Us is a hopeful, thoughtful, and rational book about how we can come together as citizens even — and especially — in profoundly troubling and divisive times. Recommended By Jill O., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
"I find myself thinking deeply about what it means to love America, as I surely do."
At a moment of crisis over our national identity, Dan Rather has been reflecting — and writing passionately almost every day on social media — about the world we live in, what our core ideals have been and should be, and what it means to be an American. Now, in a collection of wholly original essays, the venerated television journalist celebrates our shared values and what matters most in our great country, and shows us what patriotism looks like. Writing about the institutions that sustain us, such as public libraries, public schools, and national parks; the values that have transformed us, such as the struggle for civil rights; and the drive toward science and innovation that has made the United States great, Rather will bring to bear his decades of experience on the frontlines of the world's biggest stories, and offer readers a way forward.
After a career spent as reporter and anchor for CBS News, where he interviewed every living President since Eisenhower and was on the ground for every major event, from the assassination of John F. Kennedy to Watergate to 9/11, Rather has in the last year also become a hugely popular voice of reason on social media, with more than two million Facebook followers and an engaged new audience who help to make many of his posts go viral. With his famously plainspoken voice and a fundamental sense of hope, Dan Rather has written the book to inspire conversation and listening, and to remind us all how we are ultimately united.
This book will be a must-read for everyone you know who is engaged in the urgent national conversation right now — and interested in our place in history going forward.
Review
"From his vantage point as one of this country's most revered broadcasters, Rather analyzes the current state of disconnected discourse in a series of reflective essays that go to the heart of what it means to be an American." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"A full-throated celebration of the national spirit and its potential to persevere." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Provides a pleasant alternative to the reliance on vitriol and irony in modern political discourse....Rather has issued a stirring call for overcoming today’s strident partisanship." Publishers Weekly
About the Author
With a storied career that has spanned more than six decades, Dan Rather has earned his place as one of the world’s best-known journalists. He has interviewed every president since Eisenhower and, over that time, personally covered almost every important dateline in the United States and around the world. Rather joined CBS News in 1962. He quickly rose through the ranks, and in 1981 he assumed the position of Anchor and Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News -- a post he held for twenty-four years. His reporting across the network helped turn 60 Minutes into an institution, launched 48 Hours as an innovative news magazine program, and shaped countless specials and documentaries. Upon leaving CBS, Rather returned to the in-depth reporting he always loved, creating the Emmy Award winning Dan Rather Reports on HDNet. Now, building upon that foundation, he is president and CEO of News and Guts, an independent production company he founded that specializes in high-quality nonfiction content across a range of traditional and digital distribution channels.
Elliot Kirschner is an Emmy Award–winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. After a career at CBS, producing for the Evening News, Sunday Morning, and 60 Minutes II, Kirschner joined his longtime collaborator Dan Rather as the senior producer for Dan Rather Reports. He now develops film, television, digital, and social media projects. An honors graduate of Harvard College, Kirschner lives with his family in San Francisco, where he is building an innovative venture in science communication.