Synopses & Reviews
There was no television, no satellites and no information superhighway to spread the news when Hitler invaded Poland. There was radio. CBS was the only radio network that remained in Europe when war first broke out. Edward R. Murrow, CBS's overseas news director, not only invented modern, on-the-scene broadcast journalism from the streets of London, he recruited a team of reporters that covered the war from capitals and battlefields across Europe, North Africa and Asia. Eric Sevareid, William L. Shirer, Howard K. Smith and others captured the incredible drama of World War II and brought it home to an America newly transfixed by radio. Murrow and his Boys were young and eager not only to report and analyze the news of the war, but willing to put themselves on the line to tell the story--from Murrow's rooftop broadcasts in London during air raids to Eric Sevareid's parachuting over Burma from a crippled aircraft and Howard K. Smith's narrow escape from Nazi Germany on December 6, 1941. They reported on the major events of World War II, shaping the way Americans thought about the war and setting the standard for the new art of broadcast journalism.
Synopsis
A fascinating read that, paired with the historic recordings, gives a thrilling sense of what it was like for Americans at home following the war in their living rooms.--Library Journal
High-level drama--Indianapolis Star
Highly recommended.--Choice
The story of World War II was told first not by historians, but by reporters. And no one told that story with more impact than Edward R. Murrow and the remarkable band of reporters he assembled.
World War II on the Air recounts the dramatic stories behind these extraordinary correspondents. And it lets you hear their actual broadcasts, culled from the archives and collected here--many for the first time--on audio CD, narrated by Dan Rather.