We Band of Brothers

Guthman, Edwin

ISBN 10: 0060117168 / ISBN 13: 9780060117160

Published by Harper & Row, New York, 1971

About this Item

x, [2], 339, [1] pages. DJ is worn, torn, soiled, and chipped. Author's Note. Footnotes. Index. Inscribed by the author on fep "For Gerrie & Joe Sitrick with the respect and best wishes of their friend Ed Guthman July 15, 1971. Edwin O. Guthman (August 11, 1919 - August 31, 2008) was an American journalist and university professor. While at the Seattle Times, he won the paper's first Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1950. Guthman was third on Richard Nixon's "Enemies List." He was a reporter for the Seattle Star, and The Seattle Times. His articles provided evidence that the Washington State Un-American Activities Committee suppressed evidence that cleared University of Washington professor Melvin Rader of false charges of being a Communist. In 1961, he was tapped by Attorney General Robert Kennedy to be his press secretary. He later served Kennedy in a similar position for one year when Robert Kennedy became U.S. Senator from New York in 1965. As a result of his work with Kennedy, he was third on Nixon's Enemies List. He was the national editor for the Los Angeles Times from 1965 to 1977 and then the editorial page editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer (1977-1987). He was a senior lecturer at the USC Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, where he had been a professor since 1987. He retired in 2007. Edwin Guthman and Robert Kennedy met in 1956 when Kennedy, an investigator for a Senate subcommittee, went to Seattle to see Guthman, a young reporter whose newspaper had been building up a file on Dave Beck, the Teamster president suspected of gross corruption. This initial association deepened in 1961, when Guthman went to Washington to join the energetic and idealistic young men--the "band of brothers"--Kennedy was bringing into the Justice Department. Vividly, lucidly, Guthman recapitulates the crises, the catastrophes and the occasional victories of seven years of our national life--many of which, even in retrospect, make one tremble as one reads. These include the desperate, down-to-the-wire negotiations for the release of the Bay of Pigs prisoners held by Castro; the near-revolutionary chaos and mob violence which erupted when the Freedom Riders launched their demonstration and, later, when James Meredith tried to register at Ole Miss; a setback of a different sort when Kennedy delivered an antitrust speech to a group of outraged New York businessmen; and his most difficult decision as Attorney General, when it became necessary to prosecute the brother of a political figure who had played a key role in John Kennedy's campaign for the Presidential nomination. Guthman explores the deteriorating relationship between Robert Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, especially after Kennedy's return from a journey to the Far East undertaken for the Administration, tells why Kennedy lost his respect for J. Edgar Hoover, reviews from the inside the campaign for U.S. Senator from New York, and touches candidly on the unhappy controversy over William Manchester's THE DEATH OF A PRESIDENT. WE BAND OF BROTHERS is also a revealing, personal narrative of the maturing of an exceptional man. The thought of what Robert Kennedy might have become, Guthman writes, what he might have done--this is what makes his loss seem greater with each day that passes. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing.

Seller Inventory # 80487

Bibliographic Details

• Title: We Band of Brothers
• Publisher: Harper & Row, New York
• Publication Date: 1971
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060117168
• ISBN 13: 9780060117160
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fair
• Seller catalogs:
  • Civil Rights
  • FBI

About this title

Synopsis

Edwin Guthman and Robert Kennedy met in 1956 when Kennedy, an investigator for a Senate subcommittee, went to Seattle to see Guthman, a young reporter whose newspaper had been building up a file on Dave Beck, the Teamster president suspected of gross corruption. This initial association deepened in 1961, when Guthman went to Washington to join the energetic and idealistic young men--the "band of brothers"--Kennedy was bringing into the Justice Department.

Vividly, lucidly, Guthman recapitulates the crises, the catastrophes and the occasional victories of seven years of our national life--many of which, even in retrospect, make one tremble as one reads. These include the desperate, down-to-the-wire negotiations for the release of the Bay of Pigs prisoners held by Castro; the near-revolutionary chaos and mob violence which erupted when the Freedom Riders launched their demonstration and, later, when James Meredith tried to register at Ole Miss; a setback of a different sort when Kennedy delivered an antitrust speech to a group of outraged New York businessmen; and his most difficult decision as Attorney General, when it became necessary to prosecute the brother of a political figure who had played a key role in John Kennedy's campaign for the Presidential nomination. Guthman explores the deteriorating relationship between Robert Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, especially after Kennedy's return from a journey to the Far East undertaken for the Administration, tells why Kennedy lost his respect for J. Edgar Hoover, reviews from the inside the campaign for U.S. Senator from New York, and touches candidly on the unhappy controversy over William Manchester's THE DEATH OF A PRESIDENT.

WE BAND OF BROTHERS is also a revealing, personal narrative of the maturing of an exceptional man. The thought of what Robert Kennedy might have become, Guthman writes, what he might have done--this is what makes his loss seem greater with each day that passes.