Princeton Reader

John McPhee's many books include "Annals of the Former World", for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. Carol Rigolot is executive director of the Humanities Council at Princeton University.

"Reading the anthology under review is a learning experience; at least it is for those still taking journalism very seriously and potentially to news workers the globe over. In today's multi-channel media environment, governed by new media and web blogs, we constantly rely on enterprises such as this, to illuminate the as yet reassuring boundaries between news and entertainment media."--Adriana Neagu, American British and Canadian Studies

• Preface by John McPhee xiii Aliens by Joel Achenbach 1 Baby Jessica by Evan Thomas 7 History: How American Myths Are Made 10 If You Want to Humble an Empire by Nancy Gibbs 13 Fighting for Life 50 Floors Up, with One Tool and Ingenuity by Jim Dwyer 18 US Airways Flight 1549: Old Hands on the River Didn't Have to Be Told What to Do 19 Anthrax by Marilyn Thompson 22 The Everyman Who Exposed Tainted Toothpaste by Walt Bogdanich 25 When the Terror Began by Alexander Wolff 29 Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America by Michael Dobbs 35 A Knock on the Door by Serge Schmemann 41 Tiananmen Massacre by Rose Tang 44 Finding Respite from Worries by Jill Abramson 50 My Father's Closet by John Seabrook 52 A Backward Glance by Elizabeth Kendall 58 Silk Parachute by John McPhee 61 The Road Block by Peter Godwin 63 Burning My Father 66 A Moving Experience by Paula Span 68 The Lure of the Frozen Lake by Julia Keller 73 True Love Is Made of This by Michael Vitez 78 The Greatest Penn Success Story 80 A Pit Bull Who Provided Lessons in Loyalty and Unfailing Love 84 A Sign: It's Jesus, or a Lunch Bargain by Peter Applebome 85 The Two Lives of John Favors'72: A Political Activist Becomes a Monk in the Hare Krishna Movement by Melvin R. McCray 88 In Albania, a Girl Who Became a Man by Barbara Demick 94 The North Korean Film Festival: No Stars, No Swag, but What a Crowd! 97 Title Inflation: How Hollywood Watches Our Wallets by Bob Mondello 101 Ice Accommodations by Juliet Eilperin 104 The Renaissance of the Marais by Mitchel Levitas 110 Walking to Vermont by Christopher S. Wren 114 Between a Woman and Her Doctor: A Story about Abortion by Martha Mendoza 120 Baby's First Helmet by James V. Grimaldi 124 After Etan: The Missing Child Case That Held America Captive by Lisa Cohen 129 A Hostage Crisis Hits Latin America by Juanita Darling 135 Children Caught in the Immigration Crossfire by Kathy Kiely 141 A Father's Promise by Geraldine Moriba Meadows 145 McKinley High School by Athelia Knight 151 A Believing Principal Leads a Battle to Save a School by Dan Grech 157 Edison's Big Loss 161 Yodobashi No. 6 by T. R. Reid 163 Sports: The Glue for Lost Kids by Filip Bondy 169 Curtis Williams--Victory and Ruins by Ken Armstrong 172 Arson Science--To Their Rescue? by Emilie Lounsberry 180 Stinging Tentacles Offer Hint of Oceans' Decline by Elisabeth Rosenthal 185 Chernobyl: The Danger Persists by Felicity Barringer 188 Alaska: Oil's Ground Zero by Jeffrey Bartholet 194 Arctic Rush by Craig Duff 199 The X Files by Thomas E. Weber 206 Internet Gambling by Gilbert Gaul 211 Seeking New Ways to Nurture the Capacity to Report by Charles Lewis 217 Role Model: Sarah McClendon by Roberta Oster Sachs 222 Remembering a Friend: Ed Bradley Was a Gift to Journalism 223 Whose Media Are We? by Ralph J. Begleiter 226 The West and the Arab World: The Case of Media by Daoud Kuttab 233 Don't E-mail Me by Joel Stein 236 Millions of Women Weep 237 The Lessons of Cain 238 A View to a Kill by Charles Lane 241 Cuba: The End of the End of the Revolution by Roger Cohen 247 Guantanamo by Jane Mayer 253 The Promise by Ethan Bronner 259 Gaza Notebook: The Bullets in My In-Box 262 A Gaza Diary by Chris Hedges 266 In Horses, a Personal Refuge by Paul Salopek 273 Hints of Lives Are All That Remains 274 Now They Execute Polite Shuffles: There's a Strange Sameness in the Stories of Baath Party Members in Iraq 275 In Land of Ruin, a House of Stone Shelters Delight 276 Iraq: Transformation Bypasses the Heartland by Thanassis Cambanis 278 Hezbollah Fighter Strove to be a Martyr 281 Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War by Peter Maass 284 Bosnia's Elite "Disappeared" by Roy Gutman 289 Stone Age Ways Surviving, Barely by Calvin Sims 295 Oshima Journal: After 90 Years, Small Gestures of Joy for Lepers 297 Ella in Wonderland by Margo Jefferson 300 On Writers and Writing: D. H. Lawrence Frees the Slaves 302 Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg 305 The Prince by Claudia Roth Pierpont 311 Diary of a Bad Year, by J. M. Coetzee by Richard Eder 316 Beowulf and Fate Meet in a Modern Poet's Lens 317 John Leonard by Robert Christgau 321 Growing by Degrees: Kanye West 323 Pop Music: The Durability of Doo-Wop by Martin Gottlieb 326 On the White Side of Crossover Dreams 330 Something in the Air by Marc Fisher 333 The Sonata Seminar by Alex Ross 339 Shooting War by Mark Feeney 342 A Battalion of One's Own by Barton Gellman 345 Injured in Iraq, a Soldier Is Shattered at Home by Deborah Sontag 351 Connections by David Maraniss 357 Trevor Manuel and the Liberation of Nelson Mandela by Pippa Green 363 Jerry Brown Still Wants Your Vote by Michael Duffy 368 "I Don't Feel No Ways Tired" by Jeff Gerth 372 Fannie Lou Hamer by Kay Mills 378 Fourth of July by Greil Marcus 381 Acknowledgments 385 Index of Authors 391