Byron Dobell (1927–2017)

I enjoy reading old history - it's easier to peel back the layers of contemporary bias, since you often don't share it. There's the wide-eyed "Our Two Greatest Presidents," written in the 50s, and the slangy Operation- Petticoat- style "The Man Who Could Speak Japanese" from the 70s. The funniest piece is the one closest to us in timeline (The First Rough Draft of History, 1982) "Q: How about papers like the New York Post, the Mudoch type of journalism... A: ...I have confidence that that'll wash out. As I go back over the papers that have disappeared, it's hard to remember good newspapers going down. [p. 816-817]" or "Q: You've just had a son. Will there be newspapers around when he's ready to enter the real world? A: ...I think that newspapers may look different, but people will always want to read hard copy. You can't Xerox television, and you can't memorize what the radio or television announcer tells you, so people will always want to study the details and to read the ads... But if a person is looking for a 1972 blue Mustang with whitewalls, and if he can type that into his computer and come up with three such Mustangs for sale in the Washington area, that would scare me if I were running the classified ad department." [p. 825].

Funny premonitions of craig's list aside, there's some solid history here, and many different writing styles to accommodate many different subjects. It's popular history, so there's not much discussion of sources and no footnotes - just compelling stories about people and places.… (more)