Ronald Steel (1931–2023)

1709 Walter Lippmann and the American Century, by Ronald Steel (read 26 Apr 1982) (National Book Award biography prize in 1982) (National Book Critics Circle non-fiction award for 1980) For the period covering Lippmann's life to World War II I was very impressed, then I was very turned off by the divorce and remarriage in 1938--Lippmann carried on an affair with the wife of Hamilton Fish Armstrong, a very close friend of his, and both Lippmann and Armstrong's wife got divorces so they could marry each other. Lippmann's second wife was a fallen-away Catholic and when Lippmann became old she dumped him in a nursing home and went off on her own but she died Feb 16, 1974. Lippmann was born 23 Sep 1889 in New York and died there Dec 14, 1974. The book's treatment of the time after World War II was opinionated and the author is apparently of the school which believes Russia could have been coaxed into behaving by a different posture by us after World War II. This to me is incredible, and I have very little patience with a thesis that Henry Wallace was right in those years. Much of the treatment of those years seems superficial. Nor could I help but feel Lippmann was not very astute. He fluctuated all over the lot: was a Socialist for a time after he graduated from Harvard in 1910, was with the New Republic as TR Progressive, then with Wilson, but opposed ratification of the Versailles Treaty; then went to the New York World till 1931, when he started his column which he wrote till 1967. Most presidents he was "for" at the beginning, then turned against. It is a good book, but I can't say I admire Lippmann--he was not my kind of person. But I am glad I read the book, albeit I do not think it was too well-written. It could have used a better editing. But they were memorable years, 1910 to 1967, and I enjoyed reading about them.… (more)