History: Reviews of New Books

ISSN: 0361-2759 (Print) 1930-8280 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vhis20

The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th-Century Journalism

ROB WELLS

To cite this article: ROB WELLS (2019) The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th-Century Journalism, History: Reviews of New Books, 47:2, 25-25, DOI: 10.1080/03612759.2019.1564974 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03612759.2019.1564974

Published online: 21 Apr 2019.

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early radio broadcaster in the 1930s plaguing the news media today: and 1940s. Students, journalism schol- Thomas “set out to fill the hero vac- ars, and cultural historians alike will uum” (112) and offered an “it-takes-a- find this story both enjoyable and British-man theory of history” (113). thought-provoking. Worse, Thomas led audiences to Stephens uses a mix of archival believe he was near combat when that research, interviews, and shoe-leather was not the case. “He had not wit- reporting to retrace Thomas’s exten- nessed any engagements of any sort sive global travels and to memorably with the enemy or its railroad in the illustrate Thomas’s ability to network Middle East,” Stephens writes. “He Stephens, Mitchell with the leaders of his day, from for- fabricated. He lied” (125). Perhaps we The Voice of America: Lowell mer President Franklin Roosevelt to see the template for distorted war Thomas and the Invention of Herbert Hoover, who was in line with coverage later on, such as the myth 20th-Century Journalism the journalist’s political leanings. surrounding the rescue of US Pvt. ’ : St. Martin s Press Stephens devotes significant time to Jessica Lynch in Iraq in 2003 (Joseph 336 pages, $26.99 Thomas’s reporting on Lawrence, W. Campbell, Getting It Wrong: Ten ISBN-10: 1137279826 whom the journalist met in 1918, of the Greatest Misreported Stories in Publication Date: June 2017 shortly after British troops liberated American Journalism,Universityof from the Ottoman Empire. California Press 2016, p. 179) or NBC Lowell Thomas, the radio pioneer, fab- Thomas and cameraman Henry A. anchor Brian Williams’s false claims ricated an interview as a Chicago Chase proceeded to film Lawrence—a of being under enemy fire in the 2003 Daily Journal reporter, resulting in a blue-eyed beardless British officer Iraq war (Ernie Gates, “Stripes libel suit. He took his mother and sis- dressed in traditional Arab robes—dur- Resisted Feeding Frenzy after ter on a lavish junket of the West, trav- ing an expedition into the desert. Thus, Breaking Brian Williams Story.” Stars eling by rail and staying in top hotels, the myth of Lawrence of Arabia was and Stripes, February 11, 2015). This on the promise he would publish pro- born, which Stephens blames in part tension between a journalist’sinnova- motional articles for the railroad com- on Thomas, in part on Lawrence, and tions and transgressions transforms the panies. Few articles appeared. Thomas in part on some of Lawrence’scol- Lowell Thomas biography into a liedaboutkeyaspectsofhisreporting leagues. What critics failed to realize, multidimensional tale about the about British Col. T. E. Lawrence in Stephens argues, was the pathbreaking troubled origins of modern US journal- and is partly responsible nature of Thomas’s reporting on ism and its challenges looking ahead. for the myth of Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence: “He was remarkable for his Amid these glaring flaws, Thomas ability to shine a light into a fascinat- ROB WELLS “ deserves a significant part of the ing and historically important corner University of Arkansas credit for the journalism that came into of the war that was being overlooked Copyright # 2019 Taylor & Francis being in American in the twentieth by Americans and Europeans at the century,” writes Mitchell Stephens in time” (100). Thomas essentially The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas launched a start-up venture, with Horowitz, Daniel and the Invention of 20th-Century Chicago investors financing a multi- Happier?: The History of a Cultural Journalism (5). It is a bold claim. Yet media reporting project, something Movement That Aspired to the tension between Thomas’sethical unheard of in World War I. Thomas Transform America transgressions and his contributions to was so far ahead of his time that there New York: Oxford University Press modern journalism makes Mitchell’s was not even a means to distribute the 320 pp., $29.95, account a fascinating read for ethicists mix of narration, slides, music, and ISBN 978-0190655648 and historians exploring broadcasting, film he and Chase captured (some of Publication Date: December 2017 media technology, and popular culture. which was shot from airplanes); news Stephens, a New York University jour- reels had not yet been invented. When did our happiness turn into just nalism professor and author of the Thomas, a veteran lecturer of trave- one more task? Until quite recent comprehensive A History of News logues, presented his reports from the times, happiness was accidental: a gift (Oxford University Press 2007), pro- stage of the Royal Opera House and of our inborn temperament or the for- vides a critical review while also prais- Royal Albert Hall in London to sellout tunate turn of chance. Now the state is ing the late broadcaster’s enormous crowds. Some two million people saw pursued with ruthless precision, talents and innovations. This is an Thomas’s show about Lawrence, and through multifaceted happiness proj- entertaining and readable account trac- the subsequent best-selling book on ects in which yoga, decluttering, char- ing Thomas’s career from his work as the episode was printed in twenty- ity work, sexual experimentation, daily a cowboy, as a Chicago news reporter, seven editions. journaling, legumes, and family quality and as a faculty member at Princeton Thomas’s flawed presentation of time are all deployed in an attempt to University to his dominance as an Lawrence speaks to issues still capture the elusive emotion and make