Where Were You When…?

Few phrases garner as much attention as "We Interrupt This Broadcast…" Wherever we may happen to be, our lives stop for a moment, and w

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Apparently, there are certain magazines and newspapers with Barack Obama’s image after having won the election that are collector’s items. I’m pleased that after having read my November 5th issue of the New York Times, I had the foresight to keep the paper instead of doing what I usually do and toss it in the recycle bin. My thinking was not to sell it on E-bay, but rather keep it for history’s sake and perhaps, if they are to come to fruition, for any grandchildren’s sake. However, the main reason I kept that paper was for my own sense of relief, a confirmation that perhaps the country was finally going to have a chance for survival.

I’m not one to put anyone on a pedestal, but, admittedly, President-elect Barack Obama represents hope for me. I joked with a friend of mine a couple days after the election saying that I was going to become one of those people who have a tacky picture of their leader on the wall in their home. I was kidding, but I actually understood for the first time what it meant to want to honor someone in such a way. Then, a couple days later, the publisher, Sourcebooks, sent me a complimentary 2009 calendar where each month had an image of Barack Obama. I laughed, recalling what I’d said to my friend, and, initially, I was going to rip off the cellophane and hang the calendar in my office. Then, it occurred to me that it might be worth keeping wrapped—for those yet to be twinkles in my children’s eyes; a collector’s item, indeed.

I don’t recall if I kept my copy of the September 12, 2001 New York Times, but I was numb then. Nevertheless, my daughter recently told me that for some reason she’d kept a copy of the paper announcing Princess Diana’s death. My daughter was almost fourteen years old at the time and I hadn’t known her to pay a whole lot of attention to what was going on beyond her circle of friends. Perhaps the overkill media explosion covering such a sad occasion made her feel she wanted to be a part of something bigger. It’s probably why I looked forward to receiving the tenth anniversary edition of We Interrupt This Broadcast, (Sourcebooks Media Fusion) a book that also includes three CDs with the actual broadcasts of the events covered in the book. This new edition now includes the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Hurricane Katrina and the massacre at Virginia Tech. As I was leafing through the book, I realized the first memory I have of a major news story is the Cuban Missile Crisis. Well, I suppose I really cannot say that I remember the actual news story, but I do recall its consequences when my first-grade teacher instructed my classmates and me how to hide under our desks in case a bomb was heading in our direction. When sharing this recollection, most of my friends have the same memory.

We Interrupt This Broadcast with a foreword by Walter Cronkite is now on my coffee table. I’m sure when I have over a dozen or more guests for Thanksgiving someone will be sure to pick it up and, after looking at any number of the photos, will want to offer his or her own memory from any one of the events that suddenly divided our lives into before from after. It’s that sense of being part of something bigger than ourselves. What is interesting is that besides friends from here in the States, I’ll be hosting friends from various parts of the world, from England to Mexico to Brazil and, yet, the images of the fiery Hindenburg, the moon landing, or the tumbling Berlin wall is something that at least one of us sitting around the table eating turkey will have a memory to share from one or more of the major events from the book. But I am sure, too, that we will discuss this recent election and what it means, not only for people of color, but for the country as a whole. It’s certain that President-elect Barack Obama’s image will not be gazing at us from some photo hanging from my dining room wall, but I do plan to invite my guests to raise a glass to new beginnings and what I consider a very hopeful step for our country.

Effectively combining history, commentary, and audio recordings of actual news broadcasts, Joe Garner’s recently re-released We Interrupt This Broadcast is a far cry above the typical coffee-table history book.

This is the third edition of Garner’s book, and it features several new entries, including September 11th, the Virginia Tech Massacre, and Hurricane Katrina. Each segment consists of a few pages of useful background information (covered on the audio CDs by veteran journalist Bill Kurtis), and a collection of black-and-white photographs. The book covers a variety of major 20th and 21st century events, ranging from the death of Elvis to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the Challenger explosion.

While most of the selected events are historically significant, it’s equally interesting to consider what We Interrupt This Broadcast leaves out. The book focuses on the breaking-news broadcasts that dropped the jaws of mainstream America, not necessarily the events with the longest lasting cultural impact. The firing of General MacArthur, the Columbine shootings, the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. and the O.J. Simpson trial are covered—but Woodstock, the McCarthy trials, and the 1963 Birmingham church bombing are not. How were these events (particularly those surrounding the civil rights movement) covered on television and radio? What was on TV on the morning the Little Rock Nine entered Little Rock Central High for the first time, for example, or the day Malcolm X was shot? Garner could—and totally should!—write a fascinating companion book about the events broadcast news failed to consider breaking-news worthy.

WE INTERRUPT THIS BROADCAST

The Events That Stopped Our Lives, From the Hindenburg to the Virginia Tech Shooting, by Joe Garner, Sourcebooks Media Fusion, 194 pages, three audio CDs, $54.99

"We interrupt this broadcast" is an iconic phrase that tells us immediately that an unforeseeable event has occurred or that a storm of great intensity is approaching. Broadcaster Joe Garner’s clear, insightful style allows the reader to comprehend the full impact of momentous events. Combined with an effective narration by Bill Kurtis and the original broadcasts, this book enables us relive history as it unfolded again and again. It also serves as a reminder that no matter how dire or difficult things seemed at the time, we endured and moved forward.



This is more than just the facts, ma’am. We Interrupt This Broadcast with 3 CDs chronicles those sometimes unexpected and always historic events that took our breath away as individuals and as a nation. Spanning seventy years, from the devastating Hindenburg explosion in 1937 right up to the 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre atrocity, We Interrupt This Broadcast * looks more deeply at forty two of the most pivotal stories behind the newsflash.

The addition of 3 audio CD recordings of the original news broadcasts that accompany this book take an already absorbing read to a new level. Suddenly you have a living breathing historical record of those jaw dropping events, both tragedies and triumphs, in your hands.

There’s commentary by Bill Kurtis, a well respected media figure with three decades of journalistic experience under his belt, woven into the audio of each of the original newsflashes. These are arranged in chronological order with their track and disc number helpfully displayed on each story’s page. You can listen while you read the absorbing details of the tumultuous event that unfolded.

We Interrupt This Broadcast - Book Review

Authored by Joe Garner, described as “a 20 year veteran in the radio business” and also a New York Times bestselling author, We Interrupt This Broadcast is a very carefully constructed tome. Mr. Garner’s expertise on media coverage of major news and sporting stories shines through. He delivers the heart of a story in a concise, clear fashion yet without leaving any knowledge gaps about what led up to it and the ultimate outcome. To encapsulate all that within a few pages is impressive.

At just under 200 pages, this book also demonstrates throughout the not insubstantial influence on our lives the press has and the responsibility that can fall on the shoulders of any live reporter at any given moment. A very thoughtful foreword by the famous industry veteran broadcaster Walter Cronkite highlights this and his own personal experience of having to announce the tragic death of JFK to the viewers.

We Interrupt This Broadcast is a beautifully crafted comprehensive slice of history. To call it just a book feels almost like doing it a disservice. The incorporation of monochrome photographs relating to each story stir the mind and the heart into recall. This heightens the already profound audio impact this large hardback has.

More than once I found myself shedding tears when memories rushed back of hearing the original news first time round. That’s the tremendous effect the combination of Mr. Garner’s words on the page, the audio and the visuals, had on me. The book is very emotive but then it should be to remind us all, especially those who weren’t even born when these enormous life changing events happened, of where society has been and what shaped the world they live in today both on a national and international level.

History need not be dry as dust. We Interrupt This Broadcast is too important a book not to be shared in classrooms and by librarians worldwide. It should be required reading for upcoming generations and has “classic” stamped all over it.

The book, published by Sourcebooks MediaFusion, is undoubtedly a testament to one of the greatest gifts the US has - the freedom of the press. In this digital age, its presentation style exemplifies what may well be the shape of things to come in both bookstores and classrooms. I hope so because I couldn’t put it down. I’ve gained a new respect for the role a serious journalist plays in telling it like it is under what can be the most arduous and triumphant of circumstances.

We Interrupt This Broadcast with 3 CDs displays journalism at its finest, no matter whether the world itself is at its best or worst. You can find this edition at Amazon.com and other leading book retailers.

Ask Baby Boomers where they were when they heard President Kennedy had been assassinated. Ask Gen-Xers where they were when they heard about the Challenger explosion. Ask Americans where they were when they heard about 9/11. Every generation has one: an event so monumental that it, in part, defines that generation—an event so big everyone stops to watch and listen and sometimes cry. Pearl Harbor…Hiroshima…the moon landing….

Joe Garner’s modern classic We Interrupt This Broadcast captures these moments and more—and now, reissued in a Tenth Anniversary Edition, there’s literally an entire CD more.

The book recounts 46 pivotal moments in American history. Each chapter includes a brief synopsis of an event, written by Garner, and a collection of photos—many of which have become iconic since they first appeared.

What originally made the book such a gem, though, were the companion CDs that featured recaps of each event along with clips of the original news coverage. Veteran newsman Bill Kurtis provided the narration.

The original edition of the book left off with the death of Princess Diana on August 31, 1997. The new edition of the book now includes such events as Bill Clinton’s impeachment proceedings, the Columbine High School shootings, the 2000 presidential election, the attacks of 9/11, and the Virginia Tech massacre.

Garner’s histories are interesting if necessarily brief, but it’s the audio program that makes the book a must-have. While the iron-voiced Kurtis reads the scripts with arched-eyebrow authority and a flair for melodrama, the overall production values are outstanding. Kurtis’s narration is augmented by original news reports and sound clips to help tell the story. When Kurtis recounts the Hindenburg disaster, for instance, listeners get to hear reporter Herb Morrison’s heartbroken cry, "Oh, the humanity!" as the flaming dirigible crashes down in flames.

Other highlights include Neil Armstrong’s famous line "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" poignantly juxtaposed against a Walter Cronkite so overwhelmed that he was left speechless on national television. The CDs also capture an emotional Cronkite a few years earlier when, teary-eyed, he announced the death of President Kennedy.

"Some of the bulletins…represent an era now past," writes NBC anchor Brian Williams in the afterword, new to the anniversary edition: "the age of collective radio listening and television viewing. A time when it was possible to get the attention of the American people as a collective body." By contrast, he says today’s media operated in a "distracted, overwhelmed-with-choice era."

In that vein, Garner’s book not only captures history, it also proves to be a fascinating look at the evolution of electronic news coverage over the past 70 years: from radio to television to cable to the internet.

Regardless of the medium, the reporters were writing the first draft of history as it happened. Those drafts were vitally important in their times, and some of them have become historical in and of themselves.

That alone makes Garner’s book important today. Garner does us all a service by remembering the triumphs and tragedies of the Electronic Age that defined America as a nation and made indelible marks on our lives. He has collected soundbites and snapshots of those monumental events to help us remember not only where we were but from where we’ve come.

When I had originally claimed this book, I wasn’t sure what it would entail. But I would say it is a comprehensive account of the news stories that helped shape history all around the world, and how the world now works.

The book which is 208 pages, comes with 3 audio Cd’s which also go alongside the book. Chapter by Chapter you can listen to the actual news broadcasts as you are viewing the book. Bill Curtis narrates the Cd’s.

When I opened the book, I was amazed at the depth of the stories, and pictures that accompany them. Although, I have an advanced readers copy, I am not sure as to the pictures in the book are colour, or if they are in black and white which is included in my advanced copy.

Such stories that are included are: Hiroshima, 9/11, Princess Diana’s Death, Columbine, Nixon’s Resigns from his Presidency, JFK death, John F. Kennedy’s Death, Apollo 13, just to mention a few. The stories are also tabbed in the top left handed pages of the book so that you can go along with the stories and the CD simultaneously. It is in a chronological form, so that you start at 1937 when the Hindenburg Explodes and Crashes to April 2007 with the Virginia Tech Shootings.

This would be a sure hit for the person that is a history buff, I am sure that when someone sees it laying on my table, that they will be intrigued to see what is inside.

If you’re in search of the perfect gift/coffee table book for your favorite news junkie, you need look no further than the new edition of Joe Garner’s We Interrupt This Broadcast. While I confess to being something of a purist when it comes to books, this update makes excellent use of CD’s, providing the audio broadcasts of the most momentous events in recent history, while the physical book itself is simply gorgeous. Rich in photographs and beautiful in layout, the book opens with the crash of the Hindenberg in 1937 and ends with the shooting at Virginia Tech. Each event is given about four pages of text and pictures, which sounds small but is not—both because events are broken down into small-ish units (V-E Day and V-J Day are given separate chapters, for example) and because the book itself is physically large, nearly 11 inches by 11 inches.

The book first was issued 10 years ago, and this is an updated anniversary edition, which includes coverage of the Iraq War and Katrina. The CD’s are narrated by former CBS anchorman Bill Kurtis, who weaves explanatory material together with the original audio broadcasts of events. Walter Cronkite weighs in for the forward and Brian Williams supplies an afterword. There is little ideological slant to any of the coverage of events—photographs and facts about events are laid out with little to no editorializing. It’s a mesmerizing mix of tragedy (deaths of presidents and the World Trade Center attack) and triumph (the moon landing, the fall of the Berlin Wall). I sat down intending to just thumb through the book and listen to a bit of a CD and found four hours had gone by, so buyer beware and all that, particularly if you end up purchasing it for someone else ... you may end up keeping it to go over at leisure because there is so much material provided.




I’ve always been interested in what’s happening around the world and with this book you can go back in history and read about it. The audio CDs, which allow you to listen to the book while on the go, are a great addition to the book.

The table of contents (toc) was organized very well. I liked the fact that each story had a picture to go along with it for a quick visual connection to what you are looking for. The disk and track information is side by side with the regular (toc) so whether you are wanting to read or listen, finding the story will be easy. It’s the little seemingly unimportant details like this that help make a good book even better.

What I enjoyed the most about this book was being able to listen to the broadcast while following along with the book and looking at the pictures. Overall, I’d say this is an excellent book. A book that should be on the shelf of every home.

We Interrupt This Broadcast: The Events That Stopped Our Lives...from the Hindenburg Explosion to the Virginia Tech Shooting, by Joe Garner, makes for a good introduction to some of the defining news stories of the past 70 years. From the Hindenburg disaster of 1937 to the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007, concise articles provide basic information on each event. A generous selection of photographs are included as well.

The real hook is the inclusion of three CDs featuring audio taken from the original radio broadcasts. Narrator Bill Kurtis reads what amounts to condensed versions of the book’s articles, punctuated by excerpts of the breaking news. Not intended as a comprehensive account, a good job is done by giving a sort of Cliffs Notes version of major news stories.

Famous celebrity deaths, such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon, are covered. Milestones in the space program are discussed, like the moon landing and Challenger disaster. Important wartime events are included, ranging from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the on-going war in Iraq.

These well-researched articles are not based on obscure occurences, to say the least. Anyone with a reasonable knowledge of historical events will likely be familiar with most, if not all, of the events presented.

The writing is non-biased, even when dealing with hot button political topics. The 2000 presidential election, for example, is given a decent factual overview without inserting partisan opinion. Highly debated decisions such as the bombing of Hiroshima or Operation Iraqi Freedom are similarly put forth in a factual manner.

When dealing with recent controversial stories, such as Hurricane Katrina, rather than arguing a specific point of view the author wisely tiptoes around issues. "Many commentators felt that racial bias played a role... in the creation of the conditions that left New Orleans unable to deal with the disaster," states Garner.

This was a smart move because it leaves the reader to further investigate and draw their own conclusions based on the more in-depth analysis that is available elsewhere. The writings found here are not meant as critiques, but rather as straightforward, fact-based journalism.

Don’t expect the three CDs to be packed to the gills with audio. In fact, at an average of 50 minutes per disc, they could have been comfortably slimmed down to two discs. After a short introduction, each of the 46 stories is given its own track. The individual tracks run from two to six minutes. I’m not convinced the audiobook style was the best format to use. Once you’ve read the text, hearing it again on the CDs - albeit reworded - is sort of superfluous.

My disappointment came from not hearing longer segments of original broadcast audio. That may have had to do with limited availability or perhaps licensing issues, but a bit more from the actual radio announcements would have had a nice "audio verite" effect. Some of these sound bites are fairly readily available on-line with a minimal amount of searching, especially as the chronology gets into recent decades. The same can be said for the information in the articles. But I don’t want to overstate those points. This book and CD set remains useful for rounding up lots of solid background information in one convenient place.

Carrying a cover price of $49.95, this hardcover edition is somewhat overpriced. We Interrupt This Broadcast is the kind of coffee table book that’s better off snagged at a discount after doing some bargain hunting. With the holidays approaching I would say don’t hesitate if you see it at a good price. It is fun to listen to the news reporters of decades past. I would especially recommend the book to parents of high school, or even junior high, students. The CDs greatly enhance the experience of learning about, as the title states, "the events that stopped our lives."

We Interrupt this Broadcast is less a book than it is a multimedia package. Consisting of three CDs and a companion book, it provides the initial press reaction to key, generally tragic, events starting with the Hindenburg disaster and ending with the Virginia Tech Massacre. Most of these events fall into the remember-where-you-were-when-you-heard it category. For some this is about revisiting. For other , the events will come from before their media memories and it provides a insight into what it was like to experience something now historical.

Some of the audio files are fairly well known, I for one have heard the "oh the humanity" radio broadcast of the Hindenburg a few times already and the announcement of the death of the Israeli athletes at Munich was revisited in the Spielberg film. Many others were shocking. The assassination of Robert F Kennedy was on air and you can hear the shots in the background. It makes for terrifying listening.

While some manage to capture the event itself, other of the clips focus on the reaction. Living on the West Coast, I missed the disbelieving initial reactions to the 9/11 attacks. By the time we were up, people understood what was happening. So it was fascinating to listen to the shifts in understanding.

You might question some of the inclusions. Does the death of John F Kennedy Jr represent an important event as the Challenger explosion? Not really, but the news focus was probably similar and it is representative of our pop culture-obsessed society. Remember all the talk of how we were to be a more serious, non-ironic nation after 9/11? How long did that last?

The book serves mostly to provide context for the audio clips. It is helpful if you don’t recall the specifics of the event or didn’t experience it, but I suspect most will want to listen to the files and flip through the book. This would make a nice gift for fans of history who want to hear how events were first experienced.

First, a confession: I love Sourcebooks. I think the idea of combining text with related audio is brilliant. I already own two: The Spoken Word Revolution and My Fellow Americans: The Most Important Speeches of America’s Presidents. When the opportunity to review We Interrupt This Broadcast came my way, I jumped at it. Many of the included events happened before I was born or very young, but the author, Joe Garner, provides historical context for the broadcasts. Hearing the actual broadcasts takes you back in time—even if you were never there. As far as I’m concerned, Sourcebooks has hit another homerun when it comes to bringing history to life. If you have an interest in history, journalism, or remember these events firsthand, I highly recommend We Interrupt This Broadcast.

I just finished this book, "We Interupt This Broadcast."
This is a great book for holiday giving for friends and family that are history buffs,and current events. While you are reading the book you can also listen to the broadcast. Do you remember when....Do you remmeber what you were doing when you heard the news of Princess Diana’s death, Elvis when he died, when the man walked the moon.
Where you were when you heard Pres. Kennedy was shot?? Do you remember the day of 9/11 where were you? All the current events of the day made history. It is ingrained in our memory. The power of pictures bring back powerful emotions, of sadness, it will remind you of what you were feeling and smelling and doing during the broadcast. At least it did for me.
That was the aim of the author, when he explains why he added the CD to the book.
You will relive those moments in history.
rekindles your emotions and stirs them.
I can still remember the procession of Pres. Kennedy going up and down the street in Washington, D.C. I was a little girl. I remember how sad and overwhelmed I was even as a child. The horrible events of 9/11, when my mother came home from the doctor and told me. I remember that day like it was yesterday when you look at the pictures,and hear the CD you will recall the day, fleeting memories will come back vividly. I can’t say enjoyed, but I did like flipping through the pages of this book. Reading the different events in history. It goes from the Hindenburg explosion to The Virginia Tech. incident. Including a foreward by Walter Cronkite, and introduction by Joe Garner and the CD by Bill Kurtis.


I have to say a big Thank You to Danielle at SourceBooks for sending me this book to read/listen and review for my blog.

This edition features 3 audio CDs with actual broadcasts and includes a new afterword from NBC’s Brian Williams. It is narrated by a veteran journalist, Bill Kurtis.

There is over 2 hours worth of rare original broadcasts. The book is about 46 events that have happened in our history, from the Hindenburg Explosion to Virginia Tech Massacre. Each of the stories made an impact in our lives and history in some way or another.

Anything before President Regan was shot I read in history books so being able to hear the actual broadcasts was really interesting. I loved hearing the old broadcasts and hearing the raw emotion in some of the stories. I have to admit that hearing certain news stories again was rough and I had tears in my eyes. From the death of Princess Diana to the tragedy in the schools to 9-11. I relived all those moments again.

This is a great book and I was really happy to be able to read and review it. A great book to have on ones shelf.

This is a composite of our history, the history that made us who we are as a nation, and globally as well (however the focus is certainly American news). We Interrupt This Broadcast is an amazing journey through our past and all the events that have shaped us into what we are today. Each historical event, for which was heard, "We interrupt this broadcast, for a special bulletin...", from 1937 to 2007, is included in this beautiful book. You can search through to find a specific even that you would like more information on, and then each is marked where you would go on one of the three audio CDs (included) to hear the narration by Bill Kurtis, as well as actual broadcasts. It is a stunning representation of the events that have made us who we are, the United States of America.

Listening, reading and seeing pictures for each event caters to so many senses. Thus giving the reader the feeling of glancing through the past, while hearing it, almost witnessing the pain, the joy the grief or the shame, as if there. Bill Kurtis’ voice narrates in between actual footage from reporters and newscasters of the events that changed history.

I love each aspect of, We Interrupt This Broadcast, and will certainly keep it for my kiddos, for homeschooling, as it contains a wealth of history that we all need to know. If we are to learn from our past mistakes and victories as a nation, we have to remember them. If we do not want to commit the same mistakes twice, we need to heed the advice experience gives us, thus providing a future which learns from the past.

When I agreed to review the updated 10th Anniversary edition of We Interrupt This Broadcast by Joe Garner, I knew that it would be an emotional experience but I had no idea to what degree. This is a 200 page coffee-table book that documents 46 historical events through our tradition of late-breaking headlines on radio and television. The book has over 200 black and white photographs that document each story and a few pages of text that give background information and some short quotes. It is a very handsome book and the photos are well-chosen.

The real gem of this set are the three accompanying CDs, narrated by the well-known Bill Kurtis. He gives background and commentary for each event and then we hear original recordings from radio or television. Most of us have some of the famous quotes from these events in our social consciousness, perhaps without even knowing the specific incidents that inspired these statements. For example, "Oh, the humanity!" came from a broadcast as journalist Herb Morrison stood watching the unexpected explosion of the airship Hindenburg. As Morrison’s voice cracks and he tells us that he can no longer continue speaking, we understand the intensity and unbelievable sadness of this disaster.

There are a few joyous occasions in this book such as the end of World War II, the moon landing and the fall of the Berlin Wall but unfortunately we are also asked to remember far too many assassinations, wars, and mechanical and natural disasters. Of course, most of these broadcasts are of a tragic nature because this was the type of event that needed to be communicated immediately to the American people. I will admit that I was not looking forward to listening to some events like the Kennedy and MLK Jr. assassinations and I stopped before the September 11 broadcasts. I am not yet ready to revisit that terrible day.

These are incredibly moving historical milestones and I will admit to choking up and even shedding some tears as I listened to the audio tracks. I am too young to have experienced most of them but of course I studied them in school. The first breaking news event that I can remember in my lifetime that is covered in this book is the shuttle Challenger explosion. I was in the 4th grade and, before our eyes, the celebration of the first school teacher in space turned into an unbelievable tragedy. I still remember the feelings of shock and sadness as I watched the deaths of those brave seven astronauts, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe. It was comforting, though, to hear the words of Ronald Reagan again, reminding us that in order to have progress, we must be prepared for setbacks.

We Interrupt This Broadcast would be a fantastic gift so keep it in mind for anyone with an interest in American history. The book and CDs are of the highest quality and the emotional experience is profound.

This outstanding examination of 46 profoundly impacting “breaking news” events—from the crash of the Hindenburg to the massacre at Virginia Tech—reminds us of the essential role TV and radio have always played in keeping America informed at moments of celebration as well as catastrophe. An engrossing “you-are-there” recap of history’s highlights across the decades of the broadcast era, this revised 10th-anniversary edition is packed with some 250 photos and also includes three CDs, narrated by newsman Bill Kurtis and containing more than two hours of original broadcast audio, plus a foreword by Walter Kronkite and afterword by NBC’s Brian Williams.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

rating: 5/5

I have long been an avid fan of photojournalism. I was a subscriber to Life Magazine for many years when I was a teen and in college, even purchasing some of the "photos of the year" books. When I saw that this book was available, I was anxious to read it. I love the concept of keeping a record of those stories that made us stop in our tracks and tune in, becoming a part of a "collective viewing" (a term from the afterword), those moments where we can tell others later where we were when we heard the news.

The thing this book does well is that it gives us a context in which to appreciate these events as they happened. Did you know that the Hindenburg was primarily financed by Nazi money? And for that reason the US made it impossible for their company to purchase our helium (which apparently, we held the market on at the time?) Or that this is the reason the Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen instead, which is more flammable? Yeah, me neither. Over and over again I learned things that added depth to the sketchy facts I knew about different news stories.

Because most of us have heard of these events countless times, they have lost their impact and because many of them happened either before I was alive or when I was too young to understand, I cannot personally read about them with the emotion that they certainly elicited when they actually happened. Listening to the cds, however, and hearing the raw emotion and terror with which some of these stories were reported truly can give you a sense for how shocking and traumatic it was to have lived at the time. Sometimes, like when Robert Kennedy or Lee Harvey Oswald were actually assassinated while a reporter was talking on the air, my heart began racing because the reporters were reporting on these horrible things as they were happening in front of them. This was also the case with the Hindenburg, when the reporter was yelling at people to run and get out of the way or they will be hit by a flaming zeppelin as it crashes to the ground in their midst. The cds really do add great dimension and are worthwhile all on their own.

Can you tell I’m a fan of this book? It’s extremely well done. It gives the biggest headlines not only background but also consequence. The modern history of our country and the events that shaped it are laid out in readable but not simplified text. The photography, those frames that represent the moment to us, are both stirring and familiar. If you are a news buff or a history buff or just a generally curious person, I think you will find something worthwhile in We Interrupt This Broadcast.