Personal History Parts1 and 2

by Katherine Graham

Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) was an American publisher. She led her family's newspaper, The Washington Post, for more than two decades, overseeing its most famous period, the Watergate coverage that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Her memoir, Personal History, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. Katharine Graham was born Katharine Meyer in 1917 into a privileged family in New York City, the daughter of Agnes Elizabeth (née Ernst) and Eugene Meyer. Graham's father was a financier and, later, a public official. He bought The Washington Post in 1933 at a bankruptcy auction. Graham's mother was a bohemian intellectual, art lover, and political activist in the Republican Party, who shared friendships with people as diverse as Auguste Rodin, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt, and worked as a newspaper reporter at a time when journalism was an uncommon profession among women. Graham's father was Jewish and her mother was Lutheran, from a family of German descent.

Genres: Biography

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About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Theresa Alfonso · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book about a woman that was thrust into a position of leadership that she was unprepared to hold. Katherine Graham stood up to power, she ran the Washington Post at a time of national upheaval and prevailed against all odds. She excelled as the leader of the paper and became a force for good in America.

[Nicole Sutliffe]

This took me a long (long long) time. It’s almost 900 pages and, while interesting, you can only read so much in one sitting. I have always been an admirer of Katherine Graham and The Post. Stepping into her role at a time when women simply didn’t hold these positions (and couldn’t hold credit cards in their own name) and navigating as she did has always struck me as both brave and daunting. Doing so as a recent widow as a result of a traumatic event…even more so.

Reading this now, at this particular political juncture, drew many parallels - the women’s movement, the civil rights movement, the tension over Vietnam, the corruption of Watergate and the secrets of the Pentagon Papers, and all the related propaganda of the time, as well as the extraordinary wealth gap that existed then and is ruling our politics now. The intensity of the generational wealth of the Meyers-Graham family is almost unfathomable and the opportunities it created were eye opening.

I was struck by the differences as much as the similarities between today and the DC of the 1940s-80s. Back then, the checks and balances were working. Congress voted 410-4 to open an impeachment probe into Nixon. Because the law was broken. And that’s not OK.

On women’s rights, I was intrigued by the struggle of Katherine Graham, arguably the most powerful woman in Washington, to advance women within her own company, her ability to trust her own judgement, and the internalized misogyny she wrestled with daily.

The also book touches on both the extraordinary benefit and the dark side of unions at that time through the Pressman’s strike in the mid-70s.

This book was a history lesson at a national level, a deep dive into the DC social / political scene of the time, and a meaningful lesson about the free press and the unyielding commitment of so many people to produce a daily newspaper to ensure information is shared, uninterrupted. It‘s 900 pages so I am definitely missing other observations but needless to say, it is a read that will stay with me.

[Hannah DL · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was dense but I learned a lot. 3.5

[Julie Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

30 hrs is a lot. Chapters 1-23 pretty long and about a really rich family and their life. 23-25 fascinating all about Watergate - that I really missed in high school.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went through a stage where all I read were biographies. Unfortunately, I found this autobiography to be painfully detailed. I read three-quarters of it over a six month or so period and found some parts very interesting but it was the day-to-day detail that made me stop. An incredible life.