Between the Lines: A View Inside American Politics, People, and Culture

by Jonathan Alter

For more than twenty years, Jonathan Alter has enjoyed a front-row seat in history. In his widely acclaimed Newsweek column, Alter has witnessed the biggest events of our time. He was in the Soviet Union when communism was collapsing, in Los Angeles after the Rodney King riots, at Bill Clinton's impeachment trial, in Florida during the historic 2000 recount, at Ground Zero just after 9/11, on an aircraft carrier on the eve of war with Iraq, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and much more.
He has interviewed today's major newsmakers - Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain - more often than any print journalist, as well as a cast of other colorful characters from Paul McCartney to Richard Nixon to his own mother. Whether he's writing about the 2008 presidential campaign or his own bout with cancer, Alter's timeless analysis and revered prose style set a high standard for political commentary at the turn of the century. Here is our recent history, in the voice of one of America's finest nonfiction writers.

Genres: Politics, History

354 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Jonathan Alter is an award-winning author, political analyst, documentary filmmaker, columnist, television producer and radio host. His new book, published in 2020, is "His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life." He is the author of three New York Times bestsellers: “The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies”(2013), “The Promise: President Obama, Year One” (2010) and “The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope”(2006), also one of the Times’ “Notable Books” of the year. Since 1996, Alter has been a contributing correspondent and political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. In 2019, he co-produced and co-directed the HBO documentary, “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists.”
After 28 years as a columnist and senior editor at Newsweek, where he wrote more than 50 cover stories, Alter is now a columnist for the Daily Beast and the co-host, with his wife, Emily Lazar, and their three children, Charlotte Alter, Tommy Alter, and Molly Alter, of “Alter Family Politics,” which airs Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. on RadioAndy on SiriusXM, 102. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the National Headliner Award for his coverage of 9/11, the Gerald Loeb Award, and the Book Award from the New Jersey Council of the Humanities. In 2019, he was one of the inaugural inductees into the New Jersey Journalism Hall of Fame.

A Chicago native, Harvard graduate and resident of Montclair, New Jersey, Alter has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Monthly, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New Republic, Esquire, Bloomberg View and other publications. In the 2013-2014 season, he served as an executive producer of “Alpha House,” a 21-episode half-hour political comedy available on Amazon.

Reviews

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's an interesting read. Short articles taken from all different time periods with short little intros to each. An interesting look at history and politics combined.

[Carolyn Engquist]

Currently reading this book