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Century's Witness: The Extraordinary Life of Journalist Wallace Carroll
"With crisp prose, fine research, and a clear moral purpose, Mary McNeil shines a light on Wallace Carroll and in so doing, powerfully illuminates the current troubles of journalism..."
-Margaret Sullivan, Media Columnist, The Washington Post
"This well-told story of a gentleman journalist is a trip back in time to when that phrase did not strike most American as an oxymoron, and when vibrant local newspapers were both causes and effects of national vigor."
-George F. Will, columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner
"This book is the discovery of a remarkable but undersung life, a well-researched and captivating read..."
-Mark Nelson, former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and head, Center for International Media Assistance
Today when local newspapers are going out of business, corporate profits drive press coverage, and unbiased reporting is seen as almost nonexistent, Wallace Carroll's life is a lesson in excellence. A "journalist's journalist" with unmatched integrity, Carroll covered the most significant events of his time, from the London Blitz to the United States' withdrawal from the Vietnam War. His story is even more relevant today given the war in Ukraine and Russia's assault on the truth. Carroll covered the League of Nations in the 1930s, warning the American public of the dangers of fascism, headed United Press's office in London at the outbreak of the war and was among the first journalists to reach the Russian front following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. He later joined the US Office of War Information, tasked with "winning the hearts and minds" of those under the Nazi boot. As such, he was well-placed to understand the power of words, and their heightened importance in a time of war.
Carroll's life and career are essential reading for all those who believe a trusted and reasoned press is essential to our democracy. Carroll bore witness to this country's greatest generation—working to win a war, influence the peace, abolish segregation in the South, and conserve our most beautiful lands—these were the accomplishments of his life.
-Margaret Sullivan, Media Columnist, The Washington Post
"This well-told story of a gentleman journalist is a trip back in time to when that phrase did not strike most American as an oxymoron, and when vibrant local newspapers were both causes and effects of national vigor."
-George F. Will, columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner
"This book is the discovery of a remarkable but undersung life, a well-researched and captivating read..."
-Mark Nelson, former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and head, Center for International Media Assistance
Today when local newspapers are going out of business, corporate profits drive press coverage, and unbiased reporting is seen as almost nonexistent, Wallace Carroll's life is a lesson in excellence. A "journalist's journalist" with unmatched integrity, Carroll covered the most significant events of his time, from the London Blitz to the United States' withdrawal from the Vietnam War. His story is even more relevant today given the war in Ukraine and Russia's assault on the truth. Carroll covered the League of Nations in the 1930s, warning the American public of the dangers of fascism, headed United Press's office in London at the outbreak of the war and was among the first journalists to reach the Russian front following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. He later joined the US Office of War Information, tasked with "winning the hearts and minds" of those under the Nazi boot. As such, he was well-placed to understand the power of words, and their heightened importance in a time of war.
Carroll's life and career are essential reading for all those who believe a trusted and reasoned press is essential to our democracy. Carroll bore witness to this country's greatest generation—working to win a war, influence the peace, abolish segregation in the South, and conserve our most beautiful lands—these were the accomplishments of his life.
388 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2022
4 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Mary Llewellyn McNeil
2 books1 followerMary Llewellyn McNeil is a former editor and writer for the Congressional Quarterly and the primary author of Environment and Health, Reagan’s First Year, and The Nuclear Age. She has worked as an editor at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Academy of Sciences, and as a journalist at the Winston-Salem Journal. During a twenty-eight year career at the World Bank she launched two global publications, The Urban Age and Development Outreach, and wrote Demanding Good Governance, Lessons from Social Accountability Initiatives in Africa. A graduate of Wake Forest University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, she resides in Washington D.C. with her husband and three daughters. Century's Witness: The Extraordinary Life of Journalist Wallace Carroll is her first full-length biography.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 5, 2024
Wallace Carroll wasn’t a big presence in my understanding of the 20th Century. But he should have been. In his 90+ years, he lived through and wrote about the critical events of that era.
"Carroll is not well-known today, but he was among the best of what many see as a dying breed. Fiercely independent of business interests and convinced he could influence the public good through the written word, he saw journalism as a commitment to improving his nation and his community. And he lived in an age in which this was possible—before the internet, cable news, and social media—when journalists were recognized, not as opinionated celebrities hired to ensure corporate profits, but more as trusted filters through which the news could be delivered."
McNeil gives a straight-ahead account of the arc of Carroll’s life from birth to death. She also chronicles the journalists around him and provides insights into his approach to his profession.
"When an inexperienced Carroll arrived in London in 1929, the term “foreign correspondent” was not what we know it to be today. For the most part, correspondents wrote up their stories based on rehashed government documents or called in reports already prepared by bureaucratic government agencies. Most would simply re-run wire reports from home, many of which were unlikely to contain any new or factual information. Seldom did reporters venture out of their offices to witness events. With some exceptions, it was not until the late 1930s and early 1940s—in part fueled by the growing international wire services—that the term earned its connotation of glamour, excitement, and intrigue—of death-defying adventurers willing to risk their lives to get a good story. Carroll was at the forefront of a new breed of wire reporters who knew that to make a name for themselves, they had to get out and witness events firsthand. He wasted no time in hitting the London streets,"
"(H)e ran into an old friend, Vernon Bartlett of the BBC, who was making the same journey. Bartlett was England’s foremost broadcaster and one of her best-known diplomatic correspondents. “If I had to name one man of whom it could be said, ‘This is an Englishman,’” Carroll later wrote, “I would pick Vernon Bartlett. He had the honesty, the quiet sense of humor and the love of good beer which are the marks of the true Briton.”"
Carroll was able to change the nature of the foreign correspondent. His ability to get to where the action was going on was a big change from those who had be satisfied re-writing what the governments chose to hand out. His contacts often gave him information that other journalists weren’t able to access. There were two incidents where that went wrong. The first was when he took the word of some of the Pacific Naval Command that the Americans of Japanese descent on Hawaii were forming a fifth column against the USA. The second was when he assured his readers that Stalin would be too concerned with recovering from the war to attempt to add Eastern European countries to his Soviet Union.
I learned a great deal about the information/propaganda aspects of WW II. McNeil captures a lot of the nuance: "Carroll began to formulate another idea related to preparations for the invasion. A major challenge facing Supreme Allied Command was the desperate need to overcome Germany’s mastery of the air before the planned invasion. Eisenhower’s planners believed that unless the Luftwaffe could be rendered largely impotent, the Allies would not be able to establish and hold beachheads on the French coast. This observation got Carroll thinking. ▪ ▪ ▪ Throughout 1943, the Allied air forces had engaged in Operation Pointblank, aimed at subjugating the German air force by 1944. Their tactics had been to target German cities in addition to its factories and other installations vital to the German aviation industry. The damage to German cities was considerable, but Hitler continued for the most part to commit his fighters to air battle over enemy territory, not to protect the homeland. In addition, despite heavy losses on both sides, the Reich could not keep pace with Allied production, nor in replacing pilots killed... His strategy was to undermine the Luftwaffe’s prestige with the German people, who would put pressure on their leaders to make the air force come out to protect them. After he won an ironclad approval from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Carroll drew up a directive aimed at taunting the German high command by issuing radio broadcasts about the American daylight raids on Germany."
One of the most interesting periods was when Carroll edited the Winston-Salem Journal, then was a part of the New York Times’ Washington Bureau and then returned to the North Carolina paper as its editor and publisher. In Washington, DC, McNeil tells us that it was the “Golden Era” for the NY Times bureau with a long list of top talent including “Scotty” Reston and Tom Wicker. What I found most interesting were the battles: Some internal (such as between the Times corporate office in New York and the Washington bureau or between management and the reporters); some external (as to what would be the policy with regard to the often disconnect between what the government wanted to put out and the facts as researched by the Washington Bureau).
"Both Reston and Carroll had held the reins of the bureau during a time when reporters, while trying to pry as much information as possible from politicians, still had a core belief that once politicians were in office, more often than not, they would try to do the right thing. This was a predominant way of thinking among many journalists at the time, as reflected in their reporting. In 1960, for example, 75 percent of evaluative references to candidates John Kennedy and Richard Nixon were positive; years later, by 1992, only 40 percent of evaluative references praised Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. To read 1963 newspapers is to enter a pre-Watergate, pre-Vietnam world. “It is to roll back a gigantic cultural loss of idealism,” according to Catherine Fink and Michael Schudson in “The Rise and Fall of Contextual Journalism, 1950s–1960s.”"
There is a great deal more that McNeil tells us about his later efforts and accomplishments. I particularly found his commitment to saving the New River enlightening.
The good: Well-researched and a very interesting life to recount. Excellent highlights of the tensions before WW II of the forces for international cooperation and those for isolation. Similarly, during WW II, the tensions between promoting the high moral ground of democracy and the immediate tactical goals of the war. A good example was the way the USA cooperated with the Vichy government in order to have a successful start to the “African campaign.”
The bad: Less that top-shelf writing. I wonder, for instance, how this would be in the hands of a Goodwin or a Halberstam?
The ugly: The audiobook is given a passion-less reading by the author
"Carroll is not well-known today, but he was among the best of what many see as a dying breed. Fiercely independent of business interests and convinced he could influence the public good through the written word, he saw journalism as a commitment to improving his nation and his community. And he lived in an age in which this was possible—before the internet, cable news, and social media—when journalists were recognized, not as opinionated celebrities hired to ensure corporate profits, but more as trusted filters through which the news could be delivered."
McNeil gives a straight-ahead account of the arc of Carroll’s life from birth to death. She also chronicles the journalists around him and provides insights into his approach to his profession.
"When an inexperienced Carroll arrived in London in 1929, the term “foreign correspondent” was not what we know it to be today. For the most part, correspondents wrote up their stories based on rehashed government documents or called in reports already prepared by bureaucratic government agencies. Most would simply re-run wire reports from home, many of which were unlikely to contain any new or factual information. Seldom did reporters venture out of their offices to witness events. With some exceptions, it was not until the late 1930s and early 1940s—in part fueled by the growing international wire services—that the term earned its connotation of glamour, excitement, and intrigue—of death-defying adventurers willing to risk their lives to get a good story. Carroll was at the forefront of a new breed of wire reporters who knew that to make a name for themselves, they had to get out and witness events firsthand. He wasted no time in hitting the London streets,"
"(H)e ran into an old friend, Vernon Bartlett of the BBC, who was making the same journey. Bartlett was England’s foremost broadcaster and one of her best-known diplomatic correspondents. “If I had to name one man of whom it could be said, ‘This is an Englishman,’” Carroll later wrote, “I would pick Vernon Bartlett. He had the honesty, the quiet sense of humor and the love of good beer which are the marks of the true Briton.”"
Carroll was able to change the nature of the foreign correspondent. His ability to get to where the action was going on was a big change from those who had be satisfied re-writing what the governments chose to hand out. His contacts often gave him information that other journalists weren’t able to access. There were two incidents where that went wrong. The first was when he took the word of some of the Pacific Naval Command that the Americans of Japanese descent on Hawaii were forming a fifth column against the USA. The second was when he assured his readers that Stalin would be too concerned with recovering from the war to attempt to add Eastern European countries to his Soviet Union.
I learned a great deal about the information/propaganda aspects of WW II. McNeil captures a lot of the nuance: "Carroll began to formulate another idea related to preparations for the invasion. A major challenge facing Supreme Allied Command was the desperate need to overcome Germany’s mastery of the air before the planned invasion. Eisenhower’s planners believed that unless the Luftwaffe could be rendered largely impotent, the Allies would not be able to establish and hold beachheads on the French coast. This observation got Carroll thinking. ▪ ▪ ▪ Throughout 1943, the Allied air forces had engaged in Operation Pointblank, aimed at subjugating the German air force by 1944. Their tactics had been to target German cities in addition to its factories and other installations vital to the German aviation industry. The damage to German cities was considerable, but Hitler continued for the most part to commit his fighters to air battle over enemy territory, not to protect the homeland. In addition, despite heavy losses on both sides, the Reich could not keep pace with Allied production, nor in replacing pilots killed... His strategy was to undermine the Luftwaffe’s prestige with the German people, who would put pressure on their leaders to make the air force come out to protect them. After he won an ironclad approval from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Carroll drew up a directive aimed at taunting the German high command by issuing radio broadcasts about the American daylight raids on Germany."
One of the most interesting periods was when Carroll edited the Winston-Salem Journal, then was a part of the New York Times’ Washington Bureau and then returned to the North Carolina paper as its editor and publisher. In Washington, DC, McNeil tells us that it was the “Golden Era” for the NY Times bureau with a long list of top talent including “Scotty” Reston and Tom Wicker. What I found most interesting were the battles: Some internal (such as between the Times corporate office in New York and the Washington bureau or between management and the reporters); some external (as to what would be the policy with regard to the often disconnect between what the government wanted to put out and the facts as researched by the Washington Bureau).
"Both Reston and Carroll had held the reins of the bureau during a time when reporters, while trying to pry as much information as possible from politicians, still had a core belief that once politicians were in office, more often than not, they would try to do the right thing. This was a predominant way of thinking among many journalists at the time, as reflected in their reporting. In 1960, for example, 75 percent of evaluative references to candidates John Kennedy and Richard Nixon were positive; years later, by 1992, only 40 percent of evaluative references praised Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. To read 1963 newspapers is to enter a pre-Watergate, pre-Vietnam world. “It is to roll back a gigantic cultural loss of idealism,” according to Catherine Fink and Michael Schudson in “The Rise and Fall of Contextual Journalism, 1950s–1960s.”"
There is a great deal more that McNeil tells us about his later efforts and accomplishments. I particularly found his commitment to saving the New River enlightening.
The good: Well-researched and a very interesting life to recount. Excellent highlights of the tensions before WW II of the forces for international cooperation and those for isolation. Similarly, during WW II, the tensions between promoting the high moral ground of democracy and the immediate tactical goals of the war. A good example was the way the USA cooperated with the Vichy government in order to have a successful start to the “African campaign.”
The bad: Less that top-shelf writing. I wonder, for instance, how this would be in the hands of a Goodwin or a Halberstam?
The ugly: The audiobook is given a passion-less reading by the author
Read
December 4, 2022Excellent book. Yes, there are the parallels to the media manipulation that goes on today, but contextual journalism, as the book points out, has been around for a long time. What I found so enjoyable was the journey through world history and personal experience that comes through in the relatively unique life experience of Wallace Carroll, who was at the center of so many "WOW" moments and also exploring the quieter tributaries of his time (sorry, Winston-Salem).
So, the book lays out some of the broad sweep of 1930's and 40's history, which we all think we already know until the author seamlessly lays them before us and I realized how much I could learn. But, what makes it worth our time was the interlacing of those broad strokes with the intimate personal details of Carroll actually living a daily life within those events - the house across the street gone the morning after an evening of the blitz, his observations of anonymous Russians marching off to met the Germans on the doorstep of Moscow while he is going to a propaganda interview with a Russian General, accidently arriving in Pearl Harbor a couple of days after 12/7. Carroll was right there at all these peak moments of history, but the book never loses sight of the fact that he was one of many individuals going through it personally.
Anyway, Carroll was right there for it all, but somehow he basically turned away from that and had a very different second half of his career. That part of his career bookended his time as the editor of the NYT Washington bureau in the mid 50's to mid 60's. I kinda wish that his decision making on that was more fully explored, but the part of his career in North Carolina allows the author to explore the lesser known tributaries of life in America and North Carolina in the mid-century. Sort of like an Ian Frazier book, you need to be patient and then the book branches off on a beautiful or fascinating riff about something I have never heard of or thought about ... and I am not just talking about the derivation of Winston and Salem cigarettes. Anyway, buy the book and start learning with pleasure.
So, the book lays out some of the broad sweep of 1930's and 40's history, which we all think we already know until the author seamlessly lays them before us and I realized how much I could learn. But, what makes it worth our time was the interlacing of those broad strokes with the intimate personal details of Carroll actually living a daily life within those events - the house across the street gone the morning after an evening of the blitz, his observations of anonymous Russians marching off to met the Germans on the doorstep of Moscow while he is going to a propaganda interview with a Russian General, accidently arriving in Pearl Harbor a couple of days after 12/7. Carroll was right there at all these peak moments of history, but the book never loses sight of the fact that he was one of many individuals going through it personally.
Anyway, Carroll was right there for it all, but somehow he basically turned away from that and had a very different second half of his career. That part of his career bookended his time as the editor of the NYT Washington bureau in the mid 50's to mid 60's. I kinda wish that his decision making on that was more fully explored, but the part of his career in North Carolina allows the author to explore the lesser known tributaries of life in America and North Carolina in the mid-century. Sort of like an Ian Frazier book, you need to be patient and then the book branches off on a beautiful or fascinating riff about something I have never heard of or thought about ... and I am not just talking about the derivation of Winston and Salem cigarettes. Anyway, buy the book and start learning with pleasure.
May 18, 2023
A very well written book about a very interesting man. I loved that Wallace Carrol was someone to aspire to be like, and was involved in his eyewitness accounts. The book was very well written, spending time going into the backgrounds of the people in Carrol's life, but not to the extent that the reader was lost in the history.
July 8, 2024
Amazing man, incredible story. Not very well written.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews