Robert Shogan
American journalist and author (1930–2013)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Shogan (September 12, 1930 – October 30, 2013) was an American journalist and author.[1] He spent more than 25 years at the Washington bureau of the Los Angeles Times.[2] He also worked for the Detroit Free Press, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal. He taught at Johns Hopkins University, among other institutions.[2]
Robert Shogan | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 12, 1930 New York City |
| Died | October 30, 2013 (aged 83) Washington, D.C. |
| Education | Syracuse University |
| Occupations | Journalist and author |
| Notable credit | Los Angeles Times |
Books
Shogan wrote many works of historical nonfiction and media criticism. Particularly praised was The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Labor Uprising, published in 2004. Kirkus Reviews called it "a stunning re-creation of the great West Virginia uprising of 1921 ... crackingly told."[3] The Journal of Appalachian Studies declared that "among other successes, this book presents a valuable short history of the U.S. labor movement and its discontents through crystalline evocations of figures like Samuel Gompers, John L. Lewis, the Wobblies, and Mother Jones."[4] Greil Marcus, in a revised edition of The Old, Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes, cited it as a worthy source about the Battle of Blair Mountain.[5]
Publishers Weekly wrote that Bad News: Where the Press Goes Wrong in the Making of the President, published in 2001, was a "carefully crafted retrospective on the media and presidential campaigns since JFK ... a highly readable chronicle."[6] Reviewing 1991's The Riddle of Power: Presidential Leadership From Truman to Bush, The New York Times stated that it was "on balance ... a lively and straightforward primer on leadership."[7]
Selected bibliography
- The Detroit Race Riot: A Study in Violence, with Tom Craig (1964)
- A Question of Judgment: The Fortas Case and the Struggle for the Supreme Court (1972)
- Promises to Keep: Carter's First Hundred Days (1977)
- Riddle of Power: Presidential Leadership from Truman to Bush (1991)
- Hard Bargain: How FDR Twisted Churchill's Arm, Evaded the Law, and Changed the Role of the American Presidency (1995)
- Bad News: Where the Press Goes Wrong in the Making of the President (2001)
- The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Labor Uprising (2004)
- No Sense of Decency: The Army–McCarthy Hearings: A Demagogue Falls and Television Takes Charge of American Politics (2009)
- Prelude to Catastrophe: FDR's Jews and the Menace of Nazism (2010)
- Harry Truman and the Struggle for Racial Justice (2013)
