David Halberstam R.I.P.

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Famed Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam has died in a car crash in the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Mateo County coroner’s office confirms.

― félix pié, Monday, 23 April 2007 23:29 (eighteen years ago)

rip

― deeznuts, Monday, 23 April 2007 23:31 (eighteen years ago)

really really sad if this is true. I'm a big fan of his.

― Matos W.K., Tuesday, 24 April 2007 01:24 (eighteen years ago)

yep: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-NY-Obit-Halberstam.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

― Matos W.K., Tuesday, 24 April 2007 01:25 (eighteen years ago)

True indeed, sadly:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/23/AR2007042301527.html?hpid=topnews

x-post etc.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 01:25 (eighteen years ago)

In 1999, I read The Powers That Be concurrently with All the President's Men--I occasionally indulge a middlebrow obsession with Watergate--and was amazed at Halberstam's sheer reporting ability. And his writing ability: he was always able to throw a great story for great story's sake into the middle of his work without stopping the flow. Powers is 1,100 or so pages and worth every minute.

I liked his baseball books a lot, too. R.I.P.

― Matos W.K., Tuesday, 24 April 2007 01:29 (eighteen years ago)

breaks of the game was one of my first favorite books that was written for kids. i should buy a used copy of that. sad day, great writer.

― chicago kevin, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 01:30 (eighteen years ago)

Shit, I've only read Education of a Coach but it was great and his reputation and body of work certainly speak for themselves. Sad.

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 02:14 (eighteen years ago)

RIP. my dad is gonna be totally ripped up about this. he has all these halberstam books in the bathroom.

― the table is the table, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 03:15 (eighteen years ago)

Aw man! What terrible news.

I can't recommend The Powers That Be more highly; it should be read at the same time as Garry Wills' Nixon Agonistes to get the full flavor of those fucked-up years.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 03:53 (eighteen years ago)

yeah it's very sad. it's interesting that he came up at the same time as all the new journalism guys, but he was never that. he stayed within the parameters of conventional, serious-minded, big-picture journalism, but just did it better than almost anyone else. as far as i can tell he never lost his skepticism. i saw him speak a few years ago, in a joint talk with david remnick. they just kind of interviewed each other and traded stories and ideas about journalism. but even remnick seemed properly deferential and a little in awe of halberstam.

i expect his death will prompt a bit of industry handwringing about "how come we don't make them like that anymore." or at least it should.

― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 04:27 (eighteen years ago)

matos OTM. I read TPTB around the same time and was esp. enlightened by the LA Times history. nothing middlebrow about a watergate obsession tho! the parallels and echoes to our own time are numerous and eerie.

― m coleman, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 11:02 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, what's middlebrow about obsessing on the last time the System worked?

I only have read The Powers That Be.

Have skipped the baseball books cuz Summer of '49 was shown to be riddled with basic factual errors. It pays to "make it."

― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 13:51 (eighteen years ago)

RIP. I loved 'The Fifties'.

― Michael White, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 14:19 (eighteen years ago)

breaks of the game was one of my first favorite books that was written for kids.

erm, WASN'T written for kids. i've made this same error twice now. great book.

― chicago kevin, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 14:24 (eighteen years ago)

some good stuff

― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 15:55 (eighteen years ago)

wow that is like a mile from my house

― moonship journey to baja, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

RIP

― moonship journey to baja, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

Dennis Perrin:

...Halberstam was as status quo as they come. His now-celebrated "criticism" of the Vietnam war was mainly tactical, for Halberstam never really questioned the right of the US to attack Southeast Asia in the first place. The real problem was that the war wasn't being waged correctly or efficiently (sound familiar?), and this is what eventually drove many mainstream journos to turn against what is still seen by many as a "mistake." If Halberstam truly was the cage-rattling truthteller of legend, he wouldn't be receiving the unanimous accolades still pouring in. An efficient propaganda system needs the likes of Halberstam, if only to establish "responsible," acceptable boundaries for reporting. Halberstam played his role better than most, and was richly rewarded for his service.

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 26 April 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago)

de mortuis nil nisi bonum.

― chicago kevin, Thursday, 26 April 2007 14:05 (eighteen years ago)

after hearing (as a kid) George Carlin disagree, I've never gotten on that boat.

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 26 April 2007 14:21 (eighteen years ago)

nine years pass...

Just finished The Fifties, liked it a lot. The only other book of his I'd ever read was Summer of '49, about the Red Sox and Yankees; Bill James once meticulously ripped it apart in an Abstract over factual errors.

Thought The Fifties was a really good panorama of the decade. Impossible to get in everything in 700 pages, but I didn't catch myself saying "What about...?" very often. (I remember thinking there was somebody noticeably missing, but it's slipped my mind now.) Light on film--really nothing except Monroe--and music, too (little bit more, but mostly Presley). Very detailed on American politics, television, and growing middle-class affluence and anxiety. Reasonably attentive to race and the first stirrings of feminism.

The one thing that really hit me (not that this is news) was how some of the same dynamics at work in last year's election were exactly the same 60 years ago. Then it produced Robert Taft and Curtis LeMay and--at the other end of the spectrum--Herb Stempel, now you've got what's-his-name. Anyway, a livelier decade than I'd previously thought.

― clemenza, Friday, 6 January 2017 00:42 (eight years ago)

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