Things worth fighting for : collected writings / Michael Kelly.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kelly, Michael, 1957-2003.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kelly, Michael, 1957-2003.

Kelly, Michael.

Journalists--United States.

Journalists.

United States.

Physical Description:

xx, 426 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : The Penguin Press, 2004.

Summary:

Michael Kelly was an iconic journalist of his generation. During his remarkably rich and varied career, he was a war correspondent and a presidential-campaign reporter, a syndicated columnist and the editor of three successive magazines (most recently the award-winning Atlantic Monthly) -- all of which he accomplished with singular insight, passion, and wit. This collection of his most memorable stories and columns, drawn from The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New Republic, GQ, and other publications, puts on full display not only the immense range of his interests -- politics, foreign affairs, war reporting, how we Americans live now, the adventures of his two young sons -- but also the full panoply of his gifts: for physical description and scene-setting; for the satirical moment and the transformative detail; for dazzling prose that is at once mathematically precise and lyrical.

Here are the searing portraits of Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, and other seminal political figures of our time that won Kelly national attention. Here are the stunning dispatches from the first Gulf War that earned him the National Magazine Award for reporting and burnished his journalistic legend. Here are the fierce columns and landmark cover stories that raised disturbing questions about Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the deeply incestuous relationship between the political and media cultures of Washington, D.C. And here are the lovingly whimsical chronicles of family life and the hilarious send-ups of the hypocritical, the self-important, and the pierced and tattooed. Things Worth Fighting for represents the body of work of a journalist who time and again demonstrated a surpassing talent for penetrating to the heart of the matter, for advancing far beyond the headlines and the surface appearances of people and events to find their true meanings, for getting the story other writers missed and telling it with a verve few writers could match.

Contents:

I. Visions of America 1

King of Cool 3

Girth of a Nation 5

Three Things I've Learned Since Kindergarten 7

Faux Commotion 9

Good Riddance to the "New Man" 11

The Road to Paranoia 15

Imitation Activism 40

Oh, Those Heartwarming Communists 42

The Systematic Corruption of the Catholic Church 44

Getting Hip to Squareness 46

The Nice Column 49

II. The Game 51

Master of the Game 53

Wonk New World 79

A Plea for Diversity 82

The Midlife Crisis of Jesse Jackson 84

Banality and Evil 102

A National Calamity 105

Mass Sentimentality 107

Richard Daley Jr. Gets the Last Laugh 109

Texas-Size Failure 124

But What About Dad? 128

Ted Kennedy on the Rocks 130

Truth Be Told 149

III. The Age of Clinton 153

A Man Who Wants to Be Liked, and Is 155

The Making of a First Family: A Blueprint 161

Saint Hillary 165

The President's Past 178

Clinton's Escape Clause 205

Bob Dole's Last Hurrah 219

Class 224

The Reich Stuff 227

The Artful Dodger and the Good Son 229

I Believe 231

I Still Believe 233

A Pathetic Speech

and Untrue 235

"Hairsplitting" 237

Farmer Al 239

Starr Wars: The Twenty-first Century 241

That's Entertainment 243

Conan the VP 245

Clinton Versus Bush 247

IV. Wars and Peace 251

The Gulf War

Before the Storm 253

Blitzed 257

Desert Rat 261

Souk Kook 264

Speech Defect 267

Kiss of Victory 270

The Rape and Rescue of Kuwait City 274

Highway to Hell 282

Rolls-Royce Revolutionaries 287

The Other Hell 294

Back to the Hills 298

Front Lines

The Fear of Death 307

Where Are the Dead? 309

The Visionaries of the Irish Agreement 320

Ignoring Nuclear Threats 322

Arafat Bombs on Opening Night 324

Mideast Myths Exploded 348

The Last War

When Innocents Are the Enemy 351

Who We Are 353

With a Serious and Large Intent 355

Chicken Little Media 357

Return of the "Chicken Hawks" 359

In a Borrowed Tie 361

Exit Hussein 363

Immorality on the March 365

Who Would Choose Tyranny? 367

A Letter from Kuwait City 369

Battle Stations of the Press 372

The Calm Before 374

Warriors at Work 376

A "Much Tougher" Fight 378

Limited War, So Far 380

Across the Euphrates 382

V. Family Wealth 385

Family Wealth 387

The Lure of the Evil Weed 389

Back to You, Tom 391

Some Closing Thoughts 393

Sunshine on My Shoulders 394

Growing Up with Mr. Fixit 396

The Nine Days of Tom and Jack 398

Epilogue: E-mails from the Front 401.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1594200122

OCLC:

53223685