"Chasing History" by Carl Bernstein

Whenever people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would tell them I wanted to "be an author" -- i.e., write books.  The older I got, though, the clearer it became that not too many people were lucky enough to make a living doing that. 

But then, as a young teenager, I gradually became aware of the possibility of a different kind of writing career: journalism. We'd always subscribed to and read the newspaper at our house. Undoubtedly, I was also influenced by the buzz created around the Watergate scandal in the U.S., and role that journalism and journalists played in bringing it to light, eventually forcing the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post, who broke the Watergate story, were elevated to hero status and influenced an entire generation of young aspiring journalists -- including me. I read (and re-read) their book, "All the President's Men," and my sister and I saw the movie version, two nights in a row. (I re-read the book again in the summer of 2017, and wrote about it, and the impact it had on me, here.)  I did wind up going to journalism school and worked briefly as a reporter at a smalltown weekly newspaper, before landing a communications job in the corporate world. 

Now, Bernstein has written a memoir -- but not about Watergate, or anything that came after it. "Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom" is an affectionate coming of age story about how Bernstein got his start in journalism -- at age 16 in the summer of 1960, as a part-time copy boy at the Post's long-gone rival, the Washington Star.  His dad arranged the interview:  "He rightly feared for my future — a concern that was based on hard facts, most of them having to do with the pool hall, my school report cards, and the Montgomery County Juvenile Court." He was instantly hooked, and even as he tried to finish high school (while rapidly losing interest), he gradually began taking on assignments to report on meetings of local civic organizations and to act as a "legman," providing details on events such as the Kennedy inauguration that were included in the stories written by more senior reporters (who, of course, got the byline). Eventually, he became a full-time staff member, taking dictation from reporters phoning in stories, and reporting on stories of his own. 

Bernstein has an incredible memory and eye for detail (which, I suppose, is one reason he's the legend he is).  This is a vivid and lovingly written portrait of Washington and suburban Maryland in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and of the newspaper business of the time -- a bygone era of copy boys (and they WERE all boys), linotype machines and typesetters, payphone booths and rolls of dimes, and libraries of clipping files -- when a 16-year-old kid could be sent to help cover a presidential press conference at the White House, and nobody would bat an eye. 

But even then, it was an era in its twilight days. Bernstein dropped out of college (before he was kicked out) -- which meant he was at risk of being sent to Vietnam -- and his days at the Star came to an end because, despite his already-considerable experience and fat scrapbook full of impressive clippings, he didn't have the college degree that, already, had become the prerequisite for a reporting job. A friend gave him a job at a newspaper in New Jersey and then, two years later, the Washington Post took a chance on him -- and the rest is history. 

But that's another story...  

I saw Bernstein interviewed about this book on CNN (where he's a regular commentator) by Brian Stelter of "Reliable Sources"  Stelter noted some reviewers have described it as a love letter to the newspapers of the time, while others describe it as a eulogy for them. "Which one is it?" Stelter asked. Bernstein said both -- and it is both. Much has changed since 1960 in how stories make their way to readers -- but the essential lessons Bernstein learned at the Star -- about what journalism is and should be, how the job is done, the importance of getting out of the office and talking to people and cross-checking your stories with multiple sources, and following the facts, wherever they might lead you -- are still relevant and important today. "The ideal was always to get as near to the truth as good reporting could take you, through persistence and listening and observing with an open mind, regardless of your own opinions," he writes in Chapter 18. And later, in Chapter 20: "I'd gotten it in my head that all good reporting was pretty much the same thing: the best version of the truth you could come up with. It wasn't just stringing together disparate facts, an approach that could actually undermine the truth... but it was also about finding a way to put context into a story." 

 

I enjoyed this book, and I think anyone with an interest in journalism and/or in life and events in and around Washington D.C. in the late 1950s/early 1960s will like it too. It's evocatively and lovingly written. 

That said -- I have to admit... while I enjoyed it, it didn't knock my socks off the way I thought (hoped) it would. I found it just a wee bit long and maybe almost a little too detailed. (There's a huge cast of characters, and it was sometimes difficult to remember who was who.)  It took me longer to get through it than I expected. (Of course, a lot of time I could have been reading recently has been spent watching the Olympics instead...!) 

So, not 5 stars, for those reasons, but still, a fun read. Four (4) stars on Goodreads. 

This was Book #7 read to date in 2022 (and Book #2 finished in February), bringing me to 16% of my 2022 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2022 tagged as "2022 books."