Cronkite / Douglas Brinkley.

I. The making of a reporter: -- Missouri boy -- Houston youth -- Learning a trade -- Making of a unipresser; -- II. The Second World War: -- Gearing up for Europe -- The writing Sixty-ninth -- Dean of the air war -- Gliding to V-E Day -- From the Nuremberg Trials to Russia; -- III. Cold War broadcaster: -- Infancy of TV news -- Election night and UNIVAC -- Mr. CBS utility man -- The Huntley and Brinkley challenge -- Torch is passed -- New space frontier on CBS; -- IV. Anchorman: -- Anchorman of Camelot -- The Kennedy assassination -- Who's afraid of the Nielsen Ratings? -- Paley's attempted smackdown -- Civil rights and Project Gemini -- What to do about Vietnam? -- The Tet Offensive; -- V. Top game: -- Calm and chaos of 1968 -- Mr. Moon Shot -- Avatar of Earth Day -- The Nixon-versus-CBS war -- Reportable truth in the age of Nixon -- Fan clubs, stalkers, and political good-byes -- A time to heal -- Live with Jimmy Carter; -- VI. The spokesperson: -- Retirement blues -- Struggling elder statesman -- Defiant liberal -- "The world's oldest reporter" -- The new millennium -- Electronic Uncle Sam.

Douglas Brinkley presents the definitive, revealing biography of an American legend: renowned news anchor Walter Cronkite. For decades, Walter Cronkite was known as 'the most trusted man in America." Millions across the nation welcomed him into their homes, first as a print reporter for the United Press on the front lines of World War II, and later, in the emerging medium of television, as a host of numerous documentary programs and as anchor of the CBS Evening News, from 1962 until his retirement in 1981. Yet this very public figure, undoubtedly the twentieth century's most revered journalist, was a remarkably private man, few know the full story of his life. Drawing on unprecedented access to Cronkite's private papers as well as interviews with his family and friends, the author now brings this American icon into focus as never before. Brinkley traces Cronkite's story from his roots in Missouri and Texas, through the Great Depression and World War II, to his coverage of presidential elections, the space program, Vietnam, and the first televised broadcasts of the Olympic Games. Cronkite was also the nation's voice for many of the most profound moments in modern American history, including the Kennedy assassination, Apollos 11 and 13, Watergate, the Vietnam War, and the Iran hostage crisis. Epic, intimate, and masterfully written, this book is the much-anticipated biography of an extraordinary American life, told by one of our most brilliant and respected historians. -- from Book Jacket