Deadline Artists
“America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns”
Edited by John Avlon, Jesse Angelo and Errol Louis
It is a great American art form, read by millions every day. Taped on refrigerators and tacked up over desks, its wisdom is folded in wallets and emailed among friends. The best of it rises to the level of literature: balancing the urgency of news with the precision of poetry. Deadline Artists is a celebration of the American newspaper column. This collection features reported columns by masters of the craft including H.L. Mencken, Ernie Pyle, Murray Kempton, Jimmy Breslin, and Mike Royko.
Wingnuts
“How The Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America”
What’s a Wingnut? It’s someone on the far-right wing or far-left wing of the political spectrum. They are the professional partisans and the unhinged activists, the hard-core haters and the paranoid conspiracy theorists. Pumped up by the self-segregated echo chamber of talk radio, cable news and the Internet, Wingnuts see politics as ideological bloodsport, an all-or-nothing struggle for the nation’s soul. They are energized by dividing America into “us against them.” And for those with a vested interest in stirring the crazy-pot, all this is good for business. Hate is a cheap and easy recruiting tool. But it can be murder on a democracy.
Independent Nation
“How Centrists Can Change American Politics”
Fifty percent of American voters define themselves as political moderates, two-thirds favor political solutions that come from the center of the political spectrum, and Independents outnumber both Democrats and Republicans. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush each explicitly used Centrist strategies to win the White House — and twenty-first-century candidates will be compelled to do the same.
Empire City: New York Through The Centuries
John wrote the concluding essay to this anthology of writing throughout New York City history. Titled, “The Resilient City” the essay recounted the city’s response to the attacks of September 11th, 2001. It was described by Fred Siegel, author of “The Future Once Happened Here”, as “the single best essay written in the wake of 9/11.”
