PULITZER - A LIFE IN POLITICS, PRINT AND POWER

In the nineteenth century, when America became an industrial giant and Carnegie provided the steel, Rockefeller the oil, Morgan the money, and Vanderbilt the railroads, Joseph Pulitzer gave us the modern mass media. Ted Turner-like in his innovative abilities, Teddy Roosevelt-like in his history-transforming power, and Howard Hughes-like in his reclusive second half of his life as a blind man tormented by sound, Pulitzer's tale provides all the elements of a life story that is important, timely, and compelling.
Based on a wealth of previously unknown material--such as the unpublished memoirs of Pulitzer's brother, formerly secret government documents, and financial and business papers found in a St. Louis trash bin--Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power is the first full-scale biography in more than a generation of this seminal figure.

Adopting the techniques of mass entertainment made popular on Coney Island and Broadway, Pulitzer filled his newspapers full of human-interest and sensational stories harvested from urban life. He radically changed the entire focus of news by reporting on matters relating directly to his readers.

Pulitzer made the newspaper an essential item of urban life. He was the midwife at the birth of the modern mass media that would simultaneously elevate the common man and take his spare change to fuel corporate profits.

In doing so, Pulitzer accumulated immense power. He put one President in the White House while another President sought to put him in prison; helped prevent a war with England and stirred up one with Spain; sent Nellie Bly around the globe and exposed corruption at home; saved the Statue of Liberty and triggered long-lasting political, social, and economic reforms on behalf of the downtrodden.