Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions: Travels with an NPR Correspondent
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.19 (845 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1594863040 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 312 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-07-17 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Excellent Firsthand Accounts by a Veteran Journalist Anyone who loves to read first-person accounts of current events will find this book exceptionally interesting. From its intriguing title, "Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions," to the text itself and the photographs included, the reader is presented with a tour of eleven locations around the world where veteran NPR journalist John F. Burnett found stories to report and personal experiences to describe. This book is one of the few nonfiction "page-turners" I have read in recent times. Once I started reading, it was difficult to put down. His writing is fluid and crisp an. Andrew W. Johns said An eyewitness to human tragedy. This memoir is a collection of stories about the events and places the author covered as a correspondent for National Public Radio. It begins and ends with a searing account of the devastation of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The on-the-spot account of the death of that city provides insight into the catastrophic failure of the government to respond to this disaster, compounding its impact. In between, we visit war torn countries on three continents, get an insider's glimpse at the Texas death chamber and the Mexican bull ring. In each of these stories, Burnett's eye f. "Consistently engaging" according to B. Ringer. A consistently engaging set of accounts of major recent newsworthy events from the author's perspective. It's interesting to see the story behind the news headlines from such places as post-Katrina New Orleans, Waco, and post 9/11 Pakistan and Afghanistan, each told with wit and intelligence.His account of Guatemala during the 1980s is a highlight. A great blending of the facts around what the government sponsored terrorism and the personal impact it had on people there, including eventually himself.The stories on some of the "heroes" in the second half of the book seem a bit
He is a recipient of a 2004 Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting and a 2003 National Headliner Award for Investigative Reporting. JOHN F. He lives in Austin, Texas.. BURNETT has been in the midst of the biggest news stories of our age and 2005 marked his 20th year reporting for National Public Radio
(Sept.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. . In "Katrina: The Big One," not only does he detail how "the bizarre becomes normal," he explains how satellite phones work. Turning to Waco, Tex., Burnett assesses contrary depictions of David Koresh's and the FBI's actions and considers the implications of the journalists' adoption of the terms "cult" and "compound." In Guatemala, he suffers the disquieting sense of "imperiling everyone we interviewed" and the frustration of being "an eyewitness to history while unable to get through to my editor." In reporting from Kosovo, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Burnett places his translators and fixers in the foreground: "People don't realize how much of what they
And he was one of NPR's lead reporters on 9/11 and its aftermath.But no matter how much time Burnett has on the air to report his storiesand how expertly he has done sothere are always valuable details that aren't mentioned. Now he fills in those rich tidbits, letting us witness the parts of the stories that remained off the air.In Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions, Burnett exposes the hilarious moments, bizarre encounters, dangerous highways, insufferable colleagues, and unsung heroes he's known through his adventures as an NPR reporter. He has covered the drug wars in Central America; been embedded in a Marine Division in Iraq; and weathered Hurricane Katrina, breaking news hourly on the conditions in New Orleans. The result is a revealing and personal account that will fascinate not only NPR listeners but also anyone interested in th