Author Description

Throughout the Second World War, I. F. Stone, one of America's finest investigative journalists, observed the political and international scene from his post as Washington correspondent for The Nation. In this selection from his weekly columns, we see the United States of the early forties from an unusual angle. This is history as it appeared to a contemporary, vivid and raw, with no softening veil of nostalgia. As always, Stone is an invincible optimist, a committed believer in the virtues of democracy and of the common man. He generously celebrates the great men and great deeds of the era. He is sharply aware of its flaws. "Dollar-a-year men" put their former companies' present and future profits ahead of the war effort; overt and pervasive racism contradicts the ideals for which America fights; hysterical anti-Communism leads to attacks on "leftists" at home and, abroad, is combined with concern for the interests of U.S. corporations to create tolerance for right-wing dictatorships. The "good old days" turn out, in certain respects, to be remarkably like the present. With intelligence, humor, and a stubborn independence that immunizes him against the preconceived ideas of both left and right, I. F. Stone paints a nonconformist's picture of the period. In the process, he shows us both how greatly this country has changed in the intervening years and how much it remains the same.