Letter from America, 1946-2004 / Alistair Cooke.

Introduction / Simon Jenkins -- Editor's note / Colin Webb -- The 1940s -- The immigrant strain -- Damon Runyon's America -- Roughing it -- Joe Louis -- Washington, DC -- The fall of New England -- Letter to an intending immigrant -- The 1950s -- The summer bachelor -- It's a democracy, isn't it? -- The European's America -- Getting away from it all -- The court and the Negro -- The colonel of the plains -- HLM : RIP -- The road to Churchill Downs -- Politics and the human animal -- General Marshall -- The 1960s -- Beizbol -- Robert Frost -- The father -- The assassination -- LBJ -- Has the world gone to pot? -- John McLaren's folly -- The well-dressed American, man! -- A lonely man -- Vietnam -- A bad night in Los Angeles -- Making a home of a house -- Telling one country about another -- Pegler -- 'Eternal vigilance' - by whom? -- The 1970s -- The letter from Long Island -- Give thanks, for what? -- The Duke -- The end of the affair -- I'm all right, Jack -- No cabinet officers need apply -- Christmas in Vermont -- Mr. Olmsted's park -- The retiring kind -- Two for the road -- The spy that came down in the cold -- A letter from Long Island -- The presidential ear -- The 1980s -- Bringing up baby -- Attempted assassination of President Reagan -- The Fourth of July -- Old man Reagan -- Inaugurals - on and off -- Memories of 11 November -- Miss much - no regret -- Expert witness -- The drugs blight -- Time to retire -- Martin Luther King - the black Washington -- Fred Astaire -- Origins of American slang -- Mayor Koch at work -- Hurricanes -- Chaplin - the last word -- San Francisco earthquake -- The 1990s -- Presidential ghosts -- The end of the eighties - great or greedy? -- Fighting in what? -- Riots in Los Angeles -- White House style -- The Irish in New York City -- 'Give me your tired, your poor ...' -- Thirtieth anniversary of Kennedy assassination -- Boston -- Trick or treat -- Fiftieth anniversary of VE day -- O.J. - the verdict -- The old rocking chair -- Silver Watergate -- The end of civilization -- The Kennedy missile tapes -- The evolution of the grand jury -- The president will address the nation -- New words for objects new and old -- Loneliness, male companionship and the hunt -- Park Avenue's colourful Christmas -- 2000 - 2004 -- The death of the old media -- Running mates and carpetbaggers -- The day of judgement -- The origin of the continental blow-out -- America's day of terror -- America on standby -- The stars and stripes -- Messiah at Christmas -- Ringing the changes -- Arise, Sir Rudolph -- The day the money stopped -- Memory of a true great -- The last of the old-time gangsters -- Farewell to San Francisco -- Remembering a dear friend -- Meeting the stars -- The pledge of allegiance -- Towering glass and steel -- Charlie Addams -- The Democrats' growing confidence.

"For over half a century, Alistair Cooke entertained and informed millions of listeners around the world in his weekly BBC radio program Letter from America." "Here, in print for the first time, is a collection of Cooke's finest reports that celebrates the inimitable style of this wise and avuncular reporter. Beginning with his first letter in 1946, a powerful description of American GIs returning home, and ending with his last broadcast in February 2004, in which he expressed his views on the United States presidential campaign, the collection captures Cooke's unique voice and gift for telling stories."--BOOK JACKET.

Machine converted from AACR2 source record.