Washington Goes to War

8vo, paperback, David McClure Brinkley (July 10, 1920 - June 11, 2003) was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997. From 1956 through 1970, he co-anchored NBC's top-rated nightly news program, The Huntley-Brinkley Report, with Chet Huntley and thereafter appeared as co-anchor or commentator on its successor, NBC Nightly News, through the 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, Brinkley was host of the Sunday This Week program and a top commentator on election-night coverage for ABC News. Over his career, Brinkley received ten Emmy Awards, three George Peabody Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He wrote three books, including the 1988 bestseller Washington Goes to War, about how World War II transformed the nation's capital. This social history was largely based on his own observations as a young reporter in the city. Derived from a Kirkus review: A vivid, knowing reconstruction of the sociopolitical changes that convulsed the nation's capital just before and during WW II. The city underwent an astonishing transformation that made it the hub of the Allies' deadly struggle against the Axis powers. He witnessed much of the dramatic metamorphosis as a young radio reporter. Dollar-a-year men, academics, secretaries and others recruited or volunteering to support the war effort invaded the city, doubling its population between 1940 and 1945. Brinkley offers sharply etched portraits of the notables and lesser lights who were at the heart of the home-front action. In addition to F.D.R., his dramatis personae include the consequential likes of Cissy Patterson, Chester Bowles (who made the Office of Price Administration a viable agency), Beardsley Rural (the economist whose claim to fame rests on devising tax withholding), columnist Drew Pearson, Senator Robert A. Taft, and Sam Rayburn (Speaker of the House).