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The Top 100 Works of Journalism in the
United States in the 20th Century

     As selected by Madeleine Blais, Alan Brinkley, David Brinkley, Lydia Chavez, Karen Durbin, Clay Felker, Jeff Greenfield, Pete Hamill, Mary McGrory, Nancy Maynard, Eric Newton, Dorothy Rabinowitz, Gene Roberts, Morley Safer, David Shaw, George Will and Ben Yagoda; and the journalism faculty of New York University

  • 1. John Hersey: "Hiroshima." Entire issue of The New Yorker. 1946
  • 2. Rachel Carson. "Silent Spring." Book. 1962
  • 3. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Watergate investigations for the Washington Post. 1972-73
  • 4. Edward R. Murrow. "This is London . . ." radio reports for CBS on the German bombing of London. 1940
  • 5. Ida Tarbell. "The History of the Standard Oil Company" investigation. In McClure's magazine. 1902-1904.
  • 6. Lincoln Steffens. "The Shame of the Cities" investigation. In McClure's magazine. 1902-1904
  • 7. 7. John Reed. "Ten Days That Shook the World." Book. 1919
  • 8. H.L. Mencken: Coverage of the Scopes "monkey" trial. In the Baltimore Sun. 1925
  • 9. Ernie Pyle: Reports from Europe and the Pacific during World War II for the Scripps-Howard newspapers. 1940-45
  • 10. Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly. See It Now CBS television documentary taking on Senator Joseph McCarthy. 1954
  • 11. Edward R. Murrow, David Lowe and Fred Friendly. CBS Reports television documentary "Harvest of Shame." 1960
  • 12. Seymour Hersh. Investigation of massacre committed by American soldiers at My Lai in Vietnam. For Dispatch News Service. 1969
  • 13. New York Times. Publication of the Pentagon Papers. 1971
  • 14. James Agee and Walker Evans. "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men." Book. 1941
  • 15. W.E.B. DuBois. "The Souls of Black Folk." Collected articles. 1903
  • 16. I.F. Stone. I.F. Stone's Weekly. 1953-67
  • 17. Henry Hampton. "Eyes on the Prize." Documentary. 1987
  • 18. Tom Wolfe: "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." Book. 1968
  • 19. Norman Mailer: "The Armies of the Night." Book. 1968
  • 20. Hannah Arendt. "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil." Collected articles. 1963
  • 21. William Shirer. "Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1939-1941." Book. 1941
  • 22. Truman Capote: "In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences." Book. 1965
  • 23. Joan Didion: "Slouching Towards Bethlehem." Collected articles. 1968
  • 24. Tom Wolfe: "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby." Collected articles. 1965
  • 25. Michael Herr: "Dispatches." Book. 1977
  • 26. Theodore White. "The Making of the President: 1960." Book. 1961
  • 27. Robert Capa. Ten photographs from D-Day. 1944
  • 28. J. Anthony Lukas. "Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families." Book. 1985
  • 29. Richard Harding Davis. Coverage of German march into Belgium. For the Wheeler Syndicate and magazines. 1914
  • 30. Dorothy Thompson. Reports on the rise of Hitler in Cosmopolitan and Saturday Evening Post. 1931-34
  • 31. John Steinbeck. Reports on Okie migrant camp life for the San Francisco News. 1936
  • 32. A.J. Liebling. "The Road Back to Paris." Collected articles. 1944
  • 33. Ernest Hemingway. Reports on the Spanish Civil War. In the New Republic. 1937-38
  • 34. Martha Gellhorn. "The Face of War." Collected articles. 1959
  • 35. James Baldwin. "The Fire Next Time." Book. 1963
  • 36. Joseph Mitchell. "Up in the Old Hotel and Other Stories." Collection of much older articles. 1992
  • 37. Betty Friedan. "The Feminine Mystique." Book. 1963
  • 38. Ralph Nader. "Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile." Book. 1965
  • 39. Herblock (Herbert Block). Cartoons on "McCarthyism." In the Washington Post. 1950
  • 40. James Baldwin. "Letter from the South: Nobody Knows My Name." In the Partisan Review. 1959
  • 41. Huynh Cong Ut. Photograph of a burning girl running from a napalm attack. For the Associated Press. 1972
  • 42. Pauline Kael. "Trash, Art, and the Movies." In Harper's. 1969
  • 43. Gay Talese: "Fame and Obscurity: Portraits by Gay Talese." Collected articles. 1970
  • 44. Randy Shilts. Reports on AIDS for the San Francisco Chronicle. 1981-85
  • 45. Janet Flanner (Genet). "Paris Journals" chronicling of Paris's emergence from the Occupation. In The New Yorker. 1944-45
  • 46. Neil Sheehan. "A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam." Book. 1988
  • 47. A. J. Liebling. "The Wayward Pressman." Collected articles. 1947
  • 48. Tom Wolfe: "The Right Stuff." Book. 1979
  • 49. Murray Kempton. "America Comes of Middle Age: Columns 1950-1962." Collected articles. 1963
  • 50. Murray Kempton. "Part of Our Time: Some Ruins and Monuments of the Thirties." Book. 1955
  • 51. Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele. "America: What Went Wrong?" Series in Philadelphia Inquirer.1991
  • 52. Taylor Branch. "Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63." Book. 1988
  • 53. Harrison Salisbury. Reporting from the Soviet Union for the New York Times. 1949-54
  • 54. John McPhee: "The John McPhee Reader." Collected articles. 1976
  • 55. ABC. Live television broadcast of Army-McCarthy hearings. 1954
  • 56. Frederick Wiseman. "Titicut Follies." Documentary. 1967
  • 57. David Remnick. "Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire." Book. 1993
  • 58. Richard Ben Cramer. "What It Takes: The Way to the White House." Book. 1992
  • 59. Jonathan Schell. "The Fate of the Earth." Book. 1982
  • 60. Russell Baker. "Francs and Beans." In the New York Times. 1975
  • 61. Homer Bigart. Account of being over Japan in a bomber when World War II came to an end. In the New York Herald-Tribune 1945
  • 62. Ben Hecht. "1001 Afternoons in Chicago." Collected articles. 1922
  • 63. Walter Cronkite. CBS television documentary on Vietnam. 1968
  • 64. Walter Lippmann. Early essays for the New Republic. 1914
  • 65. Margaret Bourke-White. Photographs following the defeat of Germany. For Life magazine. 1945
  • 66. Lillian Ross: "Reporting." Collected articles. 1964
  • 67. Nicholas Lemann. "The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America." Book. 1991
  • 68. Joe Rosenthal. Photograph of Marines raising a U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima. For the Associated Press. 1945
  • 69. Hodding Carter, Jr. "Go for Broke." Editorial in Carter's Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, MS). 1945
  • 70. The New Yorker. "The New Yorker Book of War Pieces." Collected articles. 1947
  • 71. Meyer Berger. Report on the murderer Howard Unruh. In the New York Times. 1949
  • 72. Norman Mailer: "The Executioner's Song." Book. 1979
  • 73. Robert Capa. Spanish Civil War photos for Life. 1936
  • 74. Susan Sontag. "Notes on 'Camp'." In the Partisan Review. 1964
  • 75. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. "All the President's Men." Book. 1974
  • 76. John Hersey: "Here To Stay." Collected articles. 1963
  • 77. A.J. Liebling. "The Earl of Louisiana." Book. 1961
  • 78. Mike Davis. "City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles." Book. 1990
  • 79. Melissa Fay Greene. "Praying for Sheetrock." Book. 1991
  • 80. J. Anthony Lukas. "The Two Worlds of Linda Fitzpatrick." In the New York Times. 1967
  • 81. Herbert Bayard Swope. "Klan Exposed." In the New York World. 1921
  • 82. William Allen White. "To an Anxious Friend." In the Emporia (Kansas) Gazette. 1922
  • 83. Edward R. Murrow. Report of the liberation of Buchenwald for CBS radio. 1945
  • 84. Joseph Mitchell. "McSorley's Wonderful Saloon." Collected articles. 1943
  • 85. Lillian Ross: "Picture." Book. 1952
  • 86. Earl Brown. Series of articles on race for Harper's and Life magazines. 1942-44
  • 87. Greil Marcus. "Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music." Book. 1975
  • 88. Morley Safer. Report for CBS television on atrocities committed by American soldiers on the hamlet of Cam Ne in Vietnam. 1965
  • 89. Ted Poston. Coverage of the "Little Scottsboro" trial. In the New York Post. 1949
  • 90. Leon Dash. "Rosa Lee's Story." Series in the Washington Post. 1994
  • 91. Jane Kramer. "Europeans." Collected articles. 1988
  • 92. Eddie Adams and Vo Suu. Associated Press photograph and NBC television footage of a Saigon execution. 1968
  • 93. Grantland Rice. "Notre Dame's 'Four Horsemen'." In the New York Herald-Tribune. 1924
  • 94. Jane Kramer. "The Politics of Memory: Looking for Germany in the New Germany." Collected articles. 1996
  • 95. Frank McCourt. "Angela's Ashes." Book. 1996
  • 96. Vincent Sheean. "Personal History." Book. 1935
  • 97. W.E.B. DuBois. Columns on race during his tenure as editor of The Crisis. 1910-34
  • 98. Damon Runyon. Crime reporting in the New York American. 1926
  • 99. Joe McGinniss. "The Selling of the President 1968." Book. 1969
  • 100. Hunter S. Thompson: "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail." Book. 1973

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