The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century

The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century

Acclaimed historian Alan Brinkley gives us a sharply realized portrait of Henry Luce, arguably the most important publisher of the twentieth century.

As the founder of Time, Fortune, and Life magazines, Luce changed the way we consume news and the way we understand our world. Born the son of missionaries, Henry Luce spent his childhood in rural China, yet he glimpsed a milieu of power altogether different at Hotchkiss and later at Yale. While working at a Baltimore newspaper, he and Brit Hadden conceived the idea of Time: a â‚¬Å“news-magazineâ‚¬Â that would condense the weekâ‚¬s events in a format accessible to increasingly busy members of the middle class. They launched it in 1923, and young Luce quickly became a publishing titan. In 1936, after Timeâ‚¬s unexpected successâ‚¬"and Haddenâ‚¬s early deathâ‚¬"Luce published the first issue of Life, to which millions soon subscribed.

Brinkley shows how Luce reinvented the magazine industry in just a decade. The appeal of Life seemingly cut across the lines of race, class, and gender. Luce himself wielded influence hitherto unknown among journalists. By the early 1940s, he had come to see his magazines as vehicles to advocate for Americaâ‚¬s involvement in the escalating international crisis, in the process popularizing the phrase â‚¬Å“World War II.â‚¬Â In spite of Luceâ‚¬s great success, happiness eluded him. His second marriageâ‚¬"to the glamorous playwright, politician, and diplomat Clare Bootheâ‚¬"was a shambles. Luce spent his later years in isolation, consumed at times with conspiracy theories and peculiar vendettas.

The Publisher tells a great American story of spectacular achievementâ‚¬"yet it never loses sight of the public and private costs at which that achievement came.
Country USA
Brand Vintage
Manufacturer Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 9780679741541
Color Multicolor
ReleaseDate 2011-04-05
UnitCount 1
Format Illustrated
EANs 9780679741541

Country	USA
Brand	Vintage
Manufacturer	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	9780679741541
Color	Multicolor
ReleaseDate	2011-04-05
UnitCount	1
Format	Illustrated
EANs	9780679741541

The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century

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