Cronkite

Walter Cronkite, the most revered and beloved journalist of the twentieth century, spent decades reporting from the frontlines, but until now relatively little has been known about the life of the man who brought America its news. Based on unprecedented access to Cronkite's private papers as well as interviews with him before his death, Douglas Brinkley brings to life the American icon who, as anchor of CBS Evening News, became known as the "most trusted man in America."

Born in Missouri and raised mostly in Texas, Cronkite dropped out of college during the Great Depression and began working as a journalist and radio broadcaster. At the height of World War II Cronkite gained recognition as a war correspondent, reporting with Allied troops from North Africa and the invasion of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. In 1950, Edward R. Murrow recruited him to work for CBS, where he would stay for decades, hosting numerous programs and covering presidential elections, the space program, the war in Vietnam, and the first television broadcasts of the Olympics. His lasting and most prominent position was as anchor of the evening news. From his anchor chair, Cronkite reported on the events of each day, always closing with his signature line "And that's the way it was." He was also witness -- and the nation's voice -- through the most profound moments in American history, from the Kennedy Assassination and Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 to Watergate and the Iran Hostage Crisis.

Epic, intimate, and masterfully written, CRONKITE is the much-anticipated biography of an extraordinary American life.