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I.F. Stone (edited by Neil Middleton), "The I.F. Stone Weekly Reader"

Started June 30 � Finished July 1, 2002; 331 pages. Posted 02 July 2002

As a journalism student, I hear I.F. Stone�s name mentioned everywhere, and always with reverence. He�s been called one of the premier muckraking investigative reporters of our time. More than one author that I can think of used this quote from Stone as a lead in for their book: �Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.�

That�s pretty strong editorial comment, and I like it.

But despite all the praise I hear about him (and I should note that I can�t remember ever hearing anything negative about him), his writing is nearly impossible to find. The first thing I found by him isn�t his newspaper work at all, instead being a historical document of the trial of Socrates. I read that book about two years ago with some difficulty, as I didn�t know anything beyond the basics of Plato or Socrates. I didn�t care though, I just wanted to read SOMETHING by this guy.

Being such a social critic who concentrated primarily on the government of the United States, I guess I shouldn�t be surprised there aren�t an abundance of his reprints. After all, in order to understand him, much like his book on Socrates, one has to have a fair amount of knowledge about the subjects that he writes about. He did his most prolific writing on issues of the day, so some of these pieces do not age well as we as a country forget our past.

These columns are not a breezy Tom Brokaw-esque happy history of our times, which is what Joe Average History Buff prefers to read. He was pissed off at the United States much of the time and it shows. And so it figures that this collection comes from England. As tabloid-y as much of the press is over in the UK, they do take their international news much more seriously than we do here in the states. I�m just glad somebody realized the importance of making these available, particularly since it was made available to me.

Really I can�t believe how good these pieces are. More accessible than people like Chomsky or Michael Parenti, and they are meticulously researched. For the most part he lets the facts speak for themselves, as it should be. Occasionally though, when something is too absurd, or too dangerous; if a politician is too full of hubris, or if a law is hypocritical, Stone is willing to provide editorial comment, essentially saying this is unbelievably fucked up, without all the cursing. (The only way this could have been any better, I feel, is if he did actually use those words.)

Since this covers various columns from his independent newsletter from 1953 to 1971, there are several areas where I don�t have any knowledge, and these pieces are obviously much more difficult to digest. I wouldn�t want to pretend that I could now comment on them with any authority after reading this either. But if anything, it makes me want to find out more about the times of which he speaks, and it definitely makes me want to read more of his writing. And so, just in case my boss is reading this:

ALWAYS BUY I.F. STONE FOR THE STORE!


Rating: Worth buying new!

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