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Talese caught the New York Times in the late Sixties at a time of transition for it and the entire news community. His book also functions as a history of the "paper of record" from its inception up to about 1968 and is fascinating as such, but for me the real value was the account of how The Times handled change forty years ago. ( )

1996 The Kingdom and the Power, by Guy Talese (read 8 Apr 1986) This is a book about the New York Times, published in 1969. It should have been read by me 16 years ago, as it is rather ephemeral. But I found it superlatively written--I have known since 19 Aug 1972, when I read Talese's book on a Mafia boss, that I was a sucker for Talese's smooth, easy-flowing, truthful-sounding style--and I was absorbed by the account. So much has happened since 1969, but the book still seems current and important. Last night I looked at the current masthead of the Times, and only two names thereon are prominent in this book: Arthur Ochs Sulsberger (still publisher, as he has been since Orvil Dryfoss died) and Sydney Gruson. The big men at the Times in 1969--Clifton Daniel, Turner Catledge, Scotty Reston, A. M. Rosenthal, Harrison Salisbury, et al., no longer are on the masthead. But this book, though not chronological, weaves the history of the Times into a fascinating story which I am very glad I read, even if sixteen years late. ( )