Journalism & News Media

Related category

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

By Hunter S. Thompson , Ralph Steadman

Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 book follows Raoul Duke, a journalist standing in for the author, and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, on a chaotic trip to Las Vegas. Duke is meant to cover a desert motorcycle race and later a law-enforcement conference on drugs. Instead, the pair spend most of the book in a haze of drugs, wrecked hotel rooms and rental-car mayhem. Thompson uses the binge to ask what had become of the 1960s counterculture and of the American Dream. Part reportage, part fiction and part confession, it is the best-known example of gonzo journalism, in which the writer is the story. Often found on lists of books made into movies, it began as a Rolling Stone serial, with Ralph Steadman's illustrations, and has remained a cultural touchstone.

Related category

Personal History

By Katharine Graham

Katharine Graham’s Personal History joins family memoir, corporate history, and an eyewitness account of twentieth-century American journalism. Graham traces her emotionally isolated childhood in a wealthy, politically connected household; her marriage to the charismatic and troubled Philip Graham; his mental illness and death by suicide; and her unexpected succession to leadership of the Washington Post Company. The professional story follows her movement from self-doubt toward authority as the Post confronted the Pentagon Papers, investigated Watergate, and endured a destructive labor conflict. Graham does not present this development as an inevitable triumph. Instead, she records hesitation, dependence, mistakes, and the slow acquisition of judgment. The result is both an autobiography of personal transformation and an insider’s examination of how ownership, editorial independence, business risk, government pressure, and workplace power converge inside a major news institution.