Rating: 
Summary: An editor's nightmare
Review: Katharine Graham would have been well-served by an editor who had had the guts to chop 300+ pages from this opus. It is written in a somewhat whiny, defensive mode, as Graham, at 70, continues to blame her mother and husband for her continuing self-esteem issues. The book also reveals how little she did to make the Post empire a success, editorially or as a business. Really a disappointment all around.
Rating: 
Summary: Katharine Graham: Moral Hero
Review: Katharine Graham: Job of the Journalism World
Whether they should have or not, the politics, journalism and social issues discussed in Katharine Graham's Autobiography captured little of my interest. However, what kept my attention through a very wordy 625-page book written by Katharine herself (who was thankfully just the editor of the Post and not a writer) was the moral fiber she displayed. Katharine never failed to remain tenacious, perseverant, and passionate in every venture of her life, both personally and professionally-even those most difficult for her.
Katharine experienced a major crisis in every aspect of her life. At home, Katharine loses a child in a miscarriage. Years later, her beloved husband, mentor and friend, Phil, becomes mentally unstable and commits suicide. Her daughter is divorced several times and Katharine loses the closeness with her two sons as a result of her headfirst dive into her work. At the Post, Katharine experiences the death of a President, the difficulty of having to run a corporation when she has no experience, and losing her entire staff (and a great deal of equipment) to a union strike. Throughout all of this, Katharine is able to remain focused and positive and hang on long enough to re-gather her bearings and start again. She moves on to fill the job Phil held, although she recognizes she will never do it as well. She backs the new president fully and helps him and his wife through a difficult time, and she gathers together family and friends to answer phones, write articles, and print papers so she can continue delivering the news to her subscribers. Katharine never gives up. Despite her aristocratic, ritzy upbringing, she is full of heart. It is very interesting that she cannot do laundry or cook her own meals, yet she can lead a corporation that came to be so influential in founding the policies and actions of journalism as we know them today.
Katharine says, "I had to come to realize that I could only do the job in whatever way I could do it" (341). This mindset is one of the greatest reasons Katharine was continually successful. She knew she her mothering skills would have made Dr. Spock cringe, however, she never stopped loving her children and being there for them the best way she knew how. At the Post, she says, "I was...uneducated in even the basics of the working world-how to relate to people professionally, how to tell people things that they might not want to hear, how to give praise as well as criticism, hw to use time to the best effect. Things that people learned automatically in the workplace or in graduate schools..." (343). This never stopped her, and although she admitted over and over again that she had no idea what she was doing and felt "as I've walked on stage for a part I've never rehearsed," Katharine threw herself into learning and trying, a formula which eventually led to success (354). Her humble attitude caused people to want to help her, and Katharine felt that she needed to know the workings of every part of the Post intimately, so she started from the bottom up, learning how each component functioned and fit together to produce the paper. This knowledge was of great value later on, for a multiple of reasons. The "lower end" employees respected Katharine because they felt she understood them and valued their contributions. Also, when the union strike occurred, Katharine had to take over every part of production herself, and because of the time she had spent learning, she was educated enough to produce the Post herself with limited assistance. Even though Katharine often knew her work was inferior to the job others could do, she recognized a need for her to step in, she took the challenge, and she gave all she could. Eventually, this proved to be enough as Katharine's success blossomed over time.
Katharine's daughter described her mother's strengths as, "good judgment, ability to get along with people, earn their respect and discern their strengths and weaknesses" (342). All of these qualities were not things that Katharine felt she started out with after Phil died and she took over the Post. However, each time Katharine held on during a difficult situation and persevered when it would have been easier to quit, she gained another valuable skill to add to her repertoire. When these added up over time, they came to mold Katharine into an experienced, well-balanced career woman who would never fail because she would not allow herself to. This, combined with the passion Katharine always threw into her work, caused her to be one of the most charismatic individuals in the history of journalism, and also politics.
Katharine Graham impacts my life in perhaps a very different way than other readers. I envy her ability to hang on even in the worst situations. Besides merely staying in the game, Katharine found ways to uses these circumstances as opportunities to grow as a person and develop more knowledge and skills. I am motivated by her character and find her tenacity and strong-will inspiring.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful story, well written
Review: It started off a little slow, but after I got into it I couldn't put it down. After reading it I read the Post everyday :)
Rating:
Summary: 'Personal History'
Review: Katharine Graham led an extrodinarily complex and fascinating life--one which I am so grateful to have read about in 'Personal History'. Not only does her life strike you on a personal level, but you also get a great sense of the history she carried with her as she helped the Washington Post, and the news media in general, evolve into what it is today. I purchased this book after hearing of her death.... I will miss having this book on my bedside table, or in my school bag, because it brings to life a phenomenal person. This book is wonderful.
Rating: 
Summary: Engrossing story of a remarkable woman
Review: I could not put this book down. Katharine Graham had me hooked. She is unpretentious and very opened about her life and her perspective on the people and the events around her. Her life takes many interesting and unexpected turns that she tells with great detail. Granted, often too much detail is given; but that does not diminish the greatness of her tale. This is a great study of the development of a woman's character from naive childhood through powerful adulthood. I have read reviews that criticize the way she lived her life or the things she didn't tell in her book. But this is her "Personal History" and she displays her experiences as she would. I put down the book feeling as though I knew her.
Rating:
Summary: Evolution of an amazing person
Review: This book is a joy to read and experience. It is amazing to read Ms. Graham's life story and witness her evolution from a child to one of the most influential person's of the 20th century.
Ms. Graham's writing style is engaging and includes the reader in the events as they happen.
The book is also an abbreviated history of the Washington Post Company. A great story in and of itself, how a barely surviving paper in the nation's capital evolved into one of the most influential and professional papers of the later half of the 20th centrury.
If you enjoy reading or know someone who does this is a great purchase.
Rating:
Summary: A feast of English language
Review: The content of the book is quite interesting though time to time I couldn't help thinking it was too detailed... However, the use of language and the choice of words were so fascinating that I took an immense pleasure of reading it... If you are an avid reader and enjoy the use of beautiful language, I would recommend the book just for the sake of having a splendid feast of English...
Rating: 
Summary: A tediously long whitewash of a biased public life
Review: Kay Graham's prose style is acceptable enough, but she
goes on much much too long about her life, exceeding 600
pages handily. It's tedious! Some of the episodes in
acquiring different papers or in her marital life just aren't
that worthy of such detailed remembrance. She is, understandably, silent on her paper's shameful record of
tacking to one political party under her ownership, although
she seems willing to excoriate her dead husband, who can't
defend himself, for some of the editorial decisions that HE
made. Like all autobiographies, this one is meant to make the writer look like a paragon. I'm not buying it.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book...straightforward and elegant.
Review: Katharine Graham is an exemplary women who led an extraordinary life. Surrounded by equally talented and ambitious men, she successfully took the helm of the Washington Post and served as a symbol of strength for women in business, not simply in the arena of journalism. In her autobiography, PERSONAL HISTORY, Katharine Graham reveals a detailed account of her privileged childhood, her troubled marriage to Phil Graham, and her struggles and groundbreaking victories at the Post. Along with great candor, she also writes with tact and grace. She presents her story simply with facts, and doesn't waste time with melodrama and exaggerated self-importance. While history buffs will love the recollections of the battle over the Pentagon papers, other readers will surely be engorssed just by Katharine Graham's ability to get the facts across.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: I listened to this audio version for an upcoming book discussion. Somehow it just didn't work for me. Based upon all the wonderful remembrances and comments about Graham, I expected a fascinating, insightful story about one woman's journey from sheltered childhood, through a difficult loss and on into a rewarding, powerful role at the Post. I just didn't get it--it must be me. I found this shortened tape version to be a 'poor little rich girl's' tale of woes--some of which sounded like a lot of stiff-jawed whining. I still think there is much to be admired in Graham's eventual rise to a powerful position, but she just didn't tell me about it in a way I could relate to. And, rather than telling me about the political, Washington background behind some of those difficult decisions (Watergate, Pentagon papers), Graham summed those decisions up in a helpless sounding nutshell. Perhaps this was because I heard the abridged version?
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