We Interrupt This Broadcast: Relive the Events That Stopped Our Lives...from the Hindenburg to the Death of Princess Diana (book with 2 audio CDs)

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Summary: Review of Second Edition "We Interrupt This Broadcast"
Review: "We interrupt this broadcast..." When those words are spoken over the radio or through the TV, one stops, turns, and is fixated...listening for the next words.

"We Interrupt This Broadcast brings to life the famous and infamous moments of the twentieth century that were announced with those four chilling words," writes Joe Garner, author. The book contains 41 odd and interesting events from the twentieth century such as the landing of Apollo 11, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the crumbling of the Berlin Wall.

However, this book is different from a history lesson because it comes with two CD's. The CD's contain a condensed book narration of each story and a recording of the story's actual broadcast. It's a history lesson, but a lot better than listening to a monotonous teacher.

Some of the stories are better than others. This is either because they are not of interest to some age groups (the firing of General MacArthur and Johnson's defeat of Dewey in the Presidential race are not interesting to younger readers) or they give too much information and therefore one starts skipping over words.

Overall, Garner does a good job of portraying the events with the help of excellent photography. His writing flows nicely and paints a portrait of each events basics. A large portion of each story is devoted to outstanding photographs.

There are a few photography mistakes that have been pointed out by readers. For example, a picture labeled Apollo 11 is not actually Apollo 11. However, the mislabeling in this book is not a big deal because they are things that most readers wouldn't notice.

The book would be better if the audio narrations were shorter and the time devoted to the news clips was longer. The clips are very short and those are the highlight of the book.

The narrations are spoken by Bill Kurtis and are great because they allow the reader to concentrate on the photographs while hearing about the entire event. Part of the success the narrations have is because of Kurtis' voice. Due to his extensive journalism work (A&E Network documentaries and CBS) he's learned to make his voice captivating.

We Interrupt This Broadcast was a bestseller in the Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and the New York Times. The book is well worth the fifty bucks because of the outstanding quality Garner, Walter Cronkite, and Kurtis put together.

For sports fans, Garner also has two other similar books out, And the Crowd Goes Wild and And the Fans Roared.

Overall, I think this was an excellent book. I highly recommend it.

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Summary: Bill Kurtis interrupts this broadcast...
Review: As an avid fan of both history and news, I was excited to see this book come to the shelf. One would expect the audio to be the key feature to this book, and indeed it should have been. Sadly, the news portions of the audio are kept to ineffective soundbites that average about 15 seconds each. Instead of having the sensation of listening to the radio when a news break comes through, you are lulled to sleep by Bill Kurtis' summation of the event. Only a small cut from a radio broadcast accents the audio. In fact, most of the news clips are not even the "breaking news," but rather some portion of a later news report. Another problem is the omission of key news events for the inclusion of cultural events (death of Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe). Finally, many of the clips begin with the news reporter speaking, not with the broadcast as it occured prior to the break-in. Thus, the "interruption of the broadcast" is never re-lived. Other reviews which claim the edited audio "revive[s] the panic and thrill of some of the defining moments" of these events, are greatly mistaken.

If you are looking for a 'best of' listing of news stories (PBS style, edited to 60 minutes t.v. program), this will be a good edition to your library. The program does do a good job of summarizing major 20th century news stories. However, if you are looking for a unique historical record of major radio news events, this will leave you disappointed and frustrated with the missed potential of this series.

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Summary: Please Keep True to the Title
Review: I have a previous edition of this book. It covered the Diana death, and I believe that is where it stopped. My complaint with the book is only that, as the topics progresses closer to current times, the interruptions became less "spontaneous."
The book's premise was to provide the first live broadcast interruption that the public heard, to create the same chills that people felt, to relive the first realization of the shocking event just as it happened. By the time the book got to Dianna's death, the news clips became more general, more like an end of the year re-cap of what had happened, instead of the first terror-filled report that something had gone wrong.
But a great book, other than that! Perhaps the problem has been fixed in this newer edition.

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Summary: Great for teachers and students young and old.
Review: Joe Garner has assembled an excellent historical resource with this book and accompanying 2 CD set featuring the actual broadcasts of historical events. Beginning with the first major disaster covered by broadcast journalism, the explosion of the Hindenburg, to the death of Princess Diana, and other events in between (assassination of JFK, Desert Storm, etc), this book and CD set can be used in the classroom as well as provide hours of enjoyment for young and old alike.

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Summary: Good Concept, Poor Realization
Review: The book itself contains the expected photos from the events. The accompanying text seemed appropriate for someone with little or no knowledge of 20th century history. While this is not necessarily a fault, it reduces the value of the book to those of us familiar with at least the broad outlines and major events.

But the CDs are seriously annoying. Since these accompany a book, I expected that the book would provide the context (date/time/source of the broadcast, and perhaps some historical background) and the CDs themselves would contain minimal narration. Instead, I'd estimate there's five minutes of narration-blather for every minute of historical recording. And blather it is-- often irritatingly banal, platitudinous, and cliched.

Did I mention that the narrator sometimes actually talks OVER the historical recordings? This book/recording package could have been so much better.

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Summary: Please Keep True to the Title
Review: The narrator explains what is written in the book already. The book would be a lot better if there was no narrator.

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Summary: A great book filled with historical events of the century
Review: This is a great concept with a so-so follow-through. The book has some fine photos and lackluster text. The real disappointment is the CD's, which unfortunately feature the exposition of Bill Kurtis over the actual recordings. Instead of minutes of actual news broadcasts knitted together with seconds of exposition by Bill Kurtis, we get lengthy introductions by Kurtis with snippets of the news broadcasts. Bottom line: Worth having, but falls short of potential.

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Summary: Skims the heights of 20th century events
Review: This volume is fun to read, but don't look for any groundbreaking analysis or new information. The author does a good job of retelling events surrounding the century's big news events...from the Hindenburg disaster to Lee Harvey Oswald, with all the requisite wars and disasters thrown in. It can be fascinating to listen to on CD, and the text offers good support. At the same time, there is little discussion of how the medium of radio grew throughout the century, or how live media reporting has now changed the way Americans receive information. Read this book for what it is: a fun history lesson, and a nostalgic look back to simpler times in the media.

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Summary: A time capsule of major twentieth-century American news
Review: We Interrupt This Broadcast is a statement that never fails to send a little chill up my spine, as these four words have introduced many tragic news stories over the years. In today's jaded world, these words do not have the connotation I still associate with them, and that is both a good and a bad thing. In a world where so much is forgotten so quickly, it is important, especially for the younger generation, to not only know about important events in history but to have a real understanding of sorts concerning them. This book does much to help everyone living today, both young and old, to learn about, remember, and vicariously experience some of history's most memorable (many of them tragic) events. Over forty important moments of the twentieth century are detailed in this coffee table-like book, ranging from the fiery death of the Hindenburg in 1937 to (in my 2nd edition copy) the death of John Kennedy, Jr. in 1999. The third edition offers additional material of important events in the time period between releases.

While none of these events is covered in-depth by any means, the book offers worthwhile summaries and plenty of informative photographs throughout its pages. More importantly, though, the book comes with two CDs containing broadcast footage of these events, letting today's listener hear the words by which America was informed of such tragedies as the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, as well as tales of horror such as the explosion of Flight 800, the fiery end of the Waco standoff with David Koresh and his followers, and the Challenger explosion. Of course, all the news was not bad: here you can hear and read about man taking his first steps on the moon, bear witness to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, and celebrate retroactively the end of the World War II.

In a sense, this is a time capsule of sorts, as it holds a significant part of the history of twentieth-century America inside its pages and burned onto its two CDs. We Interrupt This Broadcast would make an excellent teaching tool for youngsters, but anyone who wants to come to a greater appreciation of history could profit much by this book, as well.

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Summary: Nostalgic gift idea for parents
Review: We've given this book as a gift to both of our parents. Once they finally opened it and listened to the CD they remarked how much it brought back memories of growing up. It also is interesting for those of us who have grown up after most of these events happened because it gives us a sense of severity and reality which is often not relayed through history. A great gift idea but also nice to have in your own library both for reference and for history's sake.