| | American Dreamers: The Wallaces And Reader's Digest: An Inside Story |  | Author: Peter Canning
Publisher: Diane Pub Co
Category: Book
Buy Used: $187.65
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 1977930
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 379
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0756774470
Dewey Decimal Number: 338
EAN: 9780756774479
ASIN: 0756774470
Publication Date: February 1, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Title in very good condition. Thousands of satisfied customers!
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Dewitt and Lila Wallace founded Reader's Digest in the 1930s to provide edifying articles for people who often read little else. Canning, a former Digest managing editor, has written an in-depth history of the Wallaces' project, which turned into a publishing phenomenon. While he shows due respect to the Wallaces for their early struggles, their generosity to staff and their philanthropy, the author reveals unDigest-like details of their unusual sex lives, and more tellingly documents considerable government interference with the magazine's content. In the 1940s and 50s the CIA fed articles to the Digest. During the Vietnam War it was stridently hawkish, and Richard Nixon's speeches formed the basis of editorials. While too many Digest stories have had the insipid flavor of packaged pieces of puffed-up positive thinking, Canning's history is stronger stuff.
Product Description
The fascinating, behind-the-scenes story of "Reader s Digest" (RD) & its founders, & how corporate lawyers & Wall St. wrested control from the men the founders chose to preserve their bus. "in the Wallace mode." RD began in 1922 in N.Y. City. The founders, DeWitt & Lila Wallace, believed deeply in the American dream & saw their magazine as a way of spreading this belief to millions of their fellow citizens. They set the bus. up to be run like a family, built a plant in Pleasantville, NY, & lavished their fortune on their employees. But in the early 80s, when the Wallaces suddenly faltered, ambitious men began to scheme & maneuver for power. This book reveals the attempts of greedy men to scavenge what these entrepreneurs created. Photos.
|
| Customer Reviews:
a classic american success story August 19, 1999
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is undoubtedly one of the best books ever written about the building of a truly American business empire, (The Reader's Digest Association) and how that empire affected the lives of its founders, Dewitt and Lila Wallace.The author poignantly details how the founders,who were undoubtedly handson managers of the Digest for most of their lives,became prisoners of their empire, and how those who inherited the reigns of the Digest abused that powerand abandoned the original goals the Wallaces developed for it.
The Best Book About Reader's Digest -- Ever. August 2, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Peter Canning succinctly tells the history of The Reader's Digest, from its humble beginnings to the story of the mighty direct mail machine it became. The style is clear and concise (as matches the subject), and his careful and comprehensive research is clearly evident throughout. After the salacious nonsense by John Heidenry, (Theirs Was The Kingdom -- 1993) it's refreshing to see how an insider deals with the subject.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
