Name: On All Fronts
ISBN: 9780525561491

Clarissa Ward

The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter. In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, she has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Egypt, and Afghanistan, Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range. With her deep empathy, Ward finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts is the riveting account of Ward's singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism.

The Education of a Journalist

On All Fronts

"The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter. In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, she has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Egypt, and Afghanistan, Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range. With her deep empathy, Ward finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts is the riveting account of Ward's singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism. Following a privileged but lonely childhood, Ward found her calling as an international war correspondent in the aftermath of 9/11. From her early days in the field, she was embedding with marines at the height of the Iraq War and was soon on assignment all over the globe. But nowhere does Ward make her mark more than in war-torn Syria, which she has covered extensively with courage and compassion. From her multiple stints entrenched with Syrian rebels to her deep investigations into the Western extremists who are drawn to ISIS, Ward has covered Bashar al-Assad's reign of terror without fear. In 2018, Ward rose to new heights at CNN and had a son. Suddenly, she was doing this hardest of jobs with a whole new perspective"--

Mary Makarious

** spoiler alert **
           I had heard a few clips of Clarissa Ward speak before, and thought she was very thoughtful in the way she spoke, choosing her words carefully and trying to give a holistic sense of the topic at hand. However, I picked up this memoir on a whim at a bookstore, and am really thankful I did.

I could not put this book down, and even when I did, I was thinking about it constantly. This memoir is a fascinating mix of Ward’s personal and professional life. While she’s led an incredibly brave and extraordinary life, her writing is relatable and empathetic, and her reflections about herself and the story at hand were insightful.

Ward has a talent for languages, but perhaps her largest asset as a war correspondent seems to be her need to not rely on statistics or large numbers, but rather on personal stories of people immediately affected by the conflict (in war-torn regions), natural disasters, or even covering climate change.

Ward walks us through her thought process at each stage in life and in each of the places she’s been, refreshingly not trying to pretend any of this was easy. She had her start in Russia but has been predominantly in the Middle East (Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Gaza, and Lebanon in this book - though I am sure many more), and even went to cover the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar when she was six (!) months pregnant. She was very forthcoming about her fears, anxieties, and frustrations - perhaps that is also how she got so many people to recount their own stories.

I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir’s glimpse into just how difficult the logistics must be to travel to these areas, identify people you can trust who speak English, and learn languages and the culture to navigate each country. All the behind-the-scenes work for the segments and stories we see might be not glamorous but was thought-provoking.

I will be thinking about this book for a while longer.

Derek Barlas

Standard war reporter bio. If you've read one you've read them all.

Great audiobook, amazing story about Clarissa’s work as a war correspondent in Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, and other places. It’s refreshing to hear stories of how so many people have had an impact on her and how she develops news stories. Her journalistic style bleeds into the storytelling of the book too, page turning for sure! 

Kyra Cracchiola

“On All Fronts takes the reader on a riveting journey of storytelling. . . From Russia to China to Syria, [she] navigate[s] the most intense of human experiences while finding the tools to stay emotional.”—Lynsey Addario, author of It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter. In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, she has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Egypt, and Afghanistan, Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range. With her deep empathy, Ward finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts is the riveting account of Ward’s singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism. Following a privileged but lonely childhood, Ward found her calling as an international war correspondent in the aftermath of 9/11. From her early days in the field, she was embedding with marines at the height of the Iraq War and was soon on assignment all over the globe. But nowhere does Ward make her mark more than in war-torn Syria, which she has covered extensively with courage and compassion. From her multiple stints entrenched with Syrian rebels to her deep investigations into the Western extremists who are drawn to ISIS, Ward has covered Bashar al-Assad’s reign of terror without fear. In 2018, Ward rose to new heights at CNN and had a son. Suddenly, she was doing this hardest of jobs with a whole new perspective. On All Fronts is the unforgettable story of one extraordinary journalist—and of a changing world.

On All Fronts The Education of a Journalist

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