Looking Back

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Growing Up and host of Masterpiece Theatre, Russell Baker has long been a keen observer of American politics and culture. In these essays originally published in the New York Review of Books, Baker profiles a gallery of heroes and rascals who have stirred the American imagination. His subjects include the tragic gulf between the life and myth of Joe DiMaggio; the epic feud between Lyndon Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy; Barry Goldwater's mercurial yet inspiring role in the rise of the American conservative movement; and more.