« Poverty Revisited | Main | A New White House Design »

April 24, 2007

I'm sure most ITA readers have heard already, but the world lost journalist David Halberstam yesterday. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist was killed in a traffic accident in California, where he had been conducting interviews for an upcoming book about the 1958 NFL title game, aka "The Greatest Game Ever Played."

Halberstam first made a name for himself in the 1960s by covering the Vietnam War for the New York Times. His reporting, which cast doubt on the reliability of the South Vietnamese as allies, and, subsequently, the U.S. war effort, won him the Pulitzer in 1964. The Best and the Brightest, published in 1972, was the culmination of his work on the war.

Later in his career, Halberstam branched out in the topics he covered, publishing books on subjects including media figures, professional sports (baseball, basketball, football), the automobile industry, and 9/11 firefighters. His history The Fifties (which is sadly the only book of his I've read) argued that the decade was far more influential than generally recognized, as many of the revolutionary events of the 1960s found their origins in that seemingly placid era.

David Halberstam was 73.

Posted by David Darlington at April 24, 2007 06:58 PM

Comments

Posted by: Eric Seymour at April 25, 2007 09:42 AM | permalink

Post a comment