Voice of America

Voice of America
by Jr., Alan L. Heil, Alan Heil

Voice of America
List Price: $75.00
Our Price: $34.50
You Save: $40.50 (54%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $7.55 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Alan Heil, Jr., Alan L. Heil
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2003-07-15
ISBN: 0231126743
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Columbia University Press

Book Reviews of Voice of America

Book Review: Very bad book on a major subject
Summary: 1 Stars

I was looking for serious information about this major actor in the history of the Cold War. This book was is a huge disappointment, especially when you see the price you have to pay for it. The picture on the cover is nothing but shameless propaganda : "look, we're friends of the Muslims", seems to say the author. The inside is even worse : dispatched, unuseful information, unjustified criticism for the Reagan policy and NOTHING on the influence of the radio in the USSR. A serious scholar monography on the subject is still to be written.

Summary of Voice of America

The Voice of America is the nation's largest publicly funded broadcasting network, reaching more than 90 million people worldwide in over forty languages. Since it first went on the air as a regional wartime enterprise in February 1942, VOA has undergone a spectacular transformation, and it now employs scores of reporters worldwide and broadcasts around the clock every day of every year, reaching listeners in the four-fifths of the world still denied a completely free press. Alan L. Heil, Jr., former deputy director of VOA, chronicles this remarkable transformation from a fledgling short wave propaganda organ during World War II to a global multimedia giant encompassing radio, the Internet, and 1,500 affiliated radio and television stations across the globe.

Using transcripts of radio broadcasts and numerous personal anecdotes, Heil gives the reader a front-row seat to the greatest events of the past sixty years, from the Cold War and the Vietnam conflict to the Watergate and Lewinsky scandals, from Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon in 1969 to ethnic strife in the Balkans and Rwanda in the mid-1990s, and from the outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Yet Heil also relates the story of a perennially underfunded organization struggling against the political pressures, congressional investigations, massive reorganizations, and leadership purges that have attempted to shape-and, in some instances, control-VOA programming. Reporting first hand, high-quality news is a monumental task for any network, but the Voice faces obstacles unique to an organization that stands, as former director John Chancellor once observed, at "the crossroads of journalism and diplomacy." It is for this reason that many people still perceive VOA as an instrument of American propaganda. However, as a thirty-six-year veteran of VOA and its numerous policy wars, Heil believes that the Voice has always sought to deliver accurate, objective, and comprehensive news of the highest journalistic standard, news that reflects America's diversity and dynamism, and that presents not only U.S. policies but also critical debate about those policies.

This in-depth history of VOA from its founding until its sixtieth anniversary is a vivid portrait of the people who made it great, depicting a news network that has overcome enormous challenges to steadfastly and faithfully report the most important news stories of our time.

History & Criticism Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in "GODLIKE" Tomorrow, v2.0 Quick List 2 NEW WORLD ORDER pt33
NYT Theater Review 1991-92 V27 (New York Times Theater Reviews) ImageNYT Theater Review 1991-92 V27 (New York Times Theater Reviews)
by Random House St
Routledge; Published: 1994-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $127.01
Price in other shops: $265.00
Geopolitics: Re-Visioning World Politics (Frontiers of Human Geography) ImageGeopolitics: Re-Visioning World Politics (Frontiers of Human Geography)
by John Agnew
Routledge; Published: 1998-06-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $33.81
Price in other shops: $47.95
Geopolitics (Frontiers of Human Geography, 1) ImageGeopolitics (Frontiers of Human Geography, 1)
by John Agnew
Routledge; Published: 1998-06-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $141.45
Price in other shops: $145.00
American Exceptionalism and U.S. Foreign Policy: Public Diplomacy at the End of the Cold War ImageAmerican Exceptionalism and U.S. Foreign Policy: Public Diplomacy at the End of the Cold War
by Siobhan McEvoy-Levy
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2001-07-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $109.92
Price in other shops: $129.95
Captain America and the Crusade against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism ImageCaptain America and the Crusade against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism
by John Shelton Lawrence, Robert Jewett
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Published: 2002-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: $34.00
Trade Liberalization: Fears and Facts (The Washington Papers) ImageTrade Liberalization: Fears and Facts (The Washington Papers)
by Robert A. Rogowsky, Linda A. Linkins, Karl S. Tsuji
Praeger Paperback; Published: 2001-05-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $28.95
Trade Liberalization: Fears and Facts (The Washington Papers) ImageTrade Liberalization: Fears and Facts (The Washington Papers)
by Robert A. Rogowsky, Linda A. Linkins, Karl S. Tsuji
Praeger Publishers; Published: 2001-05-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $43.42
Price in other shops: $99.95
Designing Families: The Search for Self and Community in the Information Age ImageDesigning Families: The Search for Self and Community in the Information Age
by John Scanzoni
Pine Forge Press; Published: 1999-07-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.76
Price in other shops: $71.95
Testing Women, Testing the Fetus : The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America (The Anthropology of Everyday Life) (The Anthropology of Everydaylife) ImageTesting Women, Testing the Fetus : The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America (The Anthropology of Everyday Life) (The Anthropology of Everydaylife)
by Rayna Rapp
Routledge; Published: 2000-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.40
Price in other shops: $28.95
War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa ImageWar and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa
by Joshua S. Goldstein
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2003-08-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops: $36.99
Similar Books and other products
Listening in: Radio and American Imagination ImageListening in: Radio and American Imagination
by Susan J. Douglas
University of Minnesota Press; Published: 2004-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.61
Price in other shops: $19.95
Tree of Smoke: A Novel ImageTree of Smoke: A Novel
by Denis Johnson
Picador; Published: 2008-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.55
Price in other shops: $16.00
Willis Conover: Broadcasting Jazz To The World ImageWillis Conover: Broadcasting Jazz To The World
by Terence M Ripmaster
iUniverse, Inc.; Published: 2007-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.93
Price in other shops: $18.95
Fighting the War of Ideas like a Real War ImageFighting the War of Ideas like a Real War
by J. Michael Waller
The Institute of World Politics Press; Published: 2007-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.64
Price in other shops: $19.95
Parting the Curtain: Propaganda, Culture, and the Cold War, 1945-1961 ImageParting the Curtain: Propaganda, Culture, and the Cold War, 1945-1961
by Walter L. Hixson
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 1997-12-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.68
Price in other shops: $33.95
Funny Girl/Funny Lady ImageFunny Girl/ Funny Lady
Sony; Release date: 2005-02-22; DVD
Best price: $17.41
Price in other shops: $24.96
Gulag : A History ImageGulag : A History
by ANNE APPLEBAUM
Published: 2004-04-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.04
Price in other shops: $16.95
Speak American: A Survival Guide to the Language and Culture of the U.S.A. ImageSpeak American: A Survival Guide to the Language and Culture of the U.S.A.
by Dileri Borunda Johnston
Random House Reference; Published: 2000-04-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.87
Price in other shops: $7.95
Centennial: The Complete Series ImageCentennial: The Complete Series
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAIN.; Release date: 2008-07-29; DVD
Best price: $29.98
Price in other shops: $59.98
Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty ImageBroadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty
by Arch Puddington
University Press of Kentucky; Published: 2003-05-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops: $25.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories