
Washington's Golden Age
Hope Ridings Miller, the Society Beat, and the Rise of Women Journalists
by Joseph Dalton
Pub Date
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Description
Real news traveled fast, even in the days before internet
connections. During the New Deal and World War II, Washington elites
turned to Hope Ridings Miller’s column in the Washington Post
to see what was really going on in town. Cocktail parties, embassy
receptions and formal dinners were her beat as society editor. “I went
as a guest,” said Miller, “and hoped that they’d forget I was a
reporter.”
In Washington’s Golden Age,
Joseph Dalton chronicles the life of this pioneering woman journalist
who covered the powerful vortex of politics, diplomacy, and society
during a career that stretched from FDR to LBJ. After joining the Post
staff, she was the only woman on the city desk. Later she had a
nationally syndicated column. For ten years she edited Diplomat Magazine
and then wrote three books about Washington life. Once a girl from a
small town in Texas, Miller created a web of connections at the highest
levels. In Washington’s Golden Age, Dalton escorts readers inside the Capital’s regal mansions, the hushed halls of Congress, and the Post’s smoky and manly newsroom to rediscover an earlier era of gentility and discretion now relegated to the distant past.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
“The best women reporters in Washington have always found
unique ways to get their stories. This was especially true of society
editor Hope Ridings Miller. Read about the rise of women in Journalism
in this biography of a trailblazer.”
— April Ryan, White House Correspondent-American Urban Radio Networks; CNN Analyst; author
“At
a time when people turned to newspaper society pages to find out what
was really going on in the nation’s capital, Hope Ridings Miller was
there to tell them. In this meticulously researched book, Joseph Dalton
traces his cousin’s remarkable career as society editor for The Washington Post
and observer of the power elite. Eleanor Roosevelt, Sam Rayburn, Madame
Chiang Kai-shek, Mary Pickford, Walt Disney, Jacqueline Kennedy, Pat
Nixon and even the Hope diamond all make appearances in Washington’s Golden Age,
but the real star is Miller, who not only documented a rarified world
of high society and politics but lived it. Beyond the glittering social
scenes, Dalton offers a glimpse of a time when women were just beginning
to make their way in the newspaper business, when reporters and the
people they covered were often allies, and when the rules of the game
called for civility and manners – and sometimes even white gloves. The
result is a book that will be appreciated by anyone who loves history,
journalism or simply a good story.”
— Kristin Gilger, Senior Associate Dean, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University
“Joseph Dalton’s Washington’s Golden Age is a marvelous biography of the plugged-in reporter Hope Ridings Miller. The anecdotes told are dazzling and the research impressive. Highly recommended!”
— Douglas Brinkley, historian and author
Available Editions
EDITION | Hardcover |
ISBN | 9781538116142 |
PRICE | $29.95 (USD) |
Links
Available on NetGalley
(PDF) |
(PDF) |