In The American Journey of Eric Sevareid, Raymond A. Schroth has explored the personal history of the public man. The sweep is broad, from Sevareid's hometown in the Dakota wheat fields to the beginning of the Cold War and America's disastrous adventure in Vietnam.

Along the way Schroth brings much to light that Sevareid preferred to leave hidden - two divorces, fear that the radical political ideas of his youth would return to haunt his career, a sense that he was being pushed aside by a younger, brasher generation at CBS. From Sevareid's life Schroth draws a portrait of Sevareid's soul - what mattered to him and why.

1. It was Edward R. Murrow, the inventor of broadcast journalism, who hired Sevareid for CBS News in 1939. For the rest of his career Sevareid resisted the slow surrender of broadcast journalism to popular showmanship and always championed the values of broadcast news as Murrow had defined them - freedom, fairness, and solid reporting. Sevareid was one of the great American journalists and Schroth has turned his life into one of the great American stories.