's Best of 2001
Meg Greenfield is one of the legends of Washington, D.C. For more than three decades as a columnist and editor, writes Katharine Graham in a loving foreword, "she helped create the institutional voice of the Washington Post." This book, written secretly in the final two years of her life and now published posthumously, is a wonderfully incisive piece of work. Greenfield really understood the city she came to settle in, and she really understood people. Her observations are sharp and profound: Public people almost eagerly dehumanize themselves. They allow the markings of region, family, class, individual character, and, generally, personhood that they once possessed to be leached away. At the same time, they construct a new public self that often does terrible damage to what remains of the genuine person. That is not because people here are bad or set out in the first place to become phonies, but rather because high politics in the city seems to reward the transformation. It is regarded as a measure of competence and required as a condition of success. She has plenty to say about the media: "Journalists who persist in regarding themselves as thoroughly clean and the world around them as thoroughly dirty are guilty of more than misplaced moral vanity. They are also in danger of rendering themselves incapable of plausibly explaining what they are covering--except as further implied evidence of their own virtue." Greenfield was a powerful Washingtonian, but like so many Washingtonians--not least the elected lawmakers--she came from somewhere else (in her case, Seattle). In many ways, this book is a guide to keeping from going native, or, as historian Michael Beschloss nicely puts in an afterword, "how to live at the center of political and journalistic influence in Washington without losing your principles, detachment, or individual human qualities." Washington is part memoir, but mostly observation by a keen watcher and analysis by an acute mind. It stands to become a small classic on life in America's capital and, in a way, life anywhere. --John J. Miller


From Publishers Weekly
Arriving in Washington on the Kennedy wave in 1961, Greenfield went on to journalistic renown as a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer at the Washington Post (taking over the page's editorship in 1979) and as a Newsweek columnist. In this wry analysis of Beltway moving and shaking, Greenfield (no relation to CNN's Jeff Greenfield) likens political life in the nation's capital to a "stunted, high-schoolish social structure" born out of isolation from the rest of the world and pervasive insecurities and dreads. In chapters on "Mavericks and Image-Makers," "Women and Children" and other players front- and backstage, Greenfield, who died of cancer in 1999 in her late 60s, brilliantly lays bare 40 years of the methods and foibles of the power elite and those who cover them. This is no tell-all scandal sheet (Washington's pervasive sexual affairs have a "biff-bam, backseat-of-your-father's Chevy quality") or the work of a "pop sociology scribe," but neither is it a lament for halcyon days. As the foreword from Post publisher Katharine Graham and afterword by historian and PBS commentator Michael Beschloss make clear, Greenfield, who wrote the book in secret and left it at her death, never lost her "principles, detachment or individual human qualities." Readers will find Greenfield's in-the-know frankness irresistible whatever their party affiliations the mark of great journalism. (Apr. 29) Forecast: Both sides of the aisle of the eponymous city will read this book, and it will certainly be a nostalgia stoker for talking heads on the Sunday morning after its release. Major review attention and the book's inimitably great writing should lead to strong sales nationwide. Oddly, it's Greenfield's first book, though a collection of her columns is in the works.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Greenfield, editor of the editorial/opinion pages of the Washington Post until her death in 1999, left behind this jeremiad-cum-memoir, in which she describes the Washington political scene as "high school at its most dangerously deranged." She mercilessly derides the "hall monitors" and prodigies with whom she claims Washington is rife, ever fearful of losing their jobs because of a misspoken word. In order to defend against no-holds-barred press coverage, politicians now develop, according to Greenfield, a completely fabricated persona, generating formulaic exchanges with journalists that lead to a well-founded distrust of government institutions and the press; her odd contention is that Washington worked better in the past. A denizen of Washington for close to four decades, she has many tales to tell. Katharine Graham and Michael Beschloss, both good friends, supply a warm foreword and a warm afterword, respectively. Washington junkies will love this acerbic appraisal by a woman who was certainly in the know. Cynthia Harrison, George Washington Univ., Washington, DC Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Greenfield, who died in 1999, was the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial director at the Washington Post and a columnist for Newsweek. A Beltway fixture for almost 40 years, she wrote this dissection of Washington culture in secret, unbeknownst to family and friends. This notion of an insider telling tales out of school makes the book sound a lot juicier than it is. In fact, the tone is more clinical than sensational. Washington, she reveals, is like high school, and the overachieving student-council members are running the show. She shows how these "good children" come into political life, learn how to take on a persona, and then become it, often to the dismay of family members who are expected to function as little more than props. Greenfield also writes about the symbiotic relationship between the politicians and the press. Although one wouldn't necessarily expect her to name names, the book suffers from a lack of concrete examples to illustrate the theories being discussed. When she does mention specific politicians, they often go back 30 years. Political junkies will find much to like here, but there's not enough dish to make a best-seller. Sadly, not everyone remembers Everett Dirksen. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

Longtime Washington Post editorial page editor Meg Greenfield was the ultimate Washington insider. She came to the capital at the same time as the Kennedy administration and started at the Post in 1968, where she was universally acclaimed for her editorial wit and savvy. Washington is a book Greenfield worked on during the last two years of her life; she told her literary executor, historian Michael Beschloss, what she was up to, and he has contributed a thoughtful afterword on the book's creation.

In Washington, Greenfield takes the reader inside the corridors of power and reveals the true nature of the culture there. From her perspective, it's like a huge high school, where everyone is completely self-absorbed and status-seeking. Some are teacher's pets, some are class clowns, but all are fiercely competitive. It takes an insider like Meg Greenfield to give us the true story of what goes on in the nation's nerve center.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Narrated in Greenfield's unforgettable voice, created in secret before her death in 1999, hidden from almost all of her friends and family, Washington is an exploration of a subculture that is both fabled and notorious. Like an anthropologist, Greenfield uses her famous wit, her eye for detail, and her understanding of how political people behave to show us why so many Americans hate Washington, D.C. - and how some who live there manage, despite all the obstacles, to do some good." "Greenfield identifies the principal species in the Washington subculture, using terms that will immediately become part of our political language - the good child, the head kid, the prodigy, the protege, the maverick, the image-maker. She shows us the Washington history she saw close-up - the hostility to professional women, the fall of the Southern oligarchy, eight Presidents (John Kennedy to Bill Clinton) and some surprising heroes." "Washington is a primer for those who wonder what life inside the capital is really like. It is also a window on the extraordinary, elusive woman who wrote it. Adorned with anecdotes and observations from her forty years near the center of power, the book shows us that, while functioning as one of the leading journalists of her time, Meg Greenfield managed to remain a human being."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Adam Clymer - New York Times Book Review

What Greenfield has left us...is something very different from a traditional memoir. It's a new way of looking at a flawed Washington, one that is scathing in import if not in tone, a useful framework even to those who think of government people as more real, more human and even more truthful than she does.

Publishers Weekly

Arriving in Washington on the Kennedy wave in 1961, Greenfield went on to journalistic renown as a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer at the Washington Post (taking over the page's editorship in 1979) and as a Newsweek columnist. In this wry analysis of Beltway moving and shaking, Greenfield (no relation to CNN's Jeff Greenfield) likens political life in the nation's capital to a "stunted, high-schoolish social structure" born out of isolation from the rest of the world and pervasive insecurities and dreads. In chapters on "Mavericks and Image-Makers," "Women and Children" and other players front- and backstage, Greenfield, who died of cancer in 1999 in her late 60s, brilliantly lays bare 40 years of the methods and foibles of the power elite and those who cover them. This is no tell-all scandal sheet (Washington's pervasive sexual affairs have a "biff-bam, backseat-of-your-father's Chevy quality") or the work of a "pop sociology scribe," but neither is it a lament for halcyon days. As the foreword from Post publisher Katharine Graham and afterword by historian and PBS commentator Michael Beschloss make clear, Greenfield, who wrote the book in secret and left it at her death, never lost her "principles, detachment or individual human qualities." Readers will find Greenfield's in-the-know frankness irresistible whatever their party affiliations the mark of great journalism. (Apr. 29) Forecast: Both sides of the aisle of the eponymous city will read this book, and it will certainly be a nostalgia stoker for talking heads on the Sunday morning after its release. Major review attention and the book's inimitably great writing should lead to strong sales nationwide. Oddly, it's Greenfield's first book, though a collection of her columns is in the works. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

KLIATT

Over her 40-year career as a journalist for Newsweek and the Washington Post, Greenfield thought deeply about how the city of Washington and those within it function. In the months before she died in 1999, she quietly (and secretly) began to gather her reflections into a manuscript; friends completed and edited this work after her death. Washington is not an easy read. Greenfield's sentences are sometimes as complex as her thoughts and her references will often be obscure to YA readers. Neither do its chapters separate easily. The work stands as a whole; its power is in the sweeping tableau Greenfield skillfully paints of the social, political and ethical dimensions of our capital city. While she is sometimes delightfully irreverent (one chapter on how the city works is called "A Night at the Opera"), Greenfield is most valuable for her insightful comments on the role of the journalist and the role of the politician in our current government. Recommended for advanced students. Category: Current Topics. KLIATT Codes: A￯﾿ﾽRecommended for advanced students and adults. 2002, Perseus, Public Affairs, 241p. index., Moore; Brookline, MA

Library Journal

Greenfield, editor of the editorial/opinion pages of the Washington Post until her death in 1999, left behind this jeremiad-cum-memoir, in which she describes the Washington political scene as "high school at its most dangerously deranged." She mercilessly derides the "hall monitors" and prodigies with whom she claims Washington is rife, ever fearful of losing their jobs because of a misspoken word. In order to defend against no-holds-barred press coverage, politicians now develop, according to Greenfield, a completely fabricated persona, generating formulaic exchanges with journalists that lead to a well-founded distrust of government institutions and the press; her odd contention is that Washington worked better in the past. A denizen of Washington for close to four decades, she has many tales to tell. Katharine Graham and Michael Beschloss, both good friends, supply a warm foreword and a warm afterword, respectively. Washington junkies will love this acerbic appraisal by a woman who was certainly in the know. Cynthia Harrison, George Washington Univ., Washington, DC Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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