Reviews for Revolutionary Traveler: Freeze-Frames from a Life

The average rating for Revolutionary Traveler: Freeze-Frames from a Life based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-12-31 00:00:00 Gerald Parks This is a full-rounded biography of the life of Luce. The author paints a complex man who (among many other things) was raised in China, traveled solo in Europe at the age of fourteen and made a publishing empire that survives to this day (even with the internet). Possibly due to his upbringing in China, where he viewed the U.S. from afar, he always held unto an idealized view of America's role in the twentieth century. In many ways he wanted the entire world to emulate U.S. values and concepts. Luce had a tremendous creative force. He constantly strived to learn through-out his entire life. He never seemed to establish personal friendships. His two marriages were fraught with problems. I had the feeling that he never related well with his two children from the first marriage, who he seldom saw; or with his siblings. The author explains the rise of Time magazine from virtually nothing and then Fortune, Life and much later, Sports Illustrated in the 1950's. Time and Life are now icons in the news media. Luce's idealism spread to other areas of his life as well. He had utopian views of what the U.S. could accomplish with Chiang Kai-shek in China. The reality was that both Chiang and his wife were corrupt and ruthless people. He was also a staunch Republican until Kennedy was elected in 1960. These two above areas infiltrated the journalism of his magazines, at times much to the annoyance of his staff - some of who rebelliously left due to Luce's lack of objectivity. This is a good readable biography. We are presented with a thorough portrait of both the personal and public person. We come away with an outlook of a troubled and awkward man. As Mr. Brinkley points out, in many ways he seemed more comfortable in his skin when he was younger (as in traveling in Europe as a teenager) than when he became older where he avoided small talk with his associates and was sometimes conversationally inept. I did feel that the 1960's were rushed in this book There was so much going in this era, such as Civil Rights, the struggle for women's equality and the increasing involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam that more pages could have been devoted to it. Sometimes there is too much focus on Luce's internationalist views then what is going on in his own country. There is nothing mentioned on when his mother died. All in all we do get a view of a stunning individual who created a news empire.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-08-23 00:00:00 SCOTT OLSON Who is Henry Luce? You might not be familiar with his name, but you probably picked up one of his magazines in your lifetime. Henry Luce is known as the publisher of Time, Fortune, Life and Sports Illustrated. I have subscriptions to both Time and Fortune. Henry Luce was a lonely individual. He was shuttled to Chinese , English and American boarding schools. From the boarding schools, Luce attended Yale University. He rarely saw his family. However, he met one good friend Briton Hadden Hadden and Luce dreamed of starting a news magazine. This magazine would be a weekly magazine that would present readable and short articles on what happened over the last week in news, books arts, and sports. Hadden and Luce didn't have writers for their first edition, they used rewritten articles from The New York Times. Obviously, this changed as Time grew. His magazines were very popular and reached millions of Americans. With this readership, Luce was able to express his opinions. He used Time and Life to politicize his views: that of a conservative Republican. (Urrrrrgh) He tried to push his choice of presidents, views on war and life in America on his readers. This book is very interesting and detailed. At one point the book tells of his impotence with his second wife. Really? However the book does provide very interesting information on such icons as Time and Life magazines.