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The Story of a Photograph That Shocked America
by Louis P. Masur
The photograph strikes us with visceral force, even years after the instant it captured. A white man, rage written on his face, lunges to spear a black man who is being held by another white. The assailant’s weapon is the American flag. Boston, April 5, 1976: As the city simmered with racial tension over forced school busing, newsman Stanley Forman hurried to City Hall to photograph that day’s protest, arriving just in time to snap the image that his editor would title “The Soiling of Old Glory.” The photo made headlines across the U.S. and won Forman his second Pulitzer Prize. It shocked Boston, and America: Racial strife had not only not ended with the 1960s, it was alive and well in the cradle of liberty.
"Starred Review. Historian Masur ...has written a gem of a book based on an iconic, Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph by Stanley Forman." - Publishers Weekly.
"A compelling story; highly recommended." - Library Journal.
"A moving reminder of a painful episode in American history." - Kirkus Reviews.
This information about The Soiling of Old Glory was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Masur shows that the photo that rocked America and won Forman a Pulitzer is not quite what it appears to be: The teenager was swinging the flag, not charging with it, and the man holding Landsmark was helping him to his feet.
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