American Legends

"And that's the way it is." - Walter Cronkite

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

The rise of cable media in the 21st century has seen news programming become more opinionated and partisan than ever before, and it has led many nostalgic Americans to yearn for the news programs of earlier times, with the seemingly objective anchor just giving viewers the facts. While that bygone era is no doubt idealized and romanticized to a certain degree beyond what it actually was, nobody epitomizes that era like Walter Cronkite, America's most famous news anchor.

Still a household name today, decades after he went off air, Cronkite is still remembered as the kind of trustworthy broadcaster whose reports could be taken as truth. His outsized influence on the American viewing public is best remembered in one of the more memorable anecdotes of Cronkite's career, which came during the Vietnam War when he opined near the end of one broadcast, "But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could." President Lyndon Johnson allegedly said in response, "If I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." It's still debated whether or not the president said that, but it was certainly an apt representation of the news anchor's influence at the time.

Cronkite's influence is perhaps rivaled only by the lengthy scope of his career, which spanned nearly 50 years and covered everything from World War II and Vietnam to the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. His reports on the big news events of the 20th century are still iconic clips that remain intimately associated with the events they covered, and the sheer length of his career and the countless appearances on television screens in American living rooms helped make him "the most trusted man in America" by the end of his career.

American Legends: The Life of Walter Cronkite examines the life and career of America's most famous news anchor. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Walter Cronkite like never before, in no time at all.