Submersion Journalism: Reporting in the Radical First Person from Harper's Magazine - Tapa dura

Daily Book Pick, October 24, 2008. -- Jim Agnew

With articles by Charles Bowden, Adam Davidson, Barbara Ehrenreich, Steve Featherstone, Kristoffer A. Garin, Gary Greenberg, Jay Kirk, Willem Marx, Morgan Meis, Jeff Sharlet, Jake Silverstein, Ken Silverstein, Wells Tower, William T. Vollmann, Bill Wasik

Submersion Journalism collects the best of this reportage-by celebrated authors (William T. Vollmann, Barbara Ehrenreich) and fresh new voices (Wells Tower, Jake Silverstein) alike-in a book that serves not just as a collection of striking stories but also as a proclamation in favor of truth-telling instead of managed "news" and PR spin. The book is a defense of the radically first-person dispatch, filed from exactly those points of view where a reporter is not supposed to be.

Over the past several years, Harper's Magazine has fostered an exciting brand of journalism, participatory, sometimes even undercover, in approach. The magazine's correspondents have infiltrated the Republican machine, from its lowliest canvassing operation to its corporate and evangelical elite, and they have posed as shady clients for sleazy blue-chip lobbying firms. They have shot machine guns, lounged in Vegas brothels, and peered into secret tunnels in Mexicali. They have terrorized art museums and touched off worldwide fads.

Over the past several years, has fostered an exciting brand of journalism, participatory, sometimes even correspondents have infiltrated the Republican machine, from its lowliest canvassing operation to its corporate and evangelical elite, and they have posed as shady clients for sleazy blue-chip lobbying firms. They have shot machine guns, lounged in Vegas brothels, and peered into secret tunnels in Mexicali. They have terrorized art museums and touched off worldwide fads.

A dazzling intellectual immersion....Consistently challenging, even cause sometimes subtle, sometimes seismic shifts Award citation for General Excellence, 2006

Submersion Journalism: Reporting in the Radical First Person From Harper's Magazine came out that day and includes a piece by Monthly staffer [J]ake Silverstein [...]

The New Press recently published Submersion Journalism: Reporting in the Radical First Person. It is a great anthology, chock full of fantastic articles originally published in Harper's magazine.

[...] I was particularly intrigued by Submersion Journalism which includes work by Wells Tower, an excellent but not terribly well-known journalist who contributes to The Believer, Washington Post Magazine and others.

A smart, psychic publicist at The New Press sent me a review copy of Submersion Journalism: Reporting in the Radical First Person from as she thought I might want to blog about it. She was right; investigative reporters are my heroes. I Curiosities

Collects the high-drama writings of Harper's Magazine journalists who have gone undercover in their investigations of such subjects as right-wing evangelicals, blue-chip lobbying firms, and Mexicali tunnels.