"Look has now been downloaded from magazine heaven by Andrew Yarrow, a reporter turned academic and the author of five other books. His lavishly illustrated Look: How a Highly Influential Magazine Helped Define Mid-Twentieth-Century America aims not only to rescue the glossy from obscurity but to burnish its reputation for courageous journalism. In the process, he unreels a compact social history of the country from the Depression to the dawn of the 1970s with all its pleasures, pain, breakthroughs and foibles."—Edward Kosner, Wall Street Journal
"Yarrow provides an enormous amount of information about a magazine whose content and success have been overlooked, and that is a valuable contribution to journalism history and American history."—Carolyn Kitch, American Journalism
“This is a fascinating slice of American history: the story of Look, a magazine that ‘informed people rather than riling them up or scaring them.’ Andrew Yarrow writes persuasively and vividly about something precious the world is in danger of losing—journalism grounded in honesty and goodwill.”—Robert Guest, foreign editor of the Economist
“In this quietly amazing biography, Andrew Yarrow brings to life a major mid-twentieth-century magazine, now forgotten or dismissed as ‘middlebrow,’ and reveals it as path-breaking, radical, and surprisingly influential. He shows Look connecting tens of millions of readers who could assume, even when they disagreed, that they were reflecting on and discussing the same facts and opinions. A thoughtful, lively story about a pivotal thirty-four years in America.”—John Poppy, writer for Look, 1960–70
“Look magazine was one of the most influential mass-circulation magazines in post–World War II America, combining cutting-edge social and political stories and gripping photography. In this ground-breaking new work, historian and journalist Andrew Yarrow recovers the contribution of this sometimes overlooked publication to examine the critical role Look played in creating an informed citizenry and generating civilized public debate.”—Rosemarie Zagarri, University Professor and a professor of history at George Mason University
