Theodore Harold White (1915–86) was an American journalist, historian, and novelist. He gained distinction for his in-depth and astute coverage of American political campaigns, in particular, the 1960 and 1964 presidential elections.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, White graduated from Harvard in 1938, majoring in history with an emphasis on China. He became chief of the China bureau of Time magazine 1939–45 and, from his observations, published Thunder Out of China (1946.)
White’s assignment as a European correspondent for the Overseas News Agency (1948–50) and The Reporter (1950–53) led to Fire in the Ashes (1953,) a survey of the postwar Continent. He wrote the novels The Mountain Road (1958) and The View from the Fortieth Floor (1960,) about World War II in China and a large New York news magazine, respectively.
White was closely associated with President John F. Kennedy and wrote The Making of the President 1960 (1961; Pulitzer,) a public and private examination of Kennedy’s successful presidential campaign. He wrote similar studies in identically-titled books (1965, 1969, and 1973) about subsequent presidential elections.
White’s Breach of Faith (1975) is about the downfall of Richard Nixon, and Caesar at the Rubicon: A Play About Politics (1968) about Julius Caesar’s seizure of power.
White’s personal papers, notes, and correspondence are in the library of Harvard University. His memoir is In Search of History (1978.) Theodore White at Large (1992) is a collection of some of his major articles.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Theodore H. White
Power in America today is control of the means of communication.
—Theodore H. White
Topics: Power
Whether a man is burdened by power or enjoys power; whether he is trapped by responsibility or made free by it; whether he is moved by other people and outer forces or moves them – this is of the essence of leadership.
—Theodore H. White
Topics: Leadership
He who is created by television can be destroyed by television.
—Theodore H. White
Topics: Television
The flood of money that gushes into politics today is a pollution of democracy.
—Theodore H. White
Quality in a classical Greek sense is how to live with grace and intelligence, with bravery and mercy.
—Theodore H. White
Topics: Quality
There is no excitement anywhere in the world, short of war, to match the excitement of the American presidential campaign.
—Theodore H. White
Topics: Elections, Voting
There is a thing called knowledge of the world which people do not have until they are middle aged. It is something which cannot be taught to younger people because it is not logical and does not obey laws which are constant. It has no rules.
—Theodore H. White
Topics: Knowledge
He is like a good prewar house-solidly built. They don’t build them that way anymore. He’s also been repainted several times.
—Theodore H. White
Topics: Character
If you make a living, if you earn your own money, you’re free—however free one can be on this planet.
—Theodore H. White
Topics: Freedom
To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
—Theodore H. White
Topics: Posterity
I’d get into a room and disappear into the woodwork. Now the rooms are so crowded with reporters getting behind-the-scenes stories that nobody can get behind-the-scenes stories.
—Theodore H. White
Topics: Journalism
The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then—to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.
—Theodore H. White
Topics: Disorder
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