Rather than deal with his personal life, McWilliams offers insights into people and places he encountered from his earliest days as a rancher's son in Steamboat Springs before WWI through the life he made in California, with an emphasis on his days at The Nation during the Nixon Administration. For example, he was there when a Norwegian came to town in 1914 and taught locals to ski, that being the start of what evolved into a major industry. And he was aiding the Peace Movement just as JFK decided to send troops to Vietnam. "If the press over the years had not abandoned its adversary vote in reporting 'sensitive' Cold War issues, the Bay of Pigs debacle might have been avoided." This wide ranging work includes a bibliography and decent index.

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