Controversial, yet remarkable look at how young children, primarily boys, resisted and re-made the conditions of their existence in early 20th century U.S. cities. His chronicle of the newsboys' strike is vital history. The book is more controversial when discussing the actions of the so-called 'child-savers,' one of whom actually included social activist photographer Lewis Hine. He dismisses the action of these advocates as puritanical and fundamentally ignorant of the real conditions of the children's lives. He decides that children are neither powerless nor defenseless, and this decision is, of course, a double-edged sword when dealing with the very real abuses of child labor and child exploitation that still pervade the U.S. and the globe.

Nasaw's _Children of the City_ is a wonderful glimpse into the lives of children at the turn of the century. If you are doing research on the 1899 newsboys' strike, READ THIS BOOK. It is a huge help in understanding why the newsies did what they did.

This book was extreamly good and gave a GREAT picture on what children's lives were like up to the 1920's, and the pictures and facts were INCREDABLE!!! A MUST READ!!!

A couple of years ago, the American Film Institute called Citizen Kane the best movie ever created. If the revival of Citizen Kane (based on Hearst) never happened, it is unlikely that this book would have been published. Still, Nasaw writes a compelling work. It's intimidating at 800+ pages, but it is interesting enough to get through in a few weeks without prodigious effort.

Hearst lived an exciting life of wealth and travel since his birth, and this book doesn't leave out an ounce of his peripatetic existence. Although it is easy to tell Nasaw has an obliging respect for the man (why else would he write the book?) and enough new findings to make this worth a book, you get the sense that Hearst just wasn't very good at business. He seemed to succeed by way of his personal charm and off-the-cuff style. Even if you have little interest in business, there is enough in this book about Hearst's personality and his accumulation of property and objets d'art to satisfy you. Overall: Well-written and interesting, if a little bit too much of one man -- you often feel that this is a month-by-month account of his life.

Nasaw does a very good job in turning the life of William Randolph Hearst into the subject of this popular biography. A strong writing style and a balance between section detailing the business, political and personal parts of Hearst's life keep the reader engaged. It's hard to believe the power one man had and harder still to believe that flexed it so often and so unsuccessfully on many occasions. Students of modern politics will find an instructive history about a man who is in many ways the precursor to Michael Bloomberg, Steve Forbes and Ross Perot. Students of journalism will find a man unlike any in the modern, more-or-less objective world of multinational media monsters.

The book only falls short at its end, when Hearst's final years are covered in a rushed manner and his attitudes and opinions regarding World War II and the early Cold War are barely discussed. Also, at no point does Nasaw say when or why Hearst became known as "The Chief." And the chapter on "Citizen Kane," while necessary, is not too well written.

This book is not quite as good as Smith's biography of Colonel Robert R. McCormack, but it again shows that the great newspapermen of the past were far more important than many realize.

David Nasaw has crafted in "The Chief" a brilliant portrait of one of the most important figures in twentieth century America. With the help of never before seen documents, and privileged access to the Hearst family archives, Nasaw closely follows Hearst's life and times through his young life, his Harvard years, and the subsequent rise, fall, and recovery of his publishing and movie empire. It is rare to find an academic work of this caliber. Nasaw combines the serious and diligent research of a distinguished historian with the story telling ability of a novelist to make The Chief a worthy read for anyone interested in Hearst, whose life formed the basis for Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.

I agree with the sentiments of the above reviewer, yet I wonder how such negative a review could elicit so many "stars" of evaluation. I tried to teach Nasaw's book in the context of a college course on sports and leisure, with moderate success. Aside from the discussion about white's perceptions of African Americans (a topic which, as the previous reviewer said are not themselves brought into the picture), there is little to no discussion of historical context or the social structure of the urban environments that produced these "public amusements." It seems that Nasaw's book is really part of a larger project, as there is much that needs to be filled in -- especially any detailed discussion of public amusements between 1910 and WWII and beyond. This book would be useful to the specialist of leisure of entertainment in that it is very well documented and covers a very wide territory of leisure practices. But too often the reader is left thinking "So what?" and Nasaw does little in the way of arguing WHY this particular book was written -- why he wrote it in this particular way. All in all, a rather boring and tedious book, though one which is not without its interesting historical facts.

Nasaw offers an interesting account of the rise of public amusements such as baseball, amusement parks, vaudeville and nickelodeons at the turn of the century. He argues that these amuseuements united European immigrants as "American", in part by denying access to African-Americans. Yet, Nasaw does not adequately weave his discussion of African-Americans into his narrative. Similarly, he does not discuss other ethnic groups such as Asian-Americans and Hispanics, among others to investigate their accessibility to public amusements. Nasaw also limits his account primarily to Chicago and New York, while trying to draw broad implications for the entire country. He has offered very interesting anecdotes and provided a broad history of different amusements at the turn of the century, however, his analytical framework is not without its flaws.

A very dry yet interesting account about how schools began in America and what the original purpose was when opening the schools.