Critics' Opinion:
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Published Apr 2008
240 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
The photograph strikes us with visceral force, even years after the instant it captured. A white man, rage written on his face, lunges to spear a black man who is being held by another white. The assailant’s weapon is the American flag. Boston, April 5, 1976: As the city simmered with racial tension over forced school busing, newsman Stanley Forman hurried to City Hall to photograph that day’s protest, arriving just in time to snap the image that his editor would title “The Soiling of Old Glory.” The photo made headlines across the U.S. and won Forman his second Pulitzer Prize. It shocked Boston, and America: Racial strife had not only not ended with the 1960s, it was alive and well in the cradle of liberty.
"Starred Review. Historian Masur ...has written a gem of a book based on an iconic, Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph by Stanley Forman." - Publishers Weekly.
"A compelling story; highly recommended." - Library Journal.
"A moving reminder of a painful episode in American history." - Kirkus Reviews.
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Masur shows that the photo that rocked America and won Forman a Pulitzer is not quite what it appears to be: The teenager was swinging the flag, not charging with it, and the man holding Landsmark was helping him to his feet.
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