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Works of Radical Imagination

Book cover for Power, Privilege and the Post
Book cover for Power, Privilege and the PostBook cover for Power, Privilege and the Post

Katherine Graham's story has all the elements of the phoenix rising from the ashes, and in Carol Felsenthal's unauthorized biography, Power, Privilege, and the Post, Graham's personal tragedies and triumphs are revealed. The homely and insecure daughter of the Jewish millionaire and owner of the Washington Post, Eugene Myer, Kay married the handsome, brilliant and power-hungry Philip Graham in 1940. By 1948 Kay's father had turned control of the Washington Post over to Phil, who spent the next decade amassing a media empire that included radio and TV stations. But, as Felsenthal shows, he mostly focused on building the reputation of the Post and positioning himself as a Washington power-player. Plagued by manic depression, Phil's behavior became more erratic and outlandish, and his downward spiral ended in 1963 when he took his own life. Surprising the newspaper industry, Kay Graham took control of the paper, beginning one of the most unprecedented careers in media history.

Felsenthal weaves her exhaustive research into a perceptive portrayal of the Graham family and an expert dissection of the internal politics at the Post, and a portrait of one of a unique, tragic, and ultimately triumphant figure of twentieth-century America.

Book cover for Power, Privilege and the Post
Book cover for Power, Privilege and the PostBook cover for Power, Privilege and the Post

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Power is a terrific newspaper book ... [It] is also an excellent business case history.”

“This is a lively biography about an ugly ducking who grew up to become a swan, or, possibly, given Mrs. Graham's wealth and power, an eagle.”

“For sheer reading pleasure and a brilliant picture of a complex woman, pick up Power, Privilege, and the Post: The Katherine Graham Story. In my view, it has already won a prize for one of the best biographies of this, or perhaps, any year.”

“In Power, Privilege, and the Post, Carol Felsenthal has given us more than a biography of a single woman. This is a book that places its subject within a swirling context of newspaper publishing and American politics and helps us understand the power and privileges of the media in our time.”

blog — November 01

Celebrating 40 Years of Project Censored

Did you know that the U.S. military is deployed in 70% of the world's nations? Or that leaked State Deptartment cables show that the U.S. planned to instigate civil strife in Syria as early in 2006? What about the chronic problem of medical neglect in private, for-profit, U.S. immigrant-only jails?

No? Neither did the rest of the world. That's because these and countless other news items are suppressed or ignored by our nation's "free press" every day. For the past forty years, Project Censored has been unearthing the buried stories that corporate media deem unfit to print. They also just hosted a jam-packed Media Freedom Summit and co-founded the Global Critical Media Literacy Project in partnership with the Action Coalition for Media Education and the graduate program in Media Literacy and Digital Culture at Sacred Heart University.

To celebrate, we're showcasing Censored 2017 at a 25% off online discount and offering 50% off Censored backlist titles (from Censored 1996 to Censored 2006), along with select Seven Stoires books on media literacy, including titles by Arundhati Roy and Noam Chomsky.

Check out our discounted Project Censored and media literacy collection!



Carol Felsenthal

CAROL FELSENTHAL is the author of several acclaimed biographies, including Citizen Newhouse: Portrait of a Media Merchant, Princess Alice: The Life and Times of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Power, Privilege and the Post: The Katharine Graham Story, and The Sweetheart of the Silent Majority: The Biography of Phyllis Schlafly. Felsenthal received her BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana and her MA from Boston College. A native of Chicago, she lives there with her husband and three children.