Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made Public

Ted Koppel

ISBN 10: 0375410775 / ISBN 13: 9780375410772

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, 2000

About this Item

One of America's most admired TV anchors gives us an intimate chronicle of the final year of the twentieth century. In this engrossing narrative, a national bestseller, are all the most significant matters of that year--from Bill Clinton's impeachment to Columbine, from the war in Kosovo to Y2K and the mass-marketing of Viagra. Here are the people who made the news--from Slobodan Milosevic to Hillary Rodham Clinton to Michael Jordan to John F. Kennedy Jr. The events of 1999 anticipate so many of the on-going challenges America faces today that Koppel's account feels entirely prescient. Koppel's book moves on yet another level as events trigger memories of his own past, providing a more personal resonance to his telling of the history we all share. He takes us back to the England in which he lived until he was thirteen. He revisits his powerful experiences as an interviewer investigating prison abuses and probing the violence in our schools. He discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the media; he talks about racial intolerance, about brutality toward gay people, about the absence of political leadership. He also examines such cultural phenomena as our obsession with celebrity and the impact of great theater and overhyped movies. Here is the voice we knew so well from Nightline--intelligent, curious, opinionated, witty, concerned--reminding us in entertaining and thought-provoking ways that even the most public events reverberate in our private lives.

Seller Inventory # CIN0375410775VG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made Public
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0375410775
• ISBN 13: 9780375410772
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

One of America's most admired television newsmen now gives us an intimate chronicle of the final year of the twentieth century. In his engrossing narrative, the year's personalities and events not only are themselves made vivid but also lead to wide-ranging discussions of the past and of expectations of things to come.

Here, closely observed from an insider's viewpoint, are the significant matters of 1999--from the Clinton impeachment and the war in Kosovo to the mass-marketing of Viagra. Here are the people (both on and off camera) who made the news--from Slobodan Milosevi´c to Hillary Rodham Clinton to Michael Jordan to John F. Kennedy Jr. to King Hussein.

And Koppel's book moves on yet another level as events trigger memories of his own past, providing a more personal resonance to his telling of the history we all share. He takes us back to the England in which he lived until he was thirteen. He revisits his powerful experiences as an interviewer investigating prison abuses and probing the violence in our schools. He discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the media; he talks about racial intolerance, about brutality toward homosexuals, about the absence of political leadership. He also examines such cultural phenomena as our obsession with celebrity and the impact of great theater and overhyped movies.

        Here is the voice we know from Nightline--intelligent, curious, opinionated, witty, concerned--reminding us in entertaining and thought-provoking ways that even the most public events reverberate in our private lives.  

About the Author

Ted Koppel, a thirty-seven-year veteran of ABC News, has been anchor of Nightline since March 1980. He has won every significant television award, including thirty-two Emmys, six Peabodys, nine Overseas Press Club awards, two George Polk Awards, and two Sigma Delta Chi Awards. Before creating Nightline, he was a foreign, domestic, and war correspondent and bureau chief for ABC, and its chief diplomatic correspondent. He is the author, with Marvin Kalb, of In the National Interest. He lives with his wife in Maryland.