Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions: Travels with an NPR Correspondent

by John F. Burnett

Book Overview

In this candid, intimate account, an award-winning 20-year veteran NPR correspondent takes readers behind the scenes of the major events of our time, letting us see what it's really like gathering the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594863040
• ISBN13: 9781594863042
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

John Burnet is a gifted writer

I couldn't put John Burnett's book down. It gives you a behind the scenes, human look at recent events like Katrina, Iraq, Guatemala. His writing is smooth as silk.

Consistently engaging

A consistently engaging set of accounts of major recent newsworthy events from the author's perspective. It's interesting to see the story behind the news headlines from such places as post-Katrina New Orleans, Waco, and post 9/11 Pakistan and Afghanistan, each told with wit and intelligence. His account of Guatemala during the 1980s is a highlight. A great blending of the facts around what the government sponsored terrorism and the personal impact it had on people there, including eventually himself. The stories on some of the "heroes" in the second half of the book seem a bit flat. And there's a question of how journalism maintains it's humanity in the midst of so much human horror which gets asked but not satisfyingly answered. But those are small nits for an otherwise great book.

Sympathic, intense

I can't remember when I first started paying attention to Burnett's NPR reporting, but I always listen when I hear his byline on the radio. Perhaps as a fellow native Texan and having grown up on the Texas/Mexico border, I am especially keen on his insights. This book covers his experiences in Latin America and Texas as well as other memorable hotspots in the world with sympathy and intensity. The best stories are focused on individuals but the entire book is a very enjoyable, engaging read.

A top, recommended pick any library will find popular with patrons

Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions: Travels with an NPR Correspondent comes from a radio journalist who has witnessed and covered some of the most important news events of our times. Even if you've seen his reports, you'll find much news in Uncivilized Beasts: insights which due to time constraints could not be expanded upon, copy from notebooks which never saw publication, bizarre encounters, and more. While his is a personal account of encounters and travels, it also provides cultural and social reflections and important first-person observations. A top, recommended pick any library will find popular with patrons, whether they be public library patrons or high school or college students. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Excellent Firsthand Accounts by a Veteran Journalist

Anyone who loves to read first-person accounts of current events will find this book exceptionally interesting. From its intriguing title, "Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions," to the text itself and the photographs included, the reader is presented with a tour of eleven locations around the world where veteran NPR journalist John F. Burnett found stories to report and personal experiences to describe. This book is one of the few nonfiction "page-turners" I have read in recent times. Once I started reading, it was difficult to put down. His writing is fluid and crisp and as impressive as his height (6' 7"). The book is divided into three sections: (1) Calamities; (2) Hacks and Fixers; and (3) Rogues and Heroes. Virtually everyone in my generation will recognize some of the main incidences and characters that Burnett chooses to write about within these categories. He begins his narrative with a report on hurricane Katrina, the first of four calamities included. Unless one's been asleep for the past year, it's difficult to imagine how one could have missed the constant reporting about the "big one" by reporters from every major network. Burnett personally covered the catastrophe for National Public Radio, reporting from New Orleans in the very first days of the event. He describes what he saw, heard, felt, and even smelled as he roamed the environs of that devastated city. I found his comments about his observations to be objective and, yet, very personal, without over editorializing or playing the "blame game" which was difficult for many reporters to resist. The next story in the calamity section deals with Iraq, primarily Burnett's experiences as an embedded reporter with, of all things, the First Marine Division Band! I'm not going to dwell on his story here except to quote a couple of sentences which I found interesting. The author points out that "Embedding was a tradeoff. Marines adopted us, protected us, and let us be eyewitnesses to the biggest story in the world. In return, we told their story as we saw it. Still, it was, for me, an awkward arrangement." As well it should have been, since the line between objective reporting and propaganda can be a thin one. "Nuff said about that. The third news story under "Calamities" is the one that most caught my attention when I initially perused the Table of Contents. Titled "Showdown at Waco," I was anxious to read what Burnett had to say about that tragedy. He was in familiar territory covering this story as he had been a roving reporter for the "Waco Tribune-Herald" thirteen years before joining NPR. Burnett was an on-scene eyewitness to the terrible events that unfolded at the Branch Davidian compound in 1993, but I was also an eyewitness, albeit via live television, and glued to the screen for hours it seemed. So I was especially interested in reading his report about what happened during the Waco incident from his perspective. I wasn't disappointed and other readers won't be eit