In her newest book “Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism,” Brooke Kroeger set out to shed light on the 180-year journey of women in a profession dominated by men.
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In her newest book “Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism,” Brooke Kroeger set out to shed light on the 180-year journey of women in a profession dominated by men.
The book, which covers 1840 through the present day, is like taking a class on the history of women in journalism. Kroeger introduces the reader to countless women who made their way into journalism and tells their stories. She illustrates what was going on for these women during important times in history like the Great Depression, the World Wars and Vietnam.
Kroeger has not only written about the history but has also lived it.
“I was a sophomore in college in 1968 studying journalism and wanted to do this work from the time I was nine,” Kroeger said. “I have lived this, worked it, taught it and studied it. This has been my milieu for the last 50 years or more.”
When asked why she wanted to write this book, Kroeger said it was more of a well-timed opportunity than a desire.
“I had announced my retirement at New York University a couple of years early,” Kroeger said. “Just as I had done that, this would have been in early 2019, I get a cold call email from a really important editor at Knopf, which is a wonderful house. It is a cold call. I didn’t know him at all.”
The important editor was Jonathan Segal, a vice president at Knopf, and he was looking to commission a history of journalism’s women from 1840 to the present. The cold call email asked Kroeger if she would be interested, and she was, due in part, to her past work.
“I wrote a biography of Nellie Bly, and I wrote a biography of Fannie Hurst who was a short story writer, novelist and she was also a magazine writer. I had over 50 years of her in magazines, so I knew a lot about that from 1912 to 1968 and Nellie from 1885 to 1922 when she died. I had a big swath of this material that I had more than a glancing familiarity with,” Kroeger said.
Covering 180 years of history in one book would be difficult and Kroeger and her editor Segal agreed that not everyone would be included in the book, so she set up her search parameters. She took 10-year blocks and searched the keywords “woman,” and “journalism,” to see what came up in each database she used for research.
“Some people were obvious because they endure as important figures. In journalism, that is really something because journalism isn’t meant to endure,” Kroeger said. “You and I are meant to fade away and we are OK with that, it is about the work. The point of it is today gone tomorrow. Mary Clemmer says in her poem in 1881, ‘Quick read, quick lost.’ That is the nature of the work. It is not about fame.”
The book is not only a history lesson but also full of career advice.
“If you have young reporters this book is full of really good career advice and some cautionary tales,” Kroeger said.
First time to Alabama
Based in the northeast of the United States, Kroeger has never been to Alabama but was encouraged to add a book signing event by her longtime friend and colleague Dianne Bragg.
“I am excited. Dianne Bragg is a friend and colleague of mine in journalism history circles. She is a journalism professor at the University of Alabama,” Kroeger said. “She asked me to come and I asked if we could go to the Peace and Justice Memorial. She said yes and I said I am coming. We are going to have two and a half days of craziness in Alabama.”
Flagg and Kroeger will discuss “Undaunted: How Women in America Changed Journalism,” at a free event at Page & Palette’s Book Cellar Tuesday, June 20, at 6 p.m. Customers who purchase a book at Page & Palette and attend can have their book signed and personalized.
About the author
Brooke Kroeger was U.N. correspondent for Newsday, deputy metropolitan editor at New York Newsday and for more than a decade a correspondent, editor and bureau chief at United Press International both at home and abroad. She is a professor emerita of journalism at New York University where she taught from 1998 to 2021 and serves on the editorial board of American Journalism: A Journal of Media History. For more information on her and her other books, visit brookekroeger.com.
