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Washington's Golden Age: Hope Ridings Miller, the Society Beat, and the Rise of Women Journalists
Real news traveled fast, even in the days before internet connections. During the New Deal and World War II, Washington elites turned to Hope Ridings Miller’s column in the Washington Post to see what was really going on in town. Cocktail parties, embassy receptions and formal dinners were her beat as society editor. “I went as a guest,” said Miller, “and hoped that they’d forget I was a reporter.”
In Washington’s Golden Age, Joseph Dalton chronicles the life of this pioneering woman journalist who covered the powerful vortex of politics, diplomacy, and society during a career that stretched from FDR to LBJ. After joining the Post staff, she was the only woman on the city desk. Later she had a nationally syndicated column. For ten years she edited Diplomat Magazine and then wrote three books about Washington life. Once a girl from a small town in Texas, Miller created a web of connections at the highest levels. In Washington’s Golden Age, Dalton escorts readers inside the Capital’s regal mansions, the hushed halls of Congress, and the Post’s smoky and manly newsroom to rediscover an earlier era of gentility and discretion now relegated to the distant past.
In Washington’s Golden Age, Joseph Dalton chronicles the life of this pioneering woman journalist who covered the powerful vortex of politics, diplomacy, and society during a career that stretched from FDR to LBJ. After joining the Post staff, she was the only woman on the city desk. Later she had a nationally syndicated column. For ten years she edited Diplomat Magazine and then wrote three books about Washington life. Once a girl from a small town in Texas, Miller created a web of connections at the highest levels. In Washington’s Golden Age, Dalton escorts readers inside the Capital’s regal mansions, the hushed halls of Congress, and the Post’s smoky and manly newsroom to rediscover an earlier era of gentility and discretion now relegated to the distant past.
- GenresHistory
294 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 11, 2018
In "Washington’s Golden Age," Joseph Dalton has created a book that recalls an era of civility in a city now known for dissonance and political divide. He tells the story of Hope Ridings Miller, who came to Washington from a small town in Texas in the 1930s and worked as a freelance writer to support her husband while he studied medicine. She arrived in the city with good social skills as well as connections, notably Sam Rayburn, then a Congressman from Texas. She was soon writing about the social scene for The Washington Post, which was, back then, one of the less influential papers in DC.
Covering society during the Depression and WWII was no light-weight assignment. She worked Washington’s many dinners, parties, and cocktail hours as an invited guest, discretely reporting on the changing social alliances that influenced politics as much as the champagne and caviar served by the party hostesses. Her reporting was never cynical or mean-spirited, but she was a keen observer of interactions that might eventually influence political discussion. She became friends with some of the leading hostesses of the city—and party hostesses they were: Evalyn Walsh McLean and Perle Mesta, both wealthy icons of the era, famous for lavish balls and dinners.
When World War II broke out, she continued to cover social activities and described them as ‘parties for a purpose.' While it may not have seemed respectful to party in DC while our young men were fighting in Europe and Asia, she accurately described a shift in party purpose from social and political schmoozing to fundraising to support various causes. During those years, she covered an endless round of embassy parties, royal comings and goings, and even encountered a spy or two.
She chronicled the White House social events of 11 US Presidents and their wives, from Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, who served hot dogs to the King and Queen of England, to Bill Clinton. She noted Jackie Kennedy’s influence on design, style, and the arts, while also noting the distance the First Lady maintained from the White House and her husband. Hope’s interactions with the First Ladies gave an insight into the changing political and social attitudes influenced by contemporary events.
Hope arrived in Washington when there were few female reporters, and the few that existed were primarily confined to women’s subjects such as food and social events. She set a high standard for Washington’s women reporters with her careful research and writing and played an important role in the Women’s National Press Club, a group that was instrumental in increasing the number of women in journalism. Helen Thomas, Sarah McClendon, Sarah Booth Conroy and others benefitted from the groundwork that Hope helped lay.
I enjoyed this book and especially appreciate the insight it gives into historical political interaction between Democrats and Republicans: they dined together, partied together, and played together. There was common turf that fostered civil political debate, rational discussion, and most of all resolution. Perhaps we need to remember some of the old social graces and customs that Hope documented and better understand how they contributed to a functional political system.
#Washington'sGoldenAge #NetGalley
Covering society during the Depression and WWII was no light-weight assignment. She worked Washington’s many dinners, parties, and cocktail hours as an invited guest, discretely reporting on the changing social alliances that influenced politics as much as the champagne and caviar served by the party hostesses. Her reporting was never cynical or mean-spirited, but she was a keen observer of interactions that might eventually influence political discussion. She became friends with some of the leading hostesses of the city—and party hostesses they were: Evalyn Walsh McLean and Perle Mesta, both wealthy icons of the era, famous for lavish balls and dinners.
When World War II broke out, she continued to cover social activities and described them as ‘parties for a purpose.' While it may not have seemed respectful to party in DC while our young men were fighting in Europe and Asia, she accurately described a shift in party purpose from social and political schmoozing to fundraising to support various causes. During those years, she covered an endless round of embassy parties, royal comings and goings, and even encountered a spy or two.
She chronicled the White House social events of 11 US Presidents and their wives, from Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, who served hot dogs to the King and Queen of England, to Bill Clinton. She noted Jackie Kennedy’s influence on design, style, and the arts, while also noting the distance the First Lady maintained from the White House and her husband. Hope’s interactions with the First Ladies gave an insight into the changing political and social attitudes influenced by contemporary events.
Hope arrived in Washington when there were few female reporters, and the few that existed were primarily confined to women’s subjects such as food and social events. She set a high standard for Washington’s women reporters with her careful research and writing and played an important role in the Women’s National Press Club, a group that was instrumental in increasing the number of women in journalism. Helen Thomas, Sarah McClendon, Sarah Booth Conroy and others benefitted from the groundwork that Hope helped lay.
I enjoyed this book and especially appreciate the insight it gives into historical political interaction between Democrats and Republicans: they dined together, partied together, and played together. There was common turf that fostered civil political debate, rational discussion, and most of all resolution. Perhaps we need to remember some of the old social graces and customs that Hope documented and better understand how they contributed to a functional political system.
#Washington'sGoldenAge #NetGalley
July 17, 2019
WASHINGTON’S GOLDEN AGE reveals the life of Hope Ridings Miller, Washington Post Society Editor and trailblazer for female journalists. During the New Deal and World War II, Miller had the Post’s “it” beat as she covered parties, embassy receptions and formal dinners. “I went as a guest,” she confessed, “and hoped that they’d forget I was a reporter.” Her first cousin twice removed, Joseph Dalton, a general arts reporter and music critic for the Times Union in Albany, chronicles her life in this compulsive read set at the center of politics, society and diplomacy from FDR to LBJ. We follow Miller as she becomes the only woman on the Post’s city desk, later penning a nationally syndicated column, editing Diplomat Magazine and authoring three books about Washington life. For lovers of journalism, history and a crackin’ good yarn. 5/5
Pub Date 01 Oct 2018
Thanks to Rowman & Littlefield and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.
#Washington'sGoldenAge #NetGalley
Pub Date 01 Oct 2018
Thanks to Rowman & Littlefield and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.
#Washington'sGoldenAge #NetGalley
November 4, 2018
It took a lot of effort to finish this book. There were parts of it that were truly inspiring to realize that Hope Ridings Miller was able to become a famous reporter and author in a time where women were not respected. She clearly enjoyed covering the parties in Washington and was proud that she was able to break through as a well-known female writer. The fact that she was able to retain this role for so long was remarkable.
This book was a combination of history, politics, and society. It was the blending of those three that make this book difficult for me to read. She was always trying to get the latest scoop about a party or the social event of the time. That made her seem less like a true journalist and more like an early tabloid writer.
This book was a combination of history, politics, and society. It was the blending of those three that make this book difficult for me to read. She was always trying to get the latest scoop about a party or the social event of the time. That made her seem less like a true journalist and more like an early tabloid writer.
September 9, 2018
This book is about Hope Ridings Miller who was born in Texas and eventually ended working in Washington, D.C. for the Washington Post and during the Roosevelt era was the column that everyone read to see what was happening in our nation's Capitol both on the social scene and elsewhere. The book is written by a relative of Hope and so at times it reads more like a genealogical history, but that said, the book will still hold your interest.
I recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the development of women journalists in our nation's capitol.
I received a free Kindle copy of Washington's Golden Age by Joseph Dalton courtesy of Net Galley and Rowman & Littlefield, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazonand my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.
I requested this book as the description interested me and I enjoy reading about events in and around our nation's capitol. This is the first book I have read by the author.
I recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the development of women journalists in our nation's capitol.
I received a free Kindle copy of Washington's Golden Age by Joseph Dalton courtesy of Net Galley and Rowman & Littlefield, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazonand my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.
I requested this book as the description interested me and I enjoy reading about events in and around our nation's capitol. This is the first book I have read by the author.
November 14, 2018
I like biographies, but the ones I read are generally of famous people I have heard of & am curious about. This is different. Not only is it about someone I had never heard of, Hope Riding Miller, but about a class -- the idle, & not so idle, rich -- that I have had no interest in. But it is also a story of a woman making her way in "a man's world" in the mid-20th century, & doing it with style, grace, & talent. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews