Last Call at the Hotel Imperial

The Reporters Who Took On a World at War

By: Deborah Cohen

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

WINNER OF THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE • A prize-winning historian’s “effervescent” (The New Yorker) account of a close-knit band of wildly famous American reporters who, in the run-up to World War II, took on dictators and rewrote the rules of modern journalism

“High-speed, four-lane storytelling . . . Cohen’s all-action narrative bursts with colour and incident.”—Financial Times

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITH BOOK PRIZE AND THE RALPH WALDO EMERSON AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE PROSE AWARD

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, NPR, BookPage, Booklist

They were an astonishing group: glamorous, gutsy, and irreverent to the bone. As cub reporters in the 1920s, they roamed across a war-ravaged world, sometimes perched atop mules on wooden saddles, sometimes gliding through countries in the splendor of a first-class sleeper car. While empires collapsed and fledgling democracies faltered, they chased deposed empresses, international financiers, and Balkan gun-runners, and then knocked back doubles late into the night.

Last Call at the Hotel Imperial is the extraordinary story of John Gunther, H. R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson. In those tumultuous years, they landed exclusive interviews with Hitler and Mussolini, Nehru and Gandhi, and helped shape what Americans knew about the world. Alongside these backstage glimpses into the halls of power, they left another equally incredible set of records. Living in the heady afterglow of Freud, they subjected themselves to frank, critical scrutiny and argued about love, war, sex, death, and everything in between.

Plunged into successive global crises, Gunther, Knickerbocker, Sheean, and Thompson could no longer separate themselves from the turmoil that surrounded them. To tell that story, they broke long-standing taboos. From their circle came not just the first modern account of illness in Gunther’s Death Be Not Proud—a memoir about his son’s death from cancer—but the first no-holds-barred chronicle of a marriage: Sheean’s Dorothy and Red, about Thompson’s fractious relationship with Sinclair Lewis.

Told with the immediacy of a conversation overheard, this revelatory book captures how the global upheavals of the twentieth century felt up close.

InterWar Years details of reporters' notebook

A story of the reporters and 'foreign correspondents' who came to prominence in the late 1920'- applied their trade in the 1930's and reported on the 2nd World War in the 1940's.

John Gunther, Dorothy Thompson, Jimmie Sheehan and H. Knickerbocker (and some others) - became America's "eyes and ears" concerning the rising threat of Fascism (Franco, Mussolini, Hitler) and Totalitarianism (Stalin).

Cohen tells their story at both a personal and professional level - how they 'bagged' interviews with Dictators and etc.

I was more interested in how the reporters thought about covering the Dictators, got their interviews and argued with their Editors about the correct nature/slant/objectivism of their reporting. I think the idea of how to report events - outside the United States, back to people within the United States in a way that 'tells them what is happening' - but without 'blatant advocacy' - is a relevant problem today.

Some of these people were 'larger than life' - with bouts of drinking, affairs, ruined marriages yet insight on what was happening and projections about what was going to happen.

All things must pass though - the crew depicted was outshone by others during the later stages of the War (Ed Murrow, Harry Reasoner, Eric Sevaried) - then later in a new medium Walter Cronkite.

Interesting perspectives of reporters who saw history; reported it and made some history themselves.

Should be of interest to those who have an interest in the inter-war years 1919-1939 in Europe.

Carl Gallozzi

exceptional research great story

incredible information & highly recommend for anyone trying to understand today's geo-political world. We need the clarity today that was so important to these icons, and the passion needed to report on the autraucities and lies that FOX News spins in Russia's favor. The world has not moved past the issues debated and fought over in WWII.

A bit of history told through global journalists.

I recommend the book for presenting 1920-1950 history through global journalist careers, lives and writing.

Is History Going To Repeat Itself

I recently saw this book come up on my list of new reads and purchased it. I have read other works of Dr. Cohen and truly appreciate her absolute attention to detail. Her new book takes place in the 1930’s with the rise of European war. The author’s pursuit to inform the reader of a pivotal yesteryear of history with the juxtaposition of four journalists’ lives and their writings is especially timely.. Who would have ever thought this book would come on the footsteps of a very scary current affairs nightmare we now find ourselves watching from afar? Bravo to the writer for her fortitude and autopsy of a time in history that surely we can learn from and may we remember all what journalists do to bring us the news of war risking their own safety. This is a must read.

The Days of Swashbuckling Foreign Correspondents

I have always said that if I had to choose another career from what I do now, it would be foreign correspondent. Of course the life is not what it was back in the 1920s and 1930’s. Guys like Vincent Sheehan and William Shirer are my heroes. I don’t know why Shirer was cut out of this book. He was part of this inner circle all the way to the end, although he would outlive them all by 20 years.

I’m not crazy about the narrator. She has a nice, clear voice and pronunciation, but she tends to read everything in the same overly dramatic tone whether a character is discussing the menace of Hitler or ordering a ham sandwich. Still, I highly recommend the book, which will take you back to a world that no longer is.