On All Fronts
The Education of a Journalist
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist beautifully outlines . . . what it means to seek the truth. It gave me a new faith in the power of reporting.” —Oprah Winfrey
The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter. In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, she has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range. With her deep empathy, Ward finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts is the riveting account of Ward’s singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism.
Following a privileged but lonely childhood, Ward found her calling as an international war correspondent in the aftermath of 9/11. From her early days in the field, she was embedding with marines at the height of the Iraq War and reporting from the center of Israel’s war with Hezbollah. Soon she was soon on assignment all over the globe. From her multiple stints entrenched with Syrian rebels to her deep investigations into the Western extremists who are drawn to ISIS, Ward covered Bashar al-Assad’s reign of terror without fear and with courage and compassion. In 2018, Ward rose to new heights at CNN and became a mother. Suddenly, she was doing this hardest of jobs with a whole new perspective.
On All Fronts is the unforgettable story of one extraordinary journalist—and of a changing world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ward, CNN's chief international correspondent, recounts her life in journalism in this insightful memoir. Ward grew up in a well-to-do family in New York City and London and attended Yale; after watching the 9/11 attacks on TV, she found a "sense of purpose and clarity" and knew she "had to go to the front lines." Her career began as a desk assistant for Fox in 2003, from there she worked for CBS, ABC, and finally CNN, where she focused heavily on the Middle East. She conducted much of her reporting covertly and during combat, and she details her often harrowing experiences that eventually took a toll on her physical and mental well-being. She survived the 2005 attack on the Fox headquarters in Baghdad; escaped a violent crowd of Han Chinese, who, after beating a group of Uighur men, turned to the reporters present; and smuggled memory cards containing images of the Arab Spring protests out of Syria in her underwear. But it's the connections she made with the civilians that really tell the story of these war-torn regions and demonstrate an empathy that makes Ward's work so accessible, as when she sings to a room of Muslim women during a heavy shelling attack. Along the way, Ward shares some anecdotes such as meeting Quentin Tarantino as a stand-in on the set of Kill Bill, and meeting Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif at a dinner party in Moscow in 2007. Ward surprises in this affecting insider view of international reporting.
