{"product_id":"9781557286864","title":"The Improbable Life of the Arkansas Democrat: An Oral History","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Improbable Life of the \u003c\/i\u003eArkansas Democrat is based on more than one hundred interviews with employees of the \u003ci\u003eDemocrat\u003c\/i\u003e, including editors, reporters, feature writers, cartoonists, circulation managers, business managers, salespeople, typesetters and others, from the 1930s through the early 1990s, when the Democrat took over the more prominent \u003ci\u003eArkansas Gazette\u003c\/i\u003e after an aggressive newspaper war.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis new addition to Arkansas journalism history provides vivid details about what it was like to work at the \u003ci\u003eDemocrat\u003c\/i\u003e. August Engel, who led the paper with focused devotion for forty-two years, was famous for his thrift, creating austere conditions that included no air conditioning in the newsroom and sub-par wages. In spite of these drawbacks, the paper was still home to many dedicated journalism professionals endeavoring to do good work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReaders who remember the ultimate acrimony between the two papers may be surprised to learn that for many years the \u003ci\u003eDemocrat\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eGazette\u003c\/i\u003e owners operated under a tacit agreement of civility. The papers didn’t raid each other’s staff, for example, and when a fire broke out in the \u003ci\u003eGazette\u003c\/i\u003e pressroom, \u003ci\u003eDemocrat\u003c\/i\u003e management offered to loan the use of its press. Staffers recall that when the \u003ci\u003eGazette\u003c\/i\u003e struggled with an advertising boycott and reduced circulation during the Little Rock Central High crisis because of its perceived progressive editorial stance, which infuriated many Arkansans, the \u003ci\u003eDemocrat\u003c\/i\u003e did less than it might have to capitalize. The eventual newspaper war that combined the two rivals saw the end of any semblance of civility when the \u003ci\u003eDemocrat\u003c\/i\u003e hired an aggressive and infamous managing editor named John Robert Starr.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough these firsthand stories of those who lived it, \u003ci\u003eThe Improbable Life of the\u003c\/i\u003e Arkansas Democrat tells the story of how the second-place paper overtook the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi, forever changing not only Arkansas journalism but also Arkansas history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Arkansas Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47057217454320,"sku":"9781557286864","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781557286864_p0.jpg?v=1763754668","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781557286864","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}