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American Radical by D.D. Guttenplan
Writings by I.F. Stone


Best of I. F. Stone

Introduction by Peter Osnos
Edited by Karl Weber

For the first time in a generation: The essential writing of I.F. (Izzy) Stone—the brilliant investigative journalist whose work is as fresh and as urgent as the day it was written.

Read the introduction to this book

Download the entire book (non-printable PDF)




Izzy Stone was a reporter, a radical, an idealist, a scholar and, it is clear, a writer whose insights have more than stood the test of time. More than fifteen years after his death, this collection of his work from I.F. Stone's Weekly and elsewhere is astonishing in its relevance to our age, addressing the clash between national security and individual liberty, the protection of minorities, economic fairness, social justice, and the American military abroad.

The core of Stone's genius was his newsletter, I.F. Stone's Weekly, published from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. His meticulous dissection of the news was unsurpassed, a direct descendent of the great pamphleteers like Thomas Paine, and a forerunner to the best of today's political blogs. Stone's brilliant, investigative reporting; his wonderful, impassioned style; and his commitment to his values all make this collection an inspiration, and a revelation.

I.F. (Izzy) Stone (1907–1989) had a remarkable journalistic career, as an editorialist at the New York Post during the Great Depression, a longtime staffer at The Nation, the author of many books, and the founder and editor of his own I.F. Stone's Weekly, he "spoke truth to power" with an effectiveness that few have done before or since.

Praise for Best of I.F. Stone:

“[The book is] both an instructive history and a reminder that fears of government secrecy and repression were as real then as they are today.”
—Bob Hoover, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Any writer of strong and passionate convictions will occasionally stumble, but Stone is unfailingly sure-footed in editor Karl Weber’s collection ‘The Best of I.F. Stone,’ which mined 65 essays from the thousands Stone wrote between 1949 and 1970. They are vivid, graceful, humorous, furious, intelligent and just a heckuva lot of fun to read.”
San Diego Union-Tribune

“[B]eautifully selected and introduced.”
Los Angeles Times

“[An] excellent new collection of his writing.”
—Joe Conason, Salon.com

“It’s a pleasure to turn to The Best of I.F. Stone, which ranges from fine libertarian philippics to vivid reporting on the first United National conference in San Francisco in 1945.”
New York Observer

“Mr. Stone's words, his themes, indeed his persona are captured well through the 65 essays collected in The Best of I.F. Stone."
—Dallas Morning News 9/11

“Does the memory of the independent-minded, hearing-impaired, liberally leftist, reliably humorous, ever quizzical and wonderfully prolific journalist I.F. Stone have anything to offer to us today? Myra MacPherson has written a biography…in order to demonstrate that Stone and his journalistic achievements do have something to offer, and Karl Weber and Peter Osnos have brought out an anthology of 65 articles…in order to demonstrate that MacPherson is right. And it is easy to see what the biographer and anthologists have in mind.”
—Paul Berman, New York Times Book Review

“Karl Weber…chose and annotated a series of essays by Stone over three decades….Organized by theme, these works illustrate Stone the conversationalist, the occasional satirist, but always the polemicist who is committed to exposing sacred cows and to supporting human rights.”
Jewish Book World

Other Collections Often Out of Print:

The Truman Era
The Truman Era
The War Years
The War Years
Click cover for more info
Haunted Fifties
The Haunted Fifties
Polemics and Prophecies
Polemics and Prophecies
In a Time of Torment
In a Time of Torment
Killings at Kent State
Killings at Kent State
Best Of
The Best of I.F. Stone's Weekly