The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst

The Chief is a well researched and excellent addition to the life of William Randolph Hearst who built the Hearst media empire. This is not a Hearst can do no wrong type of biography and strikes a very balanced tone in assessing the Chief's successes and his failures. There is excellent research done into his family life and how those relationships played out through his parents, his wife and his mistress. His role in newspaper publishing and Hollywood is discussed and for those who had any faith left in the press it will be shattered by the time you are done with this book. The yellow journalism of the Gilded Age and the political machines that were backed by the papers is a fascinating yet scary thing to read about. Don't be put off by the daunting number of pages in the book as it is a quick read and you actually feel as though you want more information in certain areas although given the lack available it is not possible. Overall a truly excellent book and well worth the time to read.

Just finished this book. After reading all 607 pages, I have two general impressions to pass along. The first is that it is, without doubt, a thoroughly researched book to the point that it is as much a reference or text book on the Hearst era as well as a biography of the man. With its 40+ pages of end notes, the author has documented virtually any statement of any important or material fact. However, with that said, I must quickly add that notwithstanding the voluminous end-notes, the references to them (small superscript numbers throughout the text) are not really distracting. They are just there, and after the first page or two, you ignore them, unless, of course, you want to check the source.

If it were not for the this second impression, I would have given this book 5 stars. As well written and researched as this book is, I also have to say it is rather hard (tedious?) reading at times. The author has a somewhat disturbing style of using "choppy" sentence structure by breaking them up with parenthetical phases/clauses. After reading the first part of a sentence, often the thought gets interrupted with a subordinate thought or two, and before you're aware of it, you've lost track of what the point of the entire sentence was about--and then have to re-read it to bring the thought together.

But, I did enjoy the book very much. It is well worth the price, and well worth reading about this enigmatic, bigger-than-life man who dominated and influenced so many aspects of late 19th and the first half of the 20th century life.

Hearst is a fascinating figure and so I really wanted to read this biography. There is no doubt that Nasaw has done his research. He has done an excellent job of compiling great amounts of information and details concerning Hearst. For that he deserves five stars. Yet there was just something missing. Sure there is plenty on Hearst, but not much on his impact, on how he changed things (maybe he did not), or on the history going on around him. Nasaw spent little time discussing the Spanish American War and Hearst's involvement but plenty on the type of art he collected. I would have loved to learned more about his father and mother, but again, just general details. I guess I have been spoiled by biographers such as Robert Caro who do such a great job describing people around "the person" as well as the individual they are writing about as well.

I wanted to give the book four stars but do to the problems above, I give it three. There is no doubt that you will learn about Hearst, his history, and his fortune, but not much on his relevance and impact. For that, I have found the book wanting.

Fascinating, lengthy description of Hearst's life and times including his radical views of wealth, spending money and relationships with the government. I learned a lot of things I didn't know and this well researched book is entertaining reading. Tells clearly that Hearst was not Citizen Kane. I thoroughly enjoyed this book

This book is a real winner! What a whirlwind of a life! I loved it!