The New York Public Library 1998 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence
in Journalism
The Finalists
William J. Broad
In The Universe Below: Discovering the Secrets of the Deep Sea
(Simon & Schuster), William Broad takes the reader on a journey of
discovery to one of the largest, and last, unexplored areas of the earth:
the deep sea. In his book, Mr. Broad describes how the use of former top-secret
technologies has led to new possibilities in underwater exploration, leading
to the discovery of famous shipwrecks and lost nuclear submarines, the
effects of industrial pollution, and previously unimagined biological diversity.
Mr. Broad is a New York Times science writer and lives in New York.
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Linda Bird Francke
Linda Bird Francke takes an in-depth look at the role of women in the
military and their impact on traditional sex roles, cultural values, and
the "masculine mystique" in Ground Zero: The Gender Wars in
the Military (Simon & Schuster). Focusing on the two years following
the Gulf War and the ongoing debate over women in combat, Ms. Francke contends
that the clash between the political forces of equal opportunity and the
"warrior" male culture is irreconcilable. Ms. Francke has written
several books and has collaborated with Geraldine Ferraro, Rosalynn Carter,
Jehan Sadat, and Benazir Bhutto on their books.
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William Greider
In One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism
(Simon & Schuster), William Greider describes the great human drama
of economic revolution sweeping the world, from peasants entering the industrial
world for the first time to the most sophisticated levels of global finance
and government. As the actions of multinational companies become more and
more guided by the imperatives of the free market, the global economy's
contradictions multiply and its instabilities deepen. While making possible
great accumulations of wealth, it is also reviving old forms of human exploitation.
William Greider is the national editor of Rolling Stone magazine.
He lives in Washington, D.C.
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Michelangelo Signorile
Life Outside: The Signorile Report on Gay Men: Sex, Drugs, Muscles,
and the Passages of Life (HarperCollins Publishers) is Michelangelo
Signorile's comprehensive analysis of contemporary gay male culture. While
detailing the pressures imposed by the current "cult of masculinity"
and the relentlessness of the drug-fueled "circuit" parties,
he also describes a positive emerging phenomenon: how life in suburban
and rural areas is changing the face of what it means to be gay in America.
Mr. Signorile writes a monthly column for Out magazine and has contributed
to the New York Times, the Village Voice, the Advocate,
and the New York Post.
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Patti Waldmeir
In Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the
New South Africa (W.W. Norton and Company), Patti Waldmeir illuminates
the forces of history, economics, demographics, and morality that led to
the emergence of a new South Africa, ending 350 years of apartheid. As
an American journalist covering South Africa for ten years, Ms. Waldmeir
witnessed this extraordinary transformation first-hand, interviewing Nelson
Mandela, P.W. Botha, F.W. de Klerk, Chief Buthelezi, and many others. From
1989 to 1995, she was bureau chief of the Financial Times in Johannesburg.
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thoerenz: pro: 4-16-98
