In the years after the Civil Rights Act of
1964\, women in the workplace still found themselves relegated to secreta
rial positions or locked out of jobs entirely. This was especially true in
the news business\, a backwater of male chauvinism where a woman might be
lucky to get a foothold on the &ldquo\;women&rsquo\;s pages.&rdquo\; But
when a pioneering nonprofit called National Public Radio came along in the
1970s\, and the door to serious journalism opened a crack\, four remarkab
le women came along and blew it off the hinges.
Susan\, Linda\, Nina\, and Cokie is journalist Lisa Napoli&rsquo\;s ca ptivating account of these four women\, their deep and enduring friendship s\, and the trail they blazed to becoming icons. They had radically differ ent stories. Cokie Roberts was born into a political dynasty\, roamed the halls of Congress as a child\, and felt a tug toward public service. Susan Stamberg\, who had lived in India with her husband who worked for the Sta te Department\, was the first woman to anchor a nightly news program and p ressed for accommodations to balance work and home life. Linda Wertheimer\ , the daughter of shopkeepers in New Mexico\, fought her way to a scholars hip and a spot on-air. And Nina Totenberg\, the network's legal affairs co rrespondent\, invented a new way to cover the Supreme Court. Based on exte nsive interviews and calling on the author&rsquo\;s deep connections in ne ws and public radio\, Susan\, Linda\, Nina\, and Cokie is as beguiling and sharp as its formidable subjects.
\nBefore escaping daily journalis m\, Napoli worked at a variety of news outlets including the New York Time s CyberTimes\, MSNBC\, and the public radio show Marketplace\, covering ev erything from presidential campaigns\, artists in Los Angeles\, the Waco h ostage standoff\, an outdoor hacker convention\, and the then-emerging cul ture of the Internet and digital technology. Along with Susan\, Linda\, Ni na\, and Cokie\, Lisa has also written Radio Shangri-La\, Ray &\; Joan\ , and Up All Night
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