| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS America: What Went Wrong? is an expanded version of a nine-partseries originally published by the Philadelphia Inquirer in October 1991. Theseries generated the largest response from readers in the newspaper's his-tory-some 20,000 letters, notes, telephone calls, and requests for reprints. Of all the debts we incurred in researching and writing this project,the largest is to the institution where we have worked for the last twenty-one years-the Philadelphia Inquirer. In an age in which many newspapersare advocating short news stories, the Inquirer continues to swim vigor-ously and successfully against the tide, believing, as we do, that readers wantdetailed information they can get nowhere else, that they will read longstories if the material is interestingly written and appropriately presented. "America: What Went Wrong?" filled twenty-five pages and was typ-ical of what readers have come to expect from the newspaper. It is a tradi-tion that began for us in 1971 under John McMuUan, who brought ustogether in a temporary partnership that is now in its twenty-second year.It continued under his successor, Gene Roberts, who expanded the horizonsof investigative reporting and made the newspaper's name synonymouswith the best of the investigative genre. And it flourishes under Roberts'ssuccessor, Maxwell King, who became Editor of the Inquirer when Robertsretired in 1990. King not only brought enthusiasm and commitment to thisproject, but he also helped shape the research into some of the broad themesthat have had a powerful impact on readers. To all of them, we are deeplyappreciative of their support and belief in us. In addition, we would also like to thank all those we interviewed,many of whom are quoted in the book, as well as many others who are notyet whose observations and insights were of equal value to us in under-standing the nuances of everything from defined-benefit pension plans tojunkbonds. We would also like to express our appreciation to employees of state,local and federal agencies and of state and federal courts throughout thecountry who patiently assisted in the difficult task of locating records anddocuments. A special word of thanks must go to Lela Young, in the publicreading room of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington.An island of serenity in the most chaotic workplace imaginable, Mrs. Younghas been a help for many years and this is a small way to say thanks. As always, we are indebted to librarians at public, private and univer-sity libraries across the country, including those at Lippincott Library ofthe University of Pennsylvania, in the government-publications room of theFree Library of Philadelphia and at the Niles (Michigan) Community Li-brary. We owe special thanks to the library staff of the Inquirer for hoursspent assisting us in ferreting out information from electronic data bases.V |
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