Journalists Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster appeared at Downtown Crossing yesterday to discuss and sign copies of their new book, “In Search of America,” which they call a “journey book” that explores the fundamental ideals of American life and the presence of those ideals in several U.S. communities.
The two, who co-authored “The Century,” agreed the overriding theme of the book was that the “founding ideals [of American life] are as … rich and vital as they have ever been in this country,” Brewster said.
While many Americans don’t share ethnicity, geography or even history, Brewster said. “We do share some fundamental ideals … that are important for us to recognize now, as we feel challenged by the war on terrorism.”
Jennings and Brewster, who started their cross-country travel in Jennings’ Ford Explorer before Sept. 11, 2001, both stressed the importance and significance of the book in the wake of Sept. 11. Although many people questioned the direction of the book after the terrorist attacks, Jennings said he and Brewster decided to continue their travels to small towns and large cities in order to examine how race, government, immigration, religion and culture changed.
“We actually decided that 9/11 had such impact on all of the country that we didn’t want to change our stories that much,” Jennings said. “We’ve begun a healing process after a year of mourning, and our stories might help understand a little better what it’s like to be in this unique place.”
Brewster said the book is one of many to participate in the journalistic tradition of reacquainting oneself with how the country is changing.
America is always changing, he said noting the United States is the only country in the world that names generations because each generation has a distinctive impact on the country’s history.
Jennings and Brewster explored this American generational difference when they followed a group of high school students in Boulder, Col., who were putting on a production of the 1960s musical “Hair.”
“They struggled deeply to understand their parents’ generation and they just didn’t get it,” Jennings recalled.
Jennings and Brewster, who were with the Colorado students on Sept. 11, said it was amazing to see the transformation of the students when all the questions they asked their parents about their generation were applicable to them.
“Overnight, all the questions seemed so real to them,” Jennings said. Questions of loyalty to the president versus loyalty to their hearts, questions about war and about the draft were questions the students all struggled with in the wake of the terrorist attacks, the journalists said.
Brewster and Jennings described how the country, and the world, is becoming “borderless” as a result of highly advanced communications and transportation capabilities.
The two joked about their trip to Gettysburg, where they encountered a truck-driver from Michigan who approached them and simply asked, “Are you global or sovereign?” Brewster joked he thought “global” and “sovereign” were two Gettysburg gangs.
He said he realized the man was asking a serious question — whether the two men embraced world vision and ideals or whether they felt separated and distinctive from the world. This is an age-old question the book also addresses, they said.
With years of experience as a foreign correspondent, Jennings later added, he considers himself a “globalist.”
In his years as a foreign correspondent, Jennings said he has traveled to between 80 and 90 countries and is one of the only reporters to have ever interviewed Saddam Hussein just before the Gulf War broke out.
Jennings described Hussein as “very engaging in person … I hesitate to use the word ‘charming.'”
Jennings said he believes the recent actions of the Bush administration and Bush’s proposed invasion of Iraq will undoubtedly illicit fear, as well as admiration, from countries around the world.