The acclaim for Lippmann the political thinker has at times obscured the equally impressive accomplishments of Lippmann the journalist. His output was prodigious, his influence on journalism significant. According to James Reston: -He has given a generation of newspapermen a wider vision of their duty.- Early Writings provides a unique opportunity to rediscover this journalistic Lippmann and to observe the formative years of a brilliant mind.

In 1913, just three years out of Harvard, Lippmann was asked by Herbert Croly to help plan and edit a new -weekly of ideas, - the...