“This I Believe” was a five-minute-long program on the CBS Radio Network [196 stations] hosted by acclaimed journalist Edward R. Murrow. It ran from 1951 to ’55, and turned into a cultural phenomenon: each day, some 39 million Americans listened in; it was relayed to listeners in 97 foreign countries. As well, 85 newspapers printed a weekly column of “This I Believe” mini-essays—they weren’t to exceed 600 words. Truly, Murrow’s project struck a chord.
What folks got in those few minutes and those few words were, as National Public Radio has reported, “guiding principles” by which to live their lives. The writers’ words “brought comfort and inspiration to a country worried about the Cold War, McCarthyism, and racial division.” As goodreads.com mentions, these convictions have been selected “by scholars as being culturally important,” and are “part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.”
When, in 1952, Simon & Schuster published a collection of these professions, 300,000 copies were sold, second only to the Bible that year. Both famous and everyday people told on air “their own personal motivation in life,” as Wikipedia has it. Authors included Helen Keller, Aldous Huxley, Margaret Mead, Thomas Mann, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of One Hundred Thoughtful Men and Women
Edited by Edward P. Morgan
Simon & Schuster, 1952
