Commitment to Freedom, The Story of “The Christian Science Monitor”

Canham, Erwin D. Commitment to Freedom, The Story of “The Christian Science Monitor.” Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1958.

Erwin Canham is a renowned figure in the history of Christian Science. His role as editor, leading The Christian Science Monitor during the height of its public successes, coincides with his personal triumphs. He began work for The Christian Science Monitor in 1924, took a leave of absence as a Rhodes Scholar, returned as full-time staff, and was made managing editor in 1941 and editor in 1945. When he wrote the book 13 years later, he was one of the best-known American editors in the world. He admits his recounting of The Christian Science Monitor’s story is biased, but his insider role enables him to tell the story of its struggles and ideals. The content of the book includes the founding of The Christian Science Monitor, its growing pains, its achievement of maturity, its status when the book was written, and his vision for its future. Canham admired its unique business model as a newspaper owned by a church. He believed in the paper’s motto: “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind” (xvi). “Human civilization … is at a crossroads,” he wrote, and “it faces the issue of survival,” (xxiii). He warned that the mission of The Christian Science Monitor was needed at that time more than ever.

ISBN-10: 1199341223
ISBN-13 (Hardcover): 978-1199341228