Library Journal
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Edwards, a respected foreign correspondent, profiles the adventuresome, daredevil women who have plied her trade, from Margaret Fuller, hired by Horace Greeley in 1846, to Georgie Anne Geyer, now writing a syndicated foreign affairs column. ``Tis an evil lot, to have a man's ambition and a woman's heart,'' Fuller wrote, and Edwards chronicles how these courageous womensome truly eccentric, and most considered so by their families, peers, and male counterpartsstruggled with the sexual stereotypes of the day. Edwards tells the dramatic stories of writers, photographers, and broadcastersMargaret Bourke-White, Dorothy Thompson, Marguerite Higgins, Martha Gellhornand other lesser-known but fascinating women. Barbara Belford's Brilliant Bylines ( LJ 8/86) included many, but Edwards is first to focus solely on women foreign correspondents. An exciting look at history and journalism.Melinda Stivers Leach, Precision Editorial Svces., Wondervu, Col. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly
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Edwards, a reporter who has worked in some 100 countries, here traces the achievements of women journalists who have covered world news: Margaret Fuller's New York Herald dispatches in 1848 from revolutionary Rome; Louise Bryant in Moscow during World War I; Dorothy Thompson and Anne O'Hare McCormick in Europe in the 1920s; photographer Margaret Bourke-White's daring exploits in World War II; ``Maggie'' Higgins in Korea and others. Military rules and the rigid attitudes of male officers were especially galling to media women during the 1944 liberation of Europe, Edwards notes, but through ingenuity (and actually helped at times by being ousted from a combat zone to a wire-equipped base area) they were able to claim newsbeats during such operations as the D-day landings, the Rhine crossings and the linkup of U.S. and Soviet troops on the Elbe River. The book handily combines exciting adventure stories with a feminist statement. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Fairly amusing and informative tidbits about female foreign correspondents--from Margaret Fuller in the 1840's to Flora Lewis in the 1980's. But, unfortunately, the tidbits--presented by a veteran journalist--don't add up to the well-planned, full-course meal the material warrants and the reader craves. Edwards should have provided psychological penetration, historical perspective, even a political ax to grind--something to string together these numerous accounts of female foreign correspondents. This is not a work of history but a series of sketches, some funny, some skittish, some unclear. There are anecdotes enough to keep you reading about Dorothy Thompson, Martha Gelhorn, Margaret Bourke-White, etc. Ann Stringer, about to have an exclusive interview with Pins XII, realized that she had nothing to cover her head: ""Resourceful in an emergency, she fashioned a cap out of a pair of black lace panties."" Because WW II was such a breakthrough time for women foreign correspondents (not to be equalled again until the 1970's), the bulk of the book is focused on women covering that war, with glances at Fuller in the 19th century, WW I, Korea and Vietnam. It is the heroic individuality of each of these women that Edwards wants to show: ""The foreign correspondents of both sexes were not typical or average; they were exceptional."" The lack of overall coherence might be less disburbing if each of the accounts were a box beautifully constructed and stuffed with insights. Unfortunately, Edwards has an irritating propensity towards melodrama that tires. Overall, interesting but thin. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.