Book excerpt: During his long tenure as editor of the Emporia Gazette, William Allen White won nation-wide fame as an author, political leader, and social commentator. But more than anything else, he became the national embodiment of the small-town newspaperman and all the treasured virtues that small towns represented in the minds of Americans. Home Town News is both a fascinating biography and a compelling social history. The book uses White's career to help us understand the role of journalism--and the journalist--in turn-of-the-century American culture: Far from being a simple chronicler of daily events, the small-town newspaperman carried considerable weight in his community, becoming a leading force in local business, a galvanizing influence in civic life, and a key political activist. In addition, Home Town News tells the story of Emporia, Kansas, during this period of social change, offering a richly textured description of small-town life that takes us beyond abstractions like "modernization" and "boosterism" to yield new insights into the processes that have shaped modern America.