Masterful essays by one of the most distinctive voices in broadcast journalism
In his Letter from Americareports for the BBC and as the host of PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, Alistair Cooke addressed millions of people all over the world every week. The fourteen essays collected here, each of which was first delivered as a speech, showcase the wit, charm, and eloquence of Cooke's voice in more intimate, but no less intimidating, settings.
In exclusive forums as varied as the Mayo Clinic and a conference of British and American scholars investigating the "state of the language," Cooke eagerly challenges expert opinions and delightfully skewers the pretensions of the powerful. Addressing the House of Representatives on the bicentennial of the Continental Congress, he warns against the dangers of sentimentalizing history and wryly notes that "practically every man who signed the Declaration of Independence is at this moment being measured for a halo or, at worst a T-shirt." At the Royal College of Surgeons in London, he compares his listeners to armed robbers and to the disreputable half of that infamous duo Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. "If I could be benevolent dictator of the United States for a year," he informs the National Trust for Historic Preservation, "I should provide several million jobs for the wrecking industry."
No one played the devil's advocate with as much grace and good humor as did Alistair Cooke. The Patient Has the Flooris an eminently quotable testament to his extraordinary talents as a journalist, scholar, and public speaker.

Alistair Cooke, KBE (1908-2004), was a legendary British American journalist, television host, and radio broadcaster. He was born in Lancashire, England, and after graduating from the University of Cambridge, was hired as a journalist for the BBC. He rose to prominence for his London Letter reports, broadcast on NBC Radio in America during the 1930s. Cooke immigrated to the United States in 1937. In 1946, he began a tradition that would last nearly six decades-his Letter from America radio appearances on the BBC. Cooke was also beloved as the host of PBS's Masterpiece Theatrefor twenty-one years. He wrote many books, both collections of his Letters from America and other projects. After his death, the Fulbright Alistair Cooke Award in Journalism was established to support students from the United Kingdom seeking to study in the United States, and vice versa.

• Dedication
• Contents
• A Note on Speech-making
• 1. The Patient Has the Floor
• 2. Hypochondria: the Layman's Specialty
• 3. How it all Began
• 4. Shakespeare in America
• 5. Staying Alive in 1776
• 6. How it all Ended
• 7. A Crash Course in Americanism
• 8. Thoughts Coming Out of the Ether
• 9. The State of the Language
• 10. Freedom and the Soldier
• 11. Doctor and Patient: Face to Face
• 12. A Noble Plan to Dissolve the Union
• 13. What to Preserve, and Why
• 14. The American in England: Emerson to S.J. Perelman
• About the Author