Applegate (journalism, Middle Tennessee State U.) profiles 53 journalists who have spoken for or against particular political or social positions, and the editors of newspapers and other periodicals that have supported and encouraged them. He focuses on people in the US over the past hundred years, but includes some he considers important from other times and places. The entries include biographical and career information, sometimes comment from contemporaries, and primary and secondary bibliographies. Among earlier writers are Joseph Addison, Ambrose Bierce, Daniel Defoe, Karl Marx, and Thomas Paine. More recent ones include James Baldwin, Eldridge Cleaver, Paul Goodman, Germaine Greer, Gail Sheehy, Gloria Steinem, and Gore Vidal. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)