Albert Shaw's career has been unparalleled among editors and publishers. For more than forty years he put a strong personal stamp upon his widely circulated monthly magazine, Review of Reviews, bringing together popular, serious, and even scholarly articles in an appealing blend with other features and his own wide-ranging and thoughtful analysis of the news. A member of America's first generation of trained social scientists, he was a friend to both Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson and was a well-known and respected public figure.

Albert Shaw was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Griffin Shaw, a physician and merchant, and Susan Fisher Shaw. After the sudden death of Dr. Shaw in 1863 Albert was influenced toward newspaper work by the example of his much older cousin, Murat Halstead, who would achieve national recognition as the editor of the Cincinnati Commercial, and through a father surrogate, Roger Williams, publisher...