Keith Bradsher Wins the 2003 New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism

Award Honors Bradsher's High and Mighty: SUVs--The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way

New York, May 14, 2003 -- The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism was presented today to Keith Bradsher for his book High and Mighty: SUVs--The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way (Public Affairs). The award, which includes a $15,000 prize, was presented by Paul LeClerc, the Library’s President, and Osborn Elliott, Chairman of the award’s Selection Committee at a ceremony held in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. High and Mighty lays bare the dangers that sports utility vehicles pose to those who drive them as well as to other cars on the road and the society at large. Bradsher was the Detroit bureau chief of The New York Times and is now the paper's Hong Kong bureau chief.

The Bernstein Award is given annually to an outstanding journalist whose book has brought an important issue, event, or policy to public attention. The four other finalists this year, each of whom received a $1,000 prize, are: Ann Louise Bardach for Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana (Random House); Richard Bernstein for Out of the Blue: The Story of September 11, 2001 from Jihad to Ground Zero (Henry Holt & Co.); William Langewiesche for American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center (North Point Press); and David Rieff for A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis (Simon & Schuster).

After receiving his award, Bradsher made brief but compelling remarks about the problems with SUVs and how, because of trade policies established in the 1960s, they are regulated much more loosely than regular automobiles. Bradsher explained that SUVs are extremely dangerous in collisions with single cars because their height allows them to slide over bumpers and sturdy door sills to crash into passenger compartments. He also explained that as more SUVs are purchased and older cars go out of service, the larger vehicles will represent a greater percentage of vehicles in use in the United States. "The problem will get worse," Bradsher said, "the only question is how much it will get worse.”

About the Book
In High and Mighty, Bradsher traces the sports utility vehicle's checkered history, showing how the automobile industry lobbied Congress to classify them not as passenger cars but as light trucks, which are subject to less stringent regulations on safety, gas mileage, and smog. He shows how the automakers' own market research has inspired the creation of ever taller and more menacing vehicles, to appeal to upscale drivers eager to wall themselves off from real and perceived threats. He reveals why SUVs are especially prone to disaster when driven on roads with guardrails, and he describes how insurers have been gouging car owners to subsidize SUV owners. "Bradsher makes a powerful case that SUVs are inflicting great damage on their occupants, other motorists, pedestrians, and the earth," said a review in Library Journal upon the book's publication in 2002. "While the information has been available for some time in bits and pieces, this book is the first to put it all together with documented facts and figures."

About the Author
Keith Bradsher was Detroit bureau chief of The New York Times from 1996 to 2001. During that time he won the George Polk Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Princeton University, and has been a Times reporter since 1989. He is currently the paper's Hong Kong bureau chief.

About the Selection Committee
The winner of the Library's Journalism Award is chosen by an independent committee of professional journalists and publishers, chaired by Osborn Elliott, former Editor-in-Chief of Newsweek and Chairman of the Citizens Committee for New York City. This year's committee members are Ellis Cose, Contributing Editor of Newsweek; James F. Hoge, Jr., Editor of Foreign Affairs; Harold W. (Terry) McGraw III, Chairman, President, and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies; Jack Rosenthal, President, The New York Times Company Foundation; Elaine Sciolino, Paris Bureau Chief, The New York Times; and Ray Sokolov, writer, and Alair Townsend, Publisher, Crain's New York Business.

The five finalists were chosen by a review committee of New York Public Library librarians from a field of 83 books nominated by publishers, editors, and executives of major newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses nationwide.

About the Bernstein Book Award
Established in 1987, The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award honors journalists and their unique role in drawing the attention of the public to important current issues. The award was established with a gift from Joseph F. Bernstein in honor of Helen Bernstein, a former journalist in Palm Beach, Florida. The gift also included an endowment for the position of the Helen Bernstein Chief Librarian for Periodicals and Journals in the General Research Division of the Library. The chair is currently held by Stewart Bodner, who oversees a collection of 11,500 current periodicals in 24 languages. This collection is used by approximately 60,000 researchers annually and is an invaluable resource for writers, artists, journalists, broadcasters, business people, and students. Information about the award and the nomination process is available online.

Previous Winners
The previous 15 winners are:

2002: Nina Bernstein, The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care

2001: Elaine Sciolino, Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran

2000 (joint award): James Mann, About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton; Patrick Tyler, A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China: An Investigative History

1999: Philip Gourevitch, We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: stories from Rwanda

1998: Patti Waldmeir, Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa

1997: David Quammen, The Song of the Dodo: Island Biography in an Age of Extinctions

1996:Tina Rosenberg, The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism

1995: Joseph Nocera, A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class

1994: David Remnick, Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire

1993: Samuel Freedman, Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church

1992: Alex P. Kotlowitz, There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America

1991: Nicholas Lemann, The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America

1990: Thomas Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem

1989: Judy Woodruff for her series of television reports focusing on the Iran-Contra affair

1988: James Reston, in special recognition of his 50-year contribution to journalism.

###

Press Contact: Herb Scher or Tina Hoerenz, 212.704.8600

th: pro