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The Secret History of the Boy Scouts of America
by Kim Christensen
Pulitzer Prize winner Kim Christensen charts the dramatic rise and fall of an American institution.
Since its founding in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America has been the nation's premier youth organization, espousing self-reliance and honor. More than 100 million Americans have been Boy Scouts, from Bill Gates to Martin Luther King Jr. Today, however, Scouting faces an existential threat of its own making: more than 82,000 former Scouts have filed claims alleging they were sexually abused—seven times the number of similar allegations that rocked the Catholic Church two decades ago.
The Scouts' indefensible practices remained all but hidden until 2012, when Kim Christensen and his colleague published a series of explosive articles for the LA Times, blowing up a century of secrecy. Now, continuing his decades-long investigation, On My Honor untangles the full story of the Boy Scouts of America, tracking its creation, growth, influence, and the massive generational trauma it has caused. Using the iconic institution to tell a story of American values over the last century, the book grapples with America's changing understanding of what it means to "make men."
This riveting story of power and abuse, religion and politics, scandal and justice, is brought to life by groundbreaking research and an unforgettable cast of characters.
"[H]arrowing...The book's most distressing revelations are drawn from letters written by survivors that were filed in the organization's recent bankruptcy proceedings ... It's an unflinching and stomach-churning exposé." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A vigorous takedown of a supposed moral exemplar." —Kirkus Reviews
"A deeply unsettling book that is well suited to readers of books about social injustices and history." —Library Journal
"Christensen's masterful reporting leads to a disturbing but unavoidable conclusion — the Boy Scouts of America must take its place in the Hall of Shame alongside tobacco companies, the Catholic Church, Purdue Pharma, and the NFL for burying a dangerous truth just to protect its brand. On My Honor is a devastating indictment." ―Martin J. Smith, author of The Wild Duck Chase and Going to Trinidad
"On My Honor is a withering tour de force by one of America's best investigative reporters. Kim Christensen is in top form as a storyteller in full possession of the facts as he lays out the decades-long child sexual abuse scandal in the Boy Scouts of America. Christensen gives inspiring accounts of victims seeking elusive justice as well as infuriating revelations about the methodical coverup by top officials. On My Honor is unsparing in exposing how U.S bankruptcy courts served as a labyrinth shield that killed the hopes of victims to confront their abusers. A must read." ―Gerald Posner, author of God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican
This information about On My Honor was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kim Christensen spent more than 40 years writing for newspapers, starting with the Dayton Daily News in his hometown in Ohio and capping his career as an investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times. He shared two Pulitzer Prizes, at the Oregonian in 2001 and at the Orange County Register in 1996, for investigations of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and of fertility fraud at University of California, Irvine.
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