Newton Person of the Week: BU Professor Chris Daly

Chris Daly is a Boston University journalism and history professor. He is a veteran journalist, who has worked at the Washington Post and the Associated Press. He recently finished writing “Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nation’s Journalism.”

How long have you lived in Newton?

I have lived in Newton for 18 years. My wife and I live in Newton Highlands (near Crystal Lake), and our two sons, who are now grown, went to school in Newton.

How did you get the idea and the discipline to write the book? 

I had been teaching a class at B.U. on the history of journalism, and I realized after a few years that it was the work I was most interested in. As I got deeper into the material to prepare my lectures, I kept finding all kinds of great stories—funny, sad, appalling, inspiring—that hadn’t been pulled together in one place. So, I thought there might be an opportunity there. I wanted to do a book about journalism that would do it justice....