When a Michigan farm boy arrived in Chicago in 1912 hoping to be employed by a newspaper, he could never have anticipated that he was about to have a key role in observing momentous world events, meeting world leaders and dictators, and undertaking extreme adventures. The extraordinary story of his next 24 years as a journalist is told in Webb Miller’s memoir I Found No Peace: A Journey Through the Age of Extremes.
After four years of reporting on crime and justice in Chicago, including an episode in which he was assaulted and kidnapped by a millionaire, Webb went to the Mexican border to report on the conflict between Pancho Villa and the US Army. In 1917 he was sent to Europe to report on the World War, and after the war he worked in Europe.
In 1930 he had an adventurous journey to India to report on Gandhi’s famous salt march. After obtaining 10 visas and 4 inoculations in one day, he set off on a 7-day plane journey with 5 other passengers, landing in Cologne, Nuremberg, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Skopje, Salonika, Crete, Alexandria, Gaza, Rutbah, Baghdad, Basra, Bushire, Lingeh, Jask, Gwadar and Karachi. Many incidents were encountered along the way including various close calls with mechanical failures.
Besides providing entertaining accounts of daring adventures, the book gives fascinating insights into what the world was like in the period between the world wars. Over the past 80 years, with advances in technology, the world has become a very different place, but the humans who inhabit it are still pretty much the same.