Isidor Feinstien (I. F. "Izzy" Stone)

Born into a simple life in Haddonfield, New Jersey, Isidor Feinstien longed to escape the walls of his family's general store. Delving into newspapers and philosophies at just the age of 14 he was inspired to publish his own journal The Progress. He would eventually attend the University of Pennsylvania but quickly felt unchallenged by his classes and drop out. It was soon there after when he was working for the Philadelphia Record that he would become one of the youngest editorial journalists of his time. With the tides turning in Nazi Germany and World War II quickly mounting Feinsien felt it necssary to change his name to "Stone" to hide his Jewish roots. He was then writing for the New York Post and felt that his anti-fascist editorials would hold more tenacity if not written by someone so "obviously Jewish."

Facing oppression for his Communist sympathies, left Feinstien unemployed but determined to pursue his passion for writing. With the loan of a friend and the assistance of his wife he published I.F. Stone's Weekly, a newsletter that highlighted radical issues facing social injustices and civil liberties. He spent his time scanning the pages of government publications often finding what most journalists might have missed. The Weekly would become a strong voice against the Cold War and would be the first publication to suggest that Lyndon B. Johnson's Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was based on falsities. But by 1967, Feinstien began to slow down, only publishing a bi-weekly edition of the Weekly and by 1971 stop printing all together. Feinstien would end his career writing about ancient times, investigating and pulling them apart as he did with modern politics.

Described as a "lone gadfly against the establishment," Isidor Feinstien, single handedly crafted the definition of radical journalism in the 20th century. Rising above the scathing prejudices of McCarthyism, Feinstien's Weekly issue brought light to civil issues that many journalists lacked the grit to publish. The Daily would eventually reach 73,000 followers and would be ranked 16th in "The Top 100 Works of Journalism in the United States in the 20th Century." Feinstien's legacy is defined by nonconformist reporting on the social issues of the time and his ability to find the hidden truths skipped over by mainstream media.