If the 20th century was the century of bigness — big ideologies, big institutions, big wars — then Halberstam was one of its most apt chroniclers. Rather than nibble at history's edges, he sought to report and explain the outsize events and people of his lifetime in massive, fearless tomes. His best-known books, like The Best and the Brightest (about the Vietnam War and the brain trust that got the U.S. mired in it) and The Powers That Be (about America's major media outlets), were analytical, often judgmental looks at the workings of power and its tendency toward hubris.
Halberstam grounded his ambition in the shoe-leather reporting he practiced for the New York Times. He also balanced his weighty works with a string of books on sports. He was killed in a car crash in April on the way to interview legendary quarterback Y.A. Tittle — a fitting end for a reporter who never lost his love of the field.