George Packer (born August 13, 1960) is a US journalist, novelist, and playwright. He is best known for his writings for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' and ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' about
U.S. foreign policy and for his book ''
The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq''. Packer also wrote ''
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America'', covering the history of the US from 1978 to 2012. In November 2013, ''The Unwinding'' received the
National Book Award for Nonfiction
The National Book Award for Nonfiction is one of five U.S. annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by U.S. citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". The panelists ...
. His award-winning biography, ''Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century'', was released in May 2019. His latest book, ''Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal'' was released in June 2021.
Early life and education
Packer was born in
Santa Clara,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. His parents taught at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
: his mother,
Nancy Packer (née Huddleston), was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in the Creative Writing Program and later professor of English, and his father,
Herbert L. Packer, was a distinguished professor of law, and the author of numerous books and articles. Packer's maternal grandfather,
George Huddleston, Sr., had served eleven successive terms (1915–1937) representing Alabama's 9th congressional district in the
U.S. House of Representatives. His uncle,
George Huddleston, Jr., succeeded to his father's seat in the House of Representatives from 1954 to 1964.
[David Glenn,]
Unfinished Wars
, ''Columbia Journalism Review
The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...
'', September 2005. Packer's sister,
Ann Packer
Ann Elizabeth Packer MBE (born 8 March 1942) is an English former sprinter, hurdler and long jumper. She won a gold medal in the 800 metres and a silver in the 400 metres at the 1964 Summer Olympics.
Early life
In 1959 Packer won the English ...
, also is a writer. Their father's background was Jewish and their mother's Christian.
Packer graduated from
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
in 1982, where he resided at
Calhoun College (now called Grace Hopper College). He served in the
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John ...
in
Togo
Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...
.
[
Packer is married to writer and editor Laura Secor. He was previously married to Michele Millon.
]
Career
His essays and articles have appeared in '' Boston Review'', ''The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
'', ''World Affairs
''World Affairs'' is an American quarterly journal covering international relations. At one time, it was an official publication of the American Peace Society. The magazine has been published since 1837 and was re-launched in January 2008 as a ne ...
'', '' Harper's'', ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', and ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', among other publications. Packer was a columnist for '' Mother Jones'' and was a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' from 2003 to 2018. He now writes for ''The Atlantic''.
Packer was a Holtzbrinck Fellow Class of Fall 2009 at the American Academy in Berlin.
His 2005 book '' The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq'' analyzes the events that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including ...
and reports on subsequent developments in that country, largely based on interviews with ordinary Iraqis. He was a supporter of the Iraq war. He was a finalist for the 2004 Michael Kelly Award
The Michael Kelly Award is a journalism award sponsored by the Atlantic Media Company
Atlantic Media is an American print and online media company owned by David G. Bradley and based in the Watergate in Washington, D.C. It publishes ''The Atlan ...
.
In July 2013 the New Yorker Festival released a video entitled ''Geoffrey Canada on Giving Voice to the Have-nots'', of a panel that was moderated by George Packer. Along with Canada, the panelists included Abhijit Banerjee, Katherine Boo
Katherine "Kate" J. Boo (born August 12, 1964) is an American investigative journalist who has documented the lives of people in poverty. She has won the MacArthur "genius" award (2002) and the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2012), and her wo ...
, and Jose Antonio Vargas.
'' The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America'' focuses on the ways that America changed in the years between 1978 and 2012. The book achieves this mainly by tracing the lives of various individuals from different backgrounds through the years. Interspersed are capsule biographies of influential figures of the time such as Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell ( ; April 5, 1937 – October 18, 2021) was an American politician, statesman, diplomat, and United States Army officer who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was the first Africa ...
, Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U. ...
, Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as ...
, Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one o ...
, and Raymond Carver.
In 2019, Packer released a book titled ''Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century.'' It's a full-scale scholarly biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...
of Richard Holbrooke
Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (April 24, 1941 – December 13, 2010) was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 ...
, one of the most influential U.S. diplomat
A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or interna ...
s of the late 20th Century.
His 2021 book ''Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal'' describes the fragmentation of American society in recent decades into four mutually antagonistic "four Americas": "Free America" (economically liberal), "Smart America" (educated, affluent and socially liberal), "Real America" (white rural precariat
In sociology and economics, the precariat () is a neologism for a social class formed by people suffering from precarity, which means existing without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare. The term is a portma ...
) and "Just America" (urban, progressive and economically disadvantaged).
Awards and honors
*2005 Cornelius Ryan Award
The Cornelius Ryan Award is given for "best nonfiction book on international affairs" by the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC). To be eligible for this literary award a book must be published "in the US or by a US based company or distributed ...
, ''The Assassin's Gate''
*2013 National Book Award for Nonfiction
The National Book Award for Nonfiction is one of five U.S. annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by U.S. citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". The panelists ...
, ''The Unwinding''
*2013 National Book Critics Circle Award (Nonfiction) shortlist for ''The Unwinding''
*2017 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant to complete ''Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century''
*2019 Hitchens Prize ''Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century''
*2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize (biography) for ''Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century''
*2019 Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
finalist for ''Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century''
Bibliography
References
External links
George Packer articles at ''The New Yorker''
George Packer articles at ''Foreign Affairs''
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Packer, George
1960 births
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American male journalists
American male novelists
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
Living people
The New Yorker staff writers
Peace Corps volunteers
Writers from California
Yale College alumni
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
American male essayists
American male dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American essayists
21st-century American essayists
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
The Atlantic (magazine) people
21st-century American Jews