John B. Judis is an author and American journalist, an editor-at-large at ''
Talking Points Memo'', a former senior writer at the ''
National Journal
''National Journal'' is an advisory services company based in Washington, D.C., offering services in government affairs, advocacy communications, stakeholder mapping, and policy brands research for government and business leaders. It publishes da ...
'' and a former senior editor at ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
''.
Education
Judis was born in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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to a family of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
heritage. He attended
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
and received B.A. and M.A. degrees in
Philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
from the
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
.
Career
Judis has been a life long democratic socialist. In 1986, while debating the
Objectivist
Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement ...
philosopher
Harry Binswanger
Harry Binswanger (; born 1944) is an American philosopher. He is an Objectivist and a board member of the Ayn Rand Institute. He was an associate of Ayn Rand, working with her on ''The Ayn Rand Lexicon'' and helping her edit the second editio ...
, a disciple of
Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...
, in a televised debate "Socialism vs. Capitalism," Judis laid out his version of socialism as being the inevitable socioeconomic arrangement of a post-capitalist society, where highly educated and industrialized societies would invariably transform into social democracies with mixed-market economies, personal property rights and independent small and medium enterprises, with state intervention to regulate problems of capitalism and alleviate suffering, a view shared by many modern sociologists, including Wolfgang Streeck, and those of the mid-20th century
Progressives
Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techno ...
. This vision defined all of Judis' work as an author, and is declared as prophetic by the author himself in his ''The Socialist Awakening,'' published in 2020.
In 1969 he was a founding editor of ''Socialist Revolution'' (which was later renamed ''Socialist Review'' and then ''
Radical Society
''Radical Society: A Review of Culture and Politics'' was a quarterly left-wing political and cultural magazine published in the United States by Radical Society, Ltd. The editor-in-chief was Timothy Don. It was established in 1970 as ''Socialist ...
'' before ceasing publication in 2009). In the 1970s he was a founding editor of the ''East Bay Voice''. He moved to Chicago in December 1976 to become the foreign editor of ''
In These Times,'' a democratic socialist newsweekly. Judis moved to Washington in 1982. He started writing for ''The New Republic'' in 1984, became a contributing editor in 1989, and joined the regular staff in 1995. He quit in December 2014 along with other editors in protest of the owner Chris Hughes' firing of the editor and plan to turn the magazine into a profit-making vehicle.
He has also written for ''
GQ'', ''
Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
'', ''
Mother Jones
Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...
'', ''
The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
'', and ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''.
In 1988, he published a biography, ''William F. Buckley: Patron Saint of the Conservatives''; in 1992, ''Grand Illusion: Critics and Champions of the American Century''; in 2000, ''The Paradox of American Democracy''. In 2002, he published ''The Emerging Democratic Majority'' (co-written with political scientist
Ruy Teixeira), a book arguing that Democrats would retake control of American politics by the end of the decade, thanks in part to growing support from minorities, women, and well-educated professionals. Its title was a deliberate echo of
Kevin Phillips' 1969 classic, ''The Emerging Republican Majority.'' The book was named one of the year's best by ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
''. Later in 2015, in an essay ''The Emerging Republican Advantage'' he revised this view as he noted that the long term Democratic Majority had given way to an "unstable equilibrium" between the parties.
In 2004, he published "The Folly of Empire: What George W. Bush could learn from Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson," an attempt to put the American invasion of Iraq in historical context. In 2014 he authored the book ''Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict'' in which he discussed the connection between the
Israel lobby in the United States
The Israel lobby (at times called the Zionist lobby) are individuals and groups seeking to influence the United States government to better serve Israel's interests. The largest pro-Israel lobbying group is Christians United for Israel with over ...
and the origin of the modern state of Israel. In 2016, he published ''The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics''. This book, which was widely reviewed, analyzed, among other things, the remarkable success of
Bernie Sanders
Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...
and
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
. In 2018, he published ''The Nationalist Revival: Trade, Immigration, and the Revolt against Globalization'', which attempted to explain the rise of nationalist parties and candidates, including Donald Trump.
In September 2020, Judis published ''The Socialist Awakening''. In 2021, ''The Politics of Our Time'' was published.
Bibliography
*''William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives'' (1988)
*''Grand Illusion: Critics and Champions of the American Century'' (1992)
*''The Paradox of American Democracy: Elites, Special Interests, and the Betrayal of the Public Trust'' (2000)
*''The Emerging Democratic Majority'' (with
Ruy Teixeira) (2002)
*''The Folly of Empire : What George W. Bush Could Learn from Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson'' (2004)
*''Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict'' (2014)
*''The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics'' (2016)
*''The Nationalist Revival: Trade, Immigration, and the Revolt against Globalization'' (2018)
*''The Socialist Awakening: What's Different Now about the Left'' (2020)
*''The Politics of Our Time: Populism, Nationalism, Socialism'' (2021)
References
External links
TNR biography*
TNR article: For a New Nationalism by Judis and
Michael Lind Trotskyism to Anachronism: The Neoconservative Revolution by John B. Judis (Foreign Affairs, 1995 )
Video (and audio) of conversationwith John Judis and
David Frum on
Bloggingheads.tvJohn Judis interviewed about his book, ''Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict''(audi
here
{{DEFAULTSORT:Judis, John
American male journalists
Amherst College alumni
American political writers
American biographers
Populism scholars
American male biographers
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
The New Republic people
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs