Julian Emanuel Zelizer (born 1969) is a professor of
political history and an author in the
United States at
Princeton University.
Zelizer has authored or co-authored several books about American political history; his focuses of study are the second half of the 20th century and the 21st century.
Education
Raised in
Metuchen, New Jersey, Zelizer was educated at
Metuchen High School, a comprehensive public high school, followed by
Brandeis University. He obtained a
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
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* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in History from
Johns Hopkins University.
Life and career
Zelizer has contributed to
CNN.com and
''The Atlantic''.
He is a regular commentator on news programs and has appeared in several documentary films. He penned the introduction to a 2016 edition of the
Kerner report
The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission after its chair, Governor Otto Kerner Jr. of Illinois, was an 11-member Presidential Commission established in July 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson in to i ...
.
He is the
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Professor of History and Public Policy.
He has twice won the
D. B. Hardeman Prize The D. B. Hardeman Prize is a cash prize awarded annually by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation for the best book that furthers the study of the U.S. Congress in the fields of biography, history, journalism, or political science. Submissions are j ...
, for ''Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945–1975'' and ''The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society''.
''Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974'', co-authored with
Kevin M. Kruse
Kevin Michael Kruse (born 1972) is an American historian and a professor of history at Princeton University. His research interests include the political, social, and urban/suburban history of 20th-century America, with a particular focus on the ...
, received wide critical acclaim.
Zelizer's most-recent book, ''Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party,'' was called "insightful" by ''
The New York Times'', which also recognized it as one of the "100 Notable Books of 2020". ''
The Washington Post'' wrote that it was "engaging" and "timely".
Zelizer is the son of the Princeton
sociologist Viviana Zelizer
Viviana A. Rotman Zelizer (born January 19, 1946) is an American sociologist and the Lloyd Cotsen '50 Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. She is an economic sociologist who focuses on the attribution of cultural and moral meaning to ...
and
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...
Gerald L. Zelizer.
Personal life
Zelizer is son of a notable
Metuchen
Metuchen ( ) is a suburban borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan area. The borough, along wit ...
rabbi. In 1996, he married Nora Kay Moran at
Congregation Adas Israel in
Washington, D.C., presided over by his father.
[ In 2012, he married fellow historian ]Meg Jacobs
Meg Jacobs is a historian of U.S. political history and political economy. She is a Senior Research Scholar at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and in the Department of History at Princeton University. Academics
Jacobs g ...
at the Synagogue for the Arts in New York City, again presided over by his father.[
]
Books
* ''Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945–1975'' (1999)
* ''On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and its Consequences, 1948–2000'' (2004)
* ''Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security – From World War II to the War on Terrorism'' (2009)
* ''Jimmy Carter: The American Presidents Series: The 39th President, 1977–1981'' (2010)
* ''Conservatives in Power: The Reagan Years, 1981–1989: A Brief History with Documents'' (2011), with Meg Jacobs
Meg Jacobs is a historian of U.S. political history and political economy. She is a Senior Research Scholar at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and in the Department of History at Princeton University. Academics
Jacobs g ...
* ''Governing America: The Revival of Political History'' (2012)
* ''The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society'' (2015)
* ''Media Nation: The Political History of News in Modern America'' (2017), editor, with Bruce J. Schulman
Bruce J. Schulman is an American historian, currently the William E. Huntington Professor at Boston University.
According to his faculty profile, Schulman is writing the "volume for the Oxford History of the United States
The Oxford History of t ...
* ''The Presidency of Barack Obama: A First Historical Assessment'' (2018), editor
* ''Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974'' (2019), with Kevin M. Kruse
* ''Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party ''(2020)
In addition to authoring the books listed above, Zelizer has edited or co-edited a number of books including, most recently, ''Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past''.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zelizer, Julian E.
Living people
1969 births
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
Brandeis University alumni
Johns Hopkins University alumni
Metuchen High School alumni
People from Metuchen, New Jersey
Princeton University faculty
CNN people
Historians from New Jersey
American male non-fiction writers