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John B. Judis is an author and American journalist, an editor-at-large at ''
Talking Points Memo ''Talking Points Memo'' (''TPM'') is a liberal political news and opinion website created and run by Josh Marshall that debuted on November 12, 2000. The name is a reference to the memo (short list) consisting of the issues (points) discussed b ...
'', 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 d ...
'' 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 hu ...
''.


Education

Judis was born in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
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 educati ...
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. ...
from the
University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...
.


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 achievemen ...
philosopher Harry Binswanger, 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, techn ...
. 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'' 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 ''In These Times'' is an American politically progressive monthly magazine of news and opinion published in Chicago, Illinois. It was established as a broadsheet-format fortnightly newspaper in 1976 by James Weinstein, a lifelong socialist. ...
,'' 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 a ...
'', '' Mother Jones'', ''
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
'', 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 n ...
''. 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 Ruy Teixeira (; born December 15, 1951) is an American political scientist and commentator who has written several books on various topics in political science and political strategy. He is most noted for his work on political demography, and pa ...
), 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 Eco ...
''. 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 20 ...
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 P ...
. 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 Ruy Teixeira (; born December 15, 1951) is an American political scientist and commentator who has written several books on various topics in political science and political strategy. He is most noted for his work on political demography, and pa ...
) (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 Michael Lind (born April 23, 1962) is an American writer and academic. He has explained and defended the tradition of American democratic nationalism in a number of books, beginning with '' The Next American Nation'' (1995). He is currently a pro ...

Trotskyism to Anachronism: The Neoconservative Revolution
by John B. Judis (Foreign Affairs, 1995 )
Video (and audio) of conversation
with John Judis and
David Frum David Jeffrey Frum (; born June 30, 1960) is a Canadian-American political commentator and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, who is currently a senior editor at ''The Atlantic'' as well as an MSNBC contributor. In 2003, Frum a ...
on
Bloggingheads.tv Bloggingheads.tv (sometimes abbreviated "bhtv") is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast on ...

John 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