Samuel Aaron Moyn (born 1972) is the

Henry R. Luce Henry Robinson Luce (April 3, 1898 – February 28, 1967) was an American magazine magnate who founded ''Time (magazine), Time'', ''Life (magazine), Life'', ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'', and ''Sports Illustrated'' magazine. He has been called ...

Professor of Jurisprudence at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

and Professor of History at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, which he joined in July 2017. Previously, he was a professor of history at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

for thirteen years and a professor of history and of law at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

for three years. His research interests are in modern European

intellectual history Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual histor ...

, with special interests in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, political and legal thought, historical and critical theory, and Jewish studies. He has been co-director of the New York-area Consortium for Intellectual and Cultural History, is editor of the journal ''

Humanity Humanity most commonly refers to: * Humankind the total population of humans * Humanity (virtue) Humanity may also refer to: Literature * Humanity (journal), ''Humanity'' (journal), an academic journal that focuses on human rights * ''Humanity: A ...

'', and has editorial positions at several other publications.

Academic career

After attending University City High School in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, Moyn earned his

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

in history and French literature (1994). He continued his education, earning a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

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 ...

(2000) and his J.D. from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

(2001). In 2007, Moyn received

's annual

Mark Van Doren Award Mark Van Doren (June 13, 1894 – December 10, 1972) was an American poet, writer and critic. He was a scholar and a professor of English at Columbia University for nearly 40 years, where he inspired a generation of influential writers and thin ...

for outstanding undergraduate teaching, determined by undergraduates, and its Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award for "unusual merit across a range of professorial activities". In 2008, he won a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

, and is currently a Berggruen Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard. He is also a fellow at the

Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft is a U.S. think tank founded in 2019 and located in Washington, D.C., named after former President of the United States, U.S. president John Quincy Adams. It has been described as Realism (internatio ...

Personal life

Samuel Moyn is Jewish. He is also married.

Publications

Books

*
Origins of the Other: Emmanuel Levinas">Origins of the Other: Emmanuel Levinas
between Revelation and Ethics' (2005, Cornell University Press">Emmanuel Levinas
between Revelation and Ethics">Emmanuel Levinas">Origins of the Other: Emmanuel Levinas
between Revelation and Ethics' (2005, Cornell University Press) *''A Holocaust Controversy: The Treblinka Affair in Postwar France'' (2005, Brandeis University Press) *Pierre Rosanvallon, ''Democracy Past and Future'' (2006, editor Samuel Moyn, Columbia University Press) * ''The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History'' (2010,

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

) *
Human Rights and the Uses of History
' (2014,

Verso ' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. Etymology The terms are shortened from Latin ...

) *
Christian Human Rights
' (2015,

University of Pennsylvania Press The University of Pennsylvania Press (or Penn Press) is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The press was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 26 Ma ...

) * ''Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World'' (2018,

) * ''Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War'' (2021, Macmillan)

Selected articles

* "Imperial Graveyard" (review of

George Packer George Packer (born August 13, 1960) is a US journalist, novelist, and playwright. He is best known for his writings for ''The New Yorker'' and ''The Atlantic'' about U.S. foreign policy and for his book '' The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq''. ...

, ''Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century'', Cape, 2019, 592 pp., ), ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

'', vol. 42, no. 3 (6 February 2020), pp. 23–25. Moyn concludes his review, on p. 25: " acker's book''Our Man'' may be the most vivid tour of America's foreign delusions that has been offered since the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

."
"The Road to Hell"
(review of

Samantha Power Samantha Jane Power (born September 21, 1970) is an American journalist, diplomat and government official who is currently serving as the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. She previously served as the 28th ...

's ''The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir''), ''American Affairs Journal'' Vol. IV, Spring 2020 pp. 149–160.
"Michael Ratner's Tragedy, and Ours"
(essay adapted by the author from his 2021 book ''Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War''), ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'', September 1, 2021.

References

External links

Top Young Historians: Samuel Moyn
on

History News Network History News Network (HNN) at George Washington University is a platform for historians writing about current events. History History News Network (HNN) is a non-profit corporation registered in Washington DC. HNN was founded by Richard Shenkman ...

New York-area Consortium for Intellectual and Cultural History The Court is not Your Friend,Samuel Moyn,Dissent Magazine, Winter 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moyn, Samuel 1972 births Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Columbia University faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni Harvard Law School alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni Intellectual historians 20th-century American Jews American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American Jews