Benjamin Barber

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the American political theorist.. For the Australian actor, see Ben Barber.
 This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2011)
Benjamin R. Barber
Benjamin R Barber in 2010.jpg
Benjamin R. Barber in 2010
Born (1939-08-02) August 2, 1939 (age 73)
New York City
Occupation Academic
Nationality American
Genres Political theory
www.benjaminrbarber.com

Benjamin R. Barber (born August 2, 1939) is an American political theorist and author perhaps best known for his 1996 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld.

Contents

Career[edit]

Barber held the position of Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Policy, and he is Walt Whitman Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University; he is the current president and founder of the Interdependence Movement and the NGO "CivWorld", and its annual Interdependence Day event on September 12.[1] From 2007 - 2012, he was a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos.[2] In July 2012, Barber became a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the CUNY Graduate Center.[3]

As a political theorist, Barber argues for a renewed focus on civil society and engaged citizenship as tools for building effective democracy, particularly in the post-Cold War world. His current work focuses on global democratic governance and the relationship between the arts and democracy. Benjamin Barber has been a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy since 2005. He was an outside adviser to President Bill Clinton, a foreign policy adviser to Howard Dean's 2004 Presidential campaign and continues to counsel political leaders in America and abroad.

Barber was educated at Grinnell College (B.A., 1960) and Harvard University (M.A., 1963; Ph.D., 1966), after earning certificates at Albert Schweitzer College (1959) and the London School of Economics (1957).

According to Foreign Policy Barber "was among a small group of democracy advocates and public intellectuals... working under contract with the Monitor Group consulting firm to interact with Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi on issues of democracy and civil society".[4] Barber says, "we thought -- and I think Monitor thought -- it was an opportunity to work at internal reform."[5]

The son of theater people, he has also been active as a playwright, lyricist (libretto for George Quincy's opera Home and the River) and film-maker (The Struggle for Democracy, with Patrick Watson; Music Inn, with Ben Barenholtz).

Honors[edit]

Barber's honors include a knighthood from the French Government (Palmes Academiques/Chevalier) (2001), the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin (2001) and the John Dewey Award (2003). He has also been awarded Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Social Science Research Fellowships, honorary doctorates from Grinnell College, Monmouth University and Connecticut College, and has held the chair of American Civilization at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Superman and Common Men: Freedom, Anarchy and the Revolution (1971)
  • The Death of Communal Liberty: A History of Freedom in a Swiss Mountain Canton (1974)
  • Liberating Feminism (1976)
  • Marriage Voices (1981 novel)
  • Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age (1984)
  • The Conquest of Politics: Liberal Philosophy in Democratic Times (1988)
  • An Aristocracy of Everyone: The Politics Of Education and the Future of America (1992)
  • America Skips School (1993) appeared in Harper's Magazine
  • Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World (1996)
  • A Place for Us: How to Make Society Civil and Democracy Strong (1998)
  • A Passion for Democracy: American Essays (2000)
  • The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House (2001)
  • Fear's Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy in an Age of Interdependence (2003)
  • Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age (Twentieth Anniversary Revision 2004)
  • Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (2007)
  • If Mayors Ruled the World (Expected publication in 2013)[6]

References[edit]

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]
  3. ^ [3]
  4. ^ "Understanding Libya's Michael Corleone", interview with Benjamin Barber by Benjamin Pauker, Foreign Policy, March 7, 2011 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/07/understanding_libyas_michael_corleone Accessed March 22, 2011
  5. ^ Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd, "Gadhafi paid millions to U.S. firms to polish his global image", CNN, April 6, 2011 http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/04/06/libya.gadhafi.image/index.html?hpt=T2
  6. ^ [4]

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Benjamin Barber
Authority control
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benjamin_Barber&oldid=540833023"