Michael Totten
Michael Totten | |
---|---|
![]() Totten at a Lebanese cafe in 2005 | |
Born | |
Education | South Salem High School (1988) |
Alma mater | University of Oregon (English literature) |
Occupation(s) | Journalist, blogger, novelist |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Shelly Lynn Stephenson
(m. 2002) |
Relatives | Gena Layman Pegg (mother) |
Writing career | |
Period | 2000s and 2010s |
Subject | Middle Eastern geopolitics and international relations |
Website | www |
Michael James Totten (born September 16, 1970) is an American journalist and author who has reported from the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans, Cuba, Vietnam, and the Caucasus. His work appears in various publications, websites, and on his blog. His first book, The Road to Fatima Gate, was published in 2011 and was awarded the Washington Institute Silver Book Prize. In his blog posts, he also describes himself as an "independent journalist", while regularly exposing his thoughts in articles which often focus on Middle Eastern conflicts.
Early life and education
Totten is of English[1] descent and was born in Salem, Oregon[2] on September 16, 1970.[3][2] His mother is Gena Layman Pegg[4] and his father John Totten is a Republican and a military veteran.[5][6] Totten's grandfather was a World War II veteran.[7] Totten attended McKinley Elementary School in Salem, Oregon.[8]
Totten studied English literature at the University of Oregon in the early 1990s,[9] after attending South Salem High School in the 1980s.[10][11] He has said that he did not like his time living in Salem and that he was glad to leave.[12]
Career
In the 1990s, Totten wrote an opinion column for The Daily Iowan.
Since, Totten's work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times,[13] City Journal, the New York Daily News,[14] The Jerusalem Post, the Daily Star of Lebanon, Reason magazine, Commentary,[15] LA Weekly, Front Page, Tech Central Station, and the Australian edition of Newsweek.
In July 2007, Totten traveled to Baghdad to embed with several U.S. Army units before transitioning to Anbar province and embedding with U.S. Marines.[16] In late 2007 he embedded with U.S. Marines in Fallujah, and he embedded again with the U.S. Army in Baghdad in late 2008.
Totten won the 2007 Weblog Award for Best Middle East or Africa Blog,[17] he won it again in 2008, and was named Blogger of the Year in 2006 by The Week magazine for his dispatches from the Middle East. He was in Georgia during the 2008 South Ossetia war.[18]
His most recent book is Tower of the Sun: Stories from the Middle East and North Africa.[19]
Ideology
In the past Totten has described himself as a "weird combination of liberal, libertarian, and neocon" and later he described himself as politically centrist.[20] He believed that the critics of the war in Iraq who noted the lack of progress from 2004 to 2006 were correct while the Bush administration was wrong. He supported the 2007 'surge' strategy.[21]
On June 23, 2010, Totten lauded Barack Obama's decision to accept General Stanley McChrystal's resignation, and Totten labeled it "one of the best decisions the president has made since he took office."[22]
Funding
Totten describes himself as an "independent journalist." Most of his trips—to Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Bosnia, Kosovo, Georgia, and several other places—are paid for out of his own pocket, although he has also accepted funding from the government of Azerbaijan, the American Jewish Committee and the Lebanese pro-western March 14 alliance for trips to Azerbaijan, Israel, and Lebanon, respectively.[23][24]
Personal life
In the early 2000s, Totten married Shelly Lynn Stephenson in Oregon's Multnomah County.[25][26][27] He describes his wife as "conventionally" liberal.[26] They are both registered Democrats and atheists,[28] although Totten did not vote for Barack Obama[18] and is a former Christian.[29] They lived together in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Portland, Oregon until they moved in late 2020 or early 2021.[3][30] Cite error: The <ref>
tag has too many names (see the help page).
Books
Totten's first book, The Road to Fatima Gate: The Beirut Spring, the Rise of Hezbollah, and the Iranian War Against Israel (Encounter Books, April 2011, ISBN 978-1-59403-521-0), reports his experiences in the Middle East, primarily those in Lebanon.
Other books include:[31]
- Tower of the Sun: Stories From the Middle East and North Africa (2014)
- Where the West Ends (2012)
- Resurrection: A Zombie Novel (2014)
- Taken – A Novel (2013)
- In the Wake of the Surge (2011)
- On the Hunt in Baghdad (2011)
- In the Land of the Brother Leader (2011)
- Raid Night (2011)
References
- ^ Totten, Michael J. (July 2005). "Al Qaeda Hits London". MichaelTotten.com. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
I have never been to England, but it's where my family and my name are from.
- ^ a b "Archive". Normblog. BlogSpot. September 28, 2003. Archived from the original on August 7, 2010.
Michael J. Totten was born in Salem, Oregon in 1970. He studied English literature at the University of Oregon, and his interests have since expanded to include writing, history, politics, and travel.
- ^ a b Oregon Elections Division (August 28, 2017). "TOTTEN, MICHAEL JAMES". My Vote. Salem, Oregon: Oregon Secretary of State. Archived from the original on September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
- ^ https://www.facebook.com/gena.pegg/posts/3504500542909439
- ^ https://www.facebook.com/gena.pegg/posts/5134586449900832
- ^ Totten, Michael J. (December 23, 2015). "The Truth About American Sniper". City Journal.
I was raised with the anti-military prejudice common in my community, despite having a military veteran and Republican for a father.
- ^ Totten, Michael J. (October 14, 2003). "Schizophrenic Liberalism". Dispatches. World Affairs Journal. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ https://archive.today/YkaGC/b9bdc24b48267a44b7ccb620368d0ad67410c5d2
- ^ Totten, Michael J. (2017). "Michael Totten". LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
1990-1994
- ^ "Michael Totten, Class of 1988 - South Salem High School - Classmates". www.classmates.com.
- ^ "1987 South Salem High School Yearbook". www.classmates.com.
- ^ Totten, Michael J. (2004). "Against Suburbia". MichaelTotten.com.
- ^ Book review by Michael Totten of Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict by Sandra Mackey, The New York Times, March 30, 2008
- ^ "Frontline Lessons from the Iraq Surge", Michael Totten, New York Daily News, August 29, 2007
- ^ "The Worst since 9/11", Michael J. Totten, Commentary, August 22, 2007
- ^ "Iraq Trip Confirmed", Michael J. Totten.com, July 5, 2007
- ^ "The 2007 Weblog Award Winners", Kevin Aylward, November 9, 2007
- ^ a b Totten, Michael J. "December 11, 2017". Facebook. Facebook. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
You may recall that I gave Obama a hard time about Russia, too, and I didn't vote for him. I don't vote for pro-Russian or soft-on-Russia candidates. I was in Georgia when Russia invaded.
- ^ Totten, Michael J. (20 November 2014). "Tower of the Sun: Stories From the Middle East and North Africa". Belmont Estate Books – via Amazon.
- ^ "Quick Poll", Michael J. Totten, January 2008; see comment timestamped "January 7, 2008 1:25 AM"
- ^ The Real Iraq, Michael J. Totten, City Journal, May 16, 2008
- ^ Good Call, Mr. President, Michael J Totten, June 2010
- ^ "On my way to Israel", Michael J. Totten, January 2009
- ^ The Explosive Caucasus, Michael J. Totten, August 2008
- ^ "Oregon, Marriage Indexes, 1906-2009". 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
- ^ a b Totten, Michael J. (November 2, 2006). "My Last Domestic Politics Post of the Election Season". Dispatches. World Affairs Journal. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
- ^ Totten, Michael J. (July 24, 2004). "A Photo Tour of Tunisia". Archived from the original on May 27, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Jerks".
- ^ Totten, Michael J. (April 6, 2004). "Fighting Dirty". World Affairs Journal. American Peace Society. Archived from the original on October 27, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
I'm not a Christian anymore, but I know if I were I would think it a desecration.
- ^ Totten, Michael J.z. "Against Suburbia". World Affairs Journal.
- ^ Michael J. Totten Amazon.com
Further reading
- Hope for Iraq's Meanest City City Journal, Spring 2008
- Interview at National Review Online, February 2006
- Review of The Road to Fatima Gate by Sol Stern, City Journal, Spring 2011
- Uncommon Knowledge: Michael Totten – The Road to Fatima Gate Peter Robinson interviews Totten, May 2011
- What skews news reportage of Israel & Arab issues?, August 2014
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Official website
- Michael Totten at the Wayback Machine (archived August 10, 2003)
- Michael Totten on Facebook
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Michael Totten on LinkedIn
- 1970 births
- American male journalists
- American people of English descent
- American political blogs
- American reporters and correspondents
- American former Christians
- American atheists
- Journalists from Oregon
- Living people
- Oregon Democrats
- Writers from Portland, Oregon
- Writers from Salem, Oregon
- Writers on the Middle East