E. J. Dionne
E. J. Dionne | |
|---|---|
 E. J. Dionne | |
| Born | Eugene Joseph Dionne, Jr. April 23, 1952 Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
| Occupation | Author, columnist |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Portsmouth Abbey School Harvard University Balliol College, Oxford |
| Subject | religion, history, politics, left-wing politics |
| Spouse | Mary Boyle |
| Children | James, Julia, Margeaux |
Eugene Joseph "E. J." Dionne, Jr. (/diːˈɒn/; born April 23, 1952) is an American journalist and political commentator, and a long-time op-ed columnist for The Washington Post. He is also a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, a University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at the McCourt School of Public Policy, a Senior Research Fellow at Saint Anselm College, and an NPR, MSNBC, and PBS commentator.
Life and career
Dionne was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 23, 1952, and raised in Fall River, Massachusetts. He is the son of the late Lucienne (née Galipeau), a librarian and teacher, and Eugene J. Dionne, a dentist.[1][2] He is of French-Canadian descent.[3] He attended Portsmouth Abbey School (then known as Portsmouth Priory), a Benedictine college preparatory school in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Dionne holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Studies from Harvard University (1973), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was affiliated with Adams House. He also earned a DPhil in Sociology from Balliol College, Oxford (1982), where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Dionne's published works include the influential 1991 bestseller Why Americans Hate Politics, which argued that several decades of political polarization was alienating a silent centrist majority. It was characterized as radical centrist by Time magazine.[4] Later books include They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era (1996), Stand up Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and Politics of Revenge (2004), Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right (2008), and Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent (2012).
Dionne is a columnist for Commonweal, a liberal Catholic publication. Before becoming a columnist for the Post in 1993, he worked as a reporter for that paper as well as The New York Times. He has recently joined the left-liberal The National Memo news-politics website.
Dionne lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, Mary Boyle, and three children, James, Julia, and Margot. He also has one sibling, CAPT Lucie-Anne Dionne-Thomas, JAGC, USN (Ret.), of Middletown, Rhode Island, who also served as a civilian attorney for the Navy following retirement.
Writings
- Why Americans Hate Politics. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. ISBN 978-0-671-68255-2
- They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. ISBN 978-0-684-80768-3
- Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America (editor). Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1998 ISBN 0-8157-1867-5
- Stand Up, Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the Politics of Revenge. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. ISBN 978-0-7432-5858-6
- Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008. ISBN 0-691-13458-8
- Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent. New York: Bloomsbury, 2012. ISBN 1608192016
- Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016. ISBN 978-1476763798
See also
- Co-commentator on NPR: David Brooks (journalist).
References
- ^ Fletcher, Paul (May 5, 1988). "Fall River native E.J. Dionne returns as New York Times political reporter". The Providence Journal. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
- ^ McCarthy, Sean (March 22, 2012). "Columnist E.J. Dionne has fond memories of Fall River". SouthCoastToday.com. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
- ^ "Q&A With Bob Levey". The Washington Post. March 7, 2000. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
- ^ Duffy, Michael (May 20, 1991). "Looking for The Radical Middle". Time magazine. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
External links
- 1952 births
- Living people
- Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
- American newspaper journalists
- American political writers
- American male writers
- American Rhodes Scholars
- Georgetown University faculty
- Harvard University alumni
- People from Fall River, Massachusetts
- Radical centrist writers
- The New York Times writers
- The Washington Post people
- American people of French-Canadian descent
- MSNBC