Benjamin Barber

Benjamin R. Barber (b. August 2, 1939) is a political theorist and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Policy, perhaps best known for his 1996 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld. As a political theorist, Barber argues for a renewed focus on civil society and involved citizenship as tools for building effective democracy, particularly in the post-Cold War world. Benjamin Barber has been a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy since 2005.

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). He has served as an advisor to various politicians in the United States and around the world, including Bill Clinton and Howard Dean. Dean made Barber his foreign policy advisor in his failed 2004 campaign. Source.

He has also moonlighted as a playwright, novelist and songwriter, with modest success.

[edit] Books

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)
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)
Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (2007)