Joshua M. Zeitz

Joshua Michael Zeitz (born 1974) is an American historian and political professional from New Jersey. He is the author of several books on American political and social history and has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, The New Republic, The Atlantic, Dissent, and American Heritage. Zeitz appeared as a commentator on two PBS documentaries – Boomer Century, and Ken Burns's Prohibition—and has commented on public policy matters on CNBC and CNN International. He has held faculty positions at Harvard, Cambridge and Princeton and is the author of the forthcoming Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image (Viking Press, Feb. 2014).

Background

Zeitz was born in Trenton and raised in Bordentown, where he attended Bordentown Regional High School. He obtained his B.A. from Swarthmore College (1996), with Highest Honors, and earned an A.M. (1998) and a Ph.D. (2002) in American history from Brown University.^[1] He is the author of three books, co-author and editor of a high school history textbook, and has written numerous academic and non-academic articles. Zeitz has held academic positions at Harvard University, Princeton University, and Cambridge University.^[2]

Academic positions

Zeitz has held several academic positions including:

• Lecturer on History and Literature, Harvard University (2001–03)
• Lecturer on American history and Director of Studies in History, Pembroke College, Cambridge University (2003–07)^[3]
• Lecturer, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University (2010-2011)

Political activities

In late 2007, Zeitz left Cambridge and returned to New Jersey to run for Congress in the 2008 congressional election as a Democrat. After the election, Zeitz jointed the senior staff of New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine, serving as senior policy advisor, principal speechwriter and traveling aide. Zeitz authored or co-wrote many of the governor's major adresses, including his 2009 and 2010 State of the State speeches; his 2009 Budget Address, in which Corzine announced major austerity measures in the wake of the recession; and his 2009 primary night victory speech. Following Corzine's 2009 electoral defeat, Zeitz served as the outgoing governor's transition director. Since 2011, Zeitz has been Senior Vice President at the MWW Group, a New York-based communications firm. He was the chief communications consultant to New Jersey United For Marriage, a coalition that formed in mid-2013 to promote enactment of a marriage equality act in New Jersey, and continues to advise Democratic candidates as well as private-sector clients on a range of communications and issues management topics.^[4]

Forthcoming books

Forthcoming Book

Zeitz's next book, Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image, will be published by Viking Press in February 2014. Focusing on Abraham Lincoln's young White House aides, John Hay and John Nicolay, the book is "part political drama and part coming-of-age tale—a fascinating story of friendship, politics, war, and the contest over history and remembrance," according to the publisher.^[5] In an early review, the filmmaker Ken Burns said that "Zeitz has pulled off a difficult task -- revealing how the myth of Lincoln came to be without distorting the true greatness of our extraordinary 16th President."

Personal

Zeitz and his wife live in Hoboken, New Jersey with their two daughters.

Electoral history of Joshua M. Zeitz

Bibliography

Books

• Joshua Zeitz. (2014), Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image, Viking, ISBN 978-0670025664 
• Morton Keller, Joshua Zeitz, Mary Beth Klee, & John Holdren, eds. (2009), The American Odyssey: A History of the United States, K12, ISBN 978-1601530349 
• Joshua Zeitz. (2007), Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern, Three Rivers Press, ISBN 978-1-4000-8054-0 
• Joshua M. Zeitz. (2007), White Ethnic New York: Jews, Catholics, and the Shaping of Postwar Politics, The University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 978-0-8078-3095-6 

Articles and Commentary

Zeitz's articles and commentary in the popular press include:

“Fact-Checking Lincoln,” The Atlantic, November 12, 2012.^[7]

“Chris Christie’s Summer of Self Promotion,” The Atlantic, August 7, 2012.^[8]

“1964: The Year the 60s Began,” American Heritage Magazine, October 2006^[9]

“Boomer Century,” American Heritage Magazine, October 2005, 32-48^[10]

“Saving Grace,” The New Republic (Online), December 30, 2004

“Miller’s Crossing,” The New Republic (Online), September 1, 2004

“The Big Lie About the Little Pill,” New York Times, December 27, 2003

“Disunited Nations,” American Heritage Magazine, August/September 2003^[11]

“The Fall (and Potential Rise) of Liberalism,” L.A. Times, December 22, 2002, M2

“Dixie’s Victory,” American Heritage Magazine, September 2002, 46-55^[12]

“Are Our Liberties in Peril?” American Heritage Magazine, November/December 2001, 34-37^[13]

“Back to the Barricades,” American Heritage Magazine, October 2001, 70-75^[14]

“Rebel Redemption Redux,” Dissent (Winter 2001), cover 30-37

“Impeach Andrew Johnson!” The New Republic, January 18, 1999, cover, 13-1

Zeitz's academic writings include^[15]

• Zeitz, Joshua (2008), "Rejecting the Center: Radical Grassroots Politics in the 1970s -- Second-Wave Feminism as a Case Study", Journal of Contemporary History (Sage Publications) 43 (4): 673–688, doi:10.1177/0022009408095422, JSTOR 40543229 
• Zeitz, Joshua Michael (2000), "The Missouri Compromise Reconsidered: Antislavery Rhetoric and the Emergence of the Free Labor Synthesis", Journal of the Early Republic (University of Pennsylvania Press) 20 (3): 447–485, doi:10.2307/3125065, JSTOR 3125065 
• Zeitz, Joshua Michael (2000), ""If I Am Not for Myself ... ": The American Jewish Establishment in the Aftermath of the Six Day War", American Jewish History (The Johns Hopkins University Press) 88 (2): 253–286, doi:10.1353/ajh.2000.0045 

Notes

1. ↑ Brown University PhDs awarded. Retrieved on 2008-07-27.
2. ↑ votesmart.org entry. Retrieved on 2008-07-27.
3. ↑ Random House book description. Retrieved on 2008-07-27.
4. ↑ http://joshzeitz.co/
5. ↑ http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670025664,00.html
6. ↑ "2008 election results, New Jersey, with 100% precincts reporting" townhall.com
7. ↑ http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/11/fact-checking-lincoln-lincolns-mostly-realistic-his-advisers-arent/265073/
8. ↑ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/chris-christies-summer-of-self-promotion/260752/
9. ↑ http://www.americanheritage.com/content/1964-year-sixties-began
10. ↑ http://www.americanheritage.com/content/boomer-century
11. ↑ http://www.americanheritage.com/content/disunited-nations
12. ↑ http://www.americanheritage.com/content/dixie%E2%80%99s-victory
13. ↑ http://www.americanheritage.com/content/are-our-liberties-peril
14. ↑ http://www.americanheritage.com/content/back-barricades
15. ↑ Cambridge University academic staff profile. Retrieved on 2008-07-27.

External links

• - official author website