Stephen Schlesinger

Stephen Schlesinger (born August 17, 1942) is an author and political commentator. He is a Fellow at the Century Foundation in New York City. He served as Director of the World Policy Institute at the New School University from 1997 to 2006. He is the son of historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr and oldest brother of journalist Robert Schlesinger.

Biography

Schlesinger graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in 1964, and earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1968. During 1970, he began publishing, with other former supporters of Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene J. McCarthy, The New Democrat, a monthly magazine dedicated to uniting "the left and radical wings"^[1] and replacing the "dead leadership" in the Democratic Party. The magazine was critical of Democratic National Committee chairman Larry O'Brien, and promoted the candidacy of South Dakota Senator George McGovern over that of Maine Senator Ed Muskie and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey during the 1972 Democratic presidential primaries.^[2] Later, he worked as a staff writer for Time magazine.

Schlesinger served as a speechwriter and foreign policy advisor for New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who was elected during 1982 to the first of three consecutive terms. After Cuomo's defeat in 1994, Schlesinger worked for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT, a United Nations agency for human settlements planning) before accepting a job running the World Policy Institute (WPI). He stepped down from the WPI in June 2006.

Schlesinger's book, Bitter Fruit, published in 1982, about the 1954 US coup in Guatemala, garnered remarkable attention. Jim Miller in Newsweek Magazine wrote that "Schlesinger's and Kinzer's meticulously documented history reads like a cloak-and-dagger thriller..." Warren Hoge in The Sunday New York Times Book Review called it "a tale of dirty tricks, the manipulation of public opinion, the smearing of the precious few journalists who managed to sense what was really going on and of foreign policy that borrowed more from Doonesbury than diplomacy." The book has sold more than 100,000 copies. His subsequent study of the UN's founding, Act of Creation, published in 2003, an account of the 1945 San Francisco conference that drafted the UN Charter, received high accolades. Robert Caro called it "an immensely valuable contribution to our understanding of one of the most pivotal events of the twentieth century..." Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, writing in The Sunday New York Times Book Review, stated: "A superb book that reconstructs this drama with great lucidity and illuminates its contemporary relevance." It won the 2004 Harry S. Truman Book Award. In 2007, with his brother, Andrew, he edited his father's journals which cover the period from 1952 to 2000. It became a best seller. Reviewers like Janet Maslin in The New York Times observed: "This arch, irresistibly revealing book manages to be both show-stopping and door-stopping, what with its vast range of subject matter and unfettered private sniping... [T]his book creates a moving and monumental 48-year chronicle." Jonathan Alter in Newsweek remarked that the book "contains juicy morsels on every one of its 858 pages." In Salon.com, Sidney Blumenthal noted that "If the American century were cast as a Broadway show, this would be the playbill." Subsequently Schlesinger co-edited with his brother The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. published in 2013. The book earned considerable acclaim. Ted Widmer in The Daily Beast proclaimed: "To re-enter the world of his correspondence is like a form of time travel, giving the reader access to the same vertiginous ride he was on, following the presidency and the course of American liberalism from its high-water mark under FDR, through its many peaks and valleys since then." The Literary Editor of The Chicago Tribune, Elizabeth Taylor, commented: "Nostalgia isn't the only reason to read these letters. Another is to be immersed in a world where someone cares deeply about ideas and people."

Among other media accomplishments, Schlesinger has appeared in five documentaries on the United Nations and two on the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, and consulted on director Steven Soderbergh's film "Che". Schlesinger is a regular contributor to many publications, including, among others, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation magazine, Foreign Affairs, The New York Observer, and The World Policy Journal. He blogs on Huffingtonpost.com and TCF.org/blog.

Schlesinger has served as a judge on the Selection Committee of the British Atlantic Fellowships (1995-96); on the Voice of America Cowan Award (1998); on the Robert Kennedy Book Awards (2002); and on the Overseas Press Club media awards (2007).

Bibliography

• The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (2013, co-editor)
• Journals 1952-2000 Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (2007, co-editor)
• Act of Creation: The Founding of The United Nations (2003)
• Bitter Fruit: The Story of the U.S. Coup in Guatemala (1982, with Stephen Kinzer)
• The New Reformers (1975)

References

External links

• Official web site
• Interview on www.alrasub.com