Benjamin Schwarz (writer)
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Schwarz is the literary editor and national editor of the American
monthly magazine The Atlantic.
He has written articles and reviews on an array of subjects—from fashion to the American South, from current fiction to the archaeology, and from international economics to Hollywood.
Since 2000 Schwarz has overseen and written a regular column for the magazine's Books department, which under his editorship has expanded its coverage to include popular culture and manners and mores, as well as books and ideas. The writers he has recruited to the Books section include Caitlin Flanagan
, Sandra Tsing Loh
, Christopher Hitchens
, Joseph O'Neill
, Terry Castle
, Mona Simpson
, Sally Singer, Clive James
, and B. R. Myers. Articles in Schwarz's section have been National Magazine Award
finalists or winners in the Criticism category from 2000 to 2009. The Los Angeles Times
wrote that Schwarz had "reshaped the venerable magazine's book section into the shrewdest, best-written and most surprising cultural report currently on offer between slick covers." The Columbia Journalism Review described Schwarz as "the magazine's in-house intellectual."
Before joining the Atlantics staff, Schwarz was the executive editor of World Policy Journal
, where his chief mission was to bolster the coverage of cultural issues, international economics, and military affairs. For several years he was a foreign policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, where he researched and wrote on American global strategy, counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and military doctrine. Schwarz was also staff member of the Brookings Institution
. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in history from Yale
, and was a Fulbright scholar at Magdalen College
, Oxford
.
He won the 1999 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle
. He is writing a biography of Winston Churchill
, to be published by Random House.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
monthly magazine The Atlantic.
He has written articles and reviews on an array of subjects—from fashion to the American South, from current fiction to the archaeology, and from international economics to Hollywood.
Since 2000 Schwarz has overseen and written a regular column for the magazine's Books department, which under his editorship has expanded its coverage to include popular culture and manners and mores, as well as books and ideas. The writers he has recruited to the Books section include Caitlin Flanagan
Caitlin Flanagan
Caitlin Flanagan is an American writer and social critic. She is a former staff writer for The New Yorker and a contributing editor and book reviewer at The Atlantic Monthly...
, Sandra Tsing Loh
Sandra Tsing Loh
Sandra Tsing Loh is a Los Angeles, California-based writer, actress, performance-artist, pop-culture analyst, and radio commentator.-Biography:Loh is the daughter of a Chinese father and a German mother...
, Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
, Joseph O'Neill
Joseph O'Neill (born 1964)
Joseph O'Neill is a Irish novelist and non-fiction writer. O'Neill's novel Netherland was awarded the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.-Life:...
, Terry Castle
Terry Castle
Terry Castle is an American literary scholar. Once described by Susan Sontag as "the most expressive, most enlightening literary critic at large today," has published eight books, including the anthology The Literature of Lesbianism, which won the Lambda Literary Editor's Choice Award...
, Mona Simpson
Mona Simpson
Mona E. Simpson is an American author. She is a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Sadie Samuelson Levy Professor in Languages and Literature at Bard College. She won the Whiting Prize for her first novel, Anywhere but Here...
, Sally Singer, Clive James
Clive James
Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
, and B. R. Myers. Articles in Schwarz's section have been National Magazine Award
National Magazine Award
The National Magazine Awards are a series of US awards that honor excellence in the magazine industry. They are administered by the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City...
finalists or winners in the Criticism category from 2000 to 2009. The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
wrote that Schwarz had "reshaped the venerable magazine's book section into the shrewdest, best-written and most surprising cultural report currently on offer between slick covers." The Columbia Journalism Review described Schwarz as "the magazine's in-house intellectual."
Before joining the Atlantics staff, Schwarz was the executive editor of World Policy Journal
World Policy Journal
World Policy Journal is a magazine on international relations published by SAGE Publications for the World Policy Institute. It contains primarily policy essays, but also book reviews, interviews, and historical essays...
, where his chief mission was to bolster the coverage of cultural issues, international economics, and military affairs. For several years he was a foreign policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, where he researched and wrote on American global strategy, counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and military doctrine. Schwarz was also staff member of the Brookings Institution
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in history from Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
, and was a Fulbright scholar at Magdalen College
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
.
He won the 1999 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle
National Book Critics Circle
The National Book Critics Circle is an American tax-exempt organization for active book reviewers. Its flagship is the National Book Critics Circle Award....
. He is writing a biography of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, to be published by Random House.