
John B. Judis is an American journalist. Born in Chicago he attended Amherst College and received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a senior editor at The New Republic and a contributing editor to The American Prospect. A founding editor of Socialist Revolution (now Socialist Review) in 1969 and of the East Bay Voice in the 1970s, Judis started reporting from Washington in 1982, when he became a founding editor and Washington correspondent for In These Times, a democratic-socialist weekly magazine. He has also written for GQ, Foreign Affairs, Mother Jones, The New York Times Magazine, and The Washington Post. In 2002, he published a book (co-written with political scientist Ruy Teixeira) arguing that Democrats would retake control of American politics, thanks in part to growing support from minorities and well-educated professionals. The title, The Emerging Democratic Majority, was a deliberate echo of Kevin Phillips' 1969 classic, The Emerging Republican Majority. The book was named one of the year's best by The Economist magazine.
ONE OF THE ECONOMIST' S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR AND A WINNER OF THE WASHINGTON MONTHLY' S ANNUAL POLITICAL BOOK AWARDPolitical experts John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira convincingly use hard data -- demographic, geographic, economic, and political -- to forecast the dawn of a new progressive era. In the 1960s, Kevin Phillips, battling conventional wisdom, correctly foretold the dawn of a new conservative era. His book, The Emerging Republican Majority, became an indispensable guide for all those attempting to understand political change through the 1970s and 1980s. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the country in Republican hands, The Emerging Democratic Majority is the indispensable guide to this era.In five well-researched chapters and a new afterword covering the 2002 elections, Judis and Teixeira show how the most dynamic and fastest-growing areas of the country are cultivating a new wave of Democratic voters who embrace what the authors call "progressive centrism" and take umbrage at Republican demands to privatize social security, ban abortion, and cut back environmental regulations.As the GOP continues to be dominated by neoconservatives, the religious right, and corporate influence, this is an essential volume for all those discontented with their narrow agenda -- and a clarion call for a new political order.
Like all magazines and newspapers, The New Republic struggled, in the wake of September 11, 2001, to make sense of an event that had left the world a less-comprehensible place. Figuring out how to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 in subsequent years has also been challenging. As our literary editor, Leon Wieseltier, wrote on the two-year anniversary, “It is still difficult to believe what for two years we have known.” The same could be said of the ten-year anniversary. The compilation of pieces reprinted here is not comprehensive, but we have done our best to curate a collection that, at the very least, gathers and preserves. This, after all, was one of the crucial functions of writing in the wake of September 11. “All around us, on the ground or fluttering in the air,” wrote David Grann for TNR in the wake of the attacks, “were thousands of pieces of paper. They had been blown out of the World Trade Center and were still swirling.” The fragments of lives inscribed on the charred sheets that Grann gathered at Ground Zero were and are wrenching, both in their banality and their poeticism: desk calendars; part of a novel; an e-mail that said, simply, “I’ll see you at two. Love S.” The entirety of Grann’s article, along with the work of many other authors, is republished here. We hope that, in some fragmentary way, these essays provide a fitting remembrance.
by John B. Judis
Rating: 3.7 ⭐
From the author of THE POLITICS OF OUR TIMEWhat’s happening in global politics, and is there a thread that ties it all together?There is, and it is called populism.What is populism? And why have populist parties and candidates suddenly sprung up and even gained power in the United States and Western Europe? The emergence of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, France's Marine LePen, Podemos in Spain, Syriza in Greece, and the Alternative for Germany are signs that an older consensus about politics and government is breaking down.John B. Judis, one of America's most respected political analysts, tells us why we need to understand the populist movement that began in the United States in the 1890s and whose politics have recurred on both sides of the Atlantic ever since. The Populist Explosion is essential reading for anyone hoping to grasp a global political system that is only just beginning what will be a long-running and highly consequential readjustment.Featured as one of "Six Books to Help Understand Trump's Win" by The New York TimesNamed one of "11 Books that Will Make You Smarter about Politics" by Business Insider
by John B. Judis
Rating: 3.9 ⭐
A Wall Street Journal best political book of 2023A much-needed wake-up call for the Democrats, which reveals how the party has lost sight of its core principles and endangered its political future—from the authors of “one of the most influential political books of the 21st century” (The New York Times)For decades, American politics has been plagued by a breakdown between the Democratic and Republican parties, in which victory has inevitably led to defeat and vice versa. Both parties have lost sight of the people at the center of the American electorate, leading to polarization and paralysis. In Where Have All the Democrats Gone?, John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira reveal the tectonic changes shaping the country’s current political landscape that both pundits and political scientists have missed.The Democratic Party, once the preserve of small towns as well as big cities and of the industrial working class and the newly immigrated, has abandoned and even actively alienated many of these voters. In this clarion call and essential argument for common sense and common ground, Judis and Teixeira reveal the transformation of American politics and provide a razor-sharp critique of where the Democrats have gone awry and how they can avoid political disaster in the days ahead.
by John B. Judis
Rating: 3.8 ⭐
Why has nationalism come roaring back?Trump in America, Johnson in the U.K., anti-EU parties in Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, and Hungary, and nativist or authoritarian leaders in Turkey, Russia, India, and China—Why has nationalism suddenly returned with a vengeance? Is the world headed back to the fractious conflicts between nations that led to world wars and depression in the early 20th Century?Based on travels in America, Europe, and Asia, veteran political analyst John B. Judis found that almost all people share nationalist sentiments that can be the basis of vibrant democracies as well as repressive dictatorships. Today’s outbreak of toxic “us vs. them” nationalism is an extreme reaction to utopian cosmopolitanism, which advocates open borders, free trade, rampant outsourcing, and has branded nationalist sentiments as bigotry. Can a new international order be created that doesn’t dismiss what is constructive about nationalism? As he does for populism in The Populist Explosion and for socialism in The Socialist Awakening , Judis looks at nationalism from its modern origins in the 1800s to today to find answers.“Essential reading.” —E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post
by John B. Judis
Rating: 3.9 ⭐
A probing look at one of the most incendiary subjects of our time―the relationship between the United States and IsraelThere has been more than half a century of raging conflict between Jews and Arabs―a violent, costly struggle that has had catastrophic repercussions in a critical region of the world. In Genesis , John B. Judis argues that, while Israelis and Palestinians must shoulder much of the blame, the United States has been the principal power outside the region since the end of World War II and as such must account for its repeated failed diplomacy efforts to resolve this enduring strife.The fatal flaw in American policy, Judis shows, can be traced back to the Truman years. What happened between 1945 and 1949 sealed the fate of the Middle East for the remainder of the century. As a result, understanding that period holds the key to explaining almost everything that follows―right down to George W. Bush's unsuccessful and ill-conceived effort to win peace through holding elections among the Palestinians, and Barack Obama's failed attempt to bring both parties to the negotiating table. A provocative narrative history animated by a strong analytical and moral perspective, and peopled by colorful and outsized personalities and politics, Genesis offers a fresh look at these critical postwar years, arguing that if we can understand how this stalemate originated, we will be better positioned to help end it.
John Judis is the author of one of the seminal books about the 2016 election, The Populist Explosion, which has sold 38,000 copies and was named One of six books to help understand Trump's win by The New York Times and The Economist called it Well-written and well-researched, powerfully argued and perfectly timed. Judis is also the author of The Nationalist Revival, published in 2018, which was highly acclaimed and has sold over 9,000 copies. EJ Dionne in The American Prospect called it essential reading. Both titles have been popular as course adoptions Judis is a veteran political reporter who examines national and global political trends through a nonpartisan lens. He specializes in speaking truth to liberals, wrote EJ Dionne in The Washington Post. Through his long career in progressive journalism, Judis has made a habit of seeing things that others were missing. With his new book examining the new socialism of the left, he once again provides a clarifying look at one of the biggest political trends of our time. Completes Judis's political trilogy explaining the Trump era.The Populist Explosion, The Nationalist Revival and The Socialist Awakening have a branded cover design and display well together.
Possibly more relevant now than ever before, John B. Judis' William F. Buckley, Jr follows the life and times of the "Patron Saint of Conservatives."From Simon & Schuster comes the definitive biography of William F. Buckley, Jr., the "Patron Saint of Conservatives," by journalist and writer John B. Judis. Get your copy of William F. Buckley Jr. today.
by John B. Judis
Rating: 3.6 ⭐
A century ago, the Theodore Roosevelt administration believed building an American empire was the only way the U.S. could ensure its role in the world, but came to see the occupation of the Philippines as America's "heel of Achilles." Woodrow Wilson, shocked by the failure of American intervention in Mexico and by the outbreak of World War I, came to see imperialism as the underlying cause of war and set about trying to create an international system to eliminate empires. But, the current Bush administration, despite the lessons of the past, has revived the older dreams of American empire--under the guise of democracy--even touting the American experience in the Philippines as a success upon which the United States could build in attempting to transform the Middle East.With The Folly of Empire , John B. Judis shows that history can teach us lessons and allow political leaders, if sensitive to history, to change their strategy in order to avoid past mistakes. Judis shows how presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton drew upon what Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson learned about the pitfalls of using American power unilaterally to carve out a world in America's image. Exercising leadership through international institutions and alliances, the United States was able to win the Cold War and the first Gulf War. But by ignoring these lessons, the Bush administration has created a quagmire of terror and ethnic conflict.By examining America's role in the international community--then and now-- The Folly of Empire is a sharp and compelling critique of America's current foreign policy and offers a direct challenge to neo-conservatives.
A one-volume history of the most consequential political movements of our time—populism, nationalism, socialism—and how they are influencing the twenty-first centuryThe distinguished political analyst John Judis has brought out a book with Columbia Global Reports during each of the last three national political The Populist Explosion in 2016, The Nationalist Revival in 2018, and The Socialist Awakening in 2020. Together, these books chart the rise during the second decade of the twenty-first century of new and unexpected political movements in the United States and Europe that arose in the wake of the Great Recession, the conflict with al-Qaeda and ISIS, and encroaching climate change.Judis has revised and updated these three books, and written a new introductory essay that seeks to explain the tumultuous last decade—most notably, Donald Trump's presidency and the response to a global pandemic and recession. This volume is an indispensable guide to understanding the deeply rooted disenchantment that gave rise to populist parties and politicians on the right and left—and to the global changes that have transformed the politics of our time."Essential reading." —E.J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post
by John B. Judis
Rating: 3.9 ⭐
Washington is big business. John B. Judis, a senior editor for the New Republic, onducts an instructive tour through this corridor of money and power in this work. Cutting to the heart of today's debate, it recommends what we can do to fix our broken system.
Focusing on the "American Century," the author explores the myths and realities of American power and discusses the role of the nation as a new century dawns. By the author of William F. Buckley, Patron Saint of the Conservatives.
by John B. Judis