Dr. Benjamin R. Barber
Dr. Benjamin Barber brings an abiding concern for democracy and citizenship to issues of politics, globalization, culture and education in America and abroad. Benjamin Barber’s 17 books include the classic Strong Democracy(1984) reissued in 2004 in a twentieth anniversary edition; the international best-seller Jihad vs. McWorld
Political theorist and author of Jihad vs McWorld
Benjamin R. Barber is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Dēmos, president and founder of the international NGO CivWorld at Dēmos and the Interdependence Movement. He is Walt Whitman Professor of Political Science Emeritus, Rutgers University. An internationally renowned political theorist, Dr. Barber brings an abiding concern for democracy and citizenship to issues of politics, globalization, culture and education in America and abroad. He consults regularly with political and civic leaders in the U.S. (President Bill Clinton, Howard Dean) and around the world (Germany, U.K., Libya, Italy, Singapore).
Benjamin Barber’s 17 books include the classic Strong Democracy (1984) reissued in 2004 in a twentieth anniversary edition; the international best-seller Jihad vs. McWorld (1995 with a Post 9/11 Edition in 2001, translated into thirty languages) and most recently Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole, published by W.W. Norton & Co. in 2007 (ten foreign editions). His upcoming book, If Mayors Ruled the World, will be published by Yale University Press in 2013.
Barber’s honors include a knighthood (Palmes Academiques/Chevalier) from the French Government (2001), the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin (2001) and the John Dewey Award (2003). He has also been awarded Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Social Science Research Fellowships, honorary doctorates from Grinnell College, Monmouth University and Connecticut College, and has held the chair of American Civilization at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
He blogs regularly for The Huffington Post and writes for The Nation, Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, The American Prospect, Le Nouvel Observateur, Die Zeit, La Repubblica, El País and The Guardian. Barber was a founding Editor and for ten years Editor-in-Chief of the distinguished international quarterly Political Theory. He holds a certificate from the London School of Economics and an M.A. and Doctorate from Harvard University.
Barber appears often on television, including CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, the Tavis Smiley Show, Bill Moyers Journal, Charlie Rose, and GRITtv. With Patrick Watson he wrote the prize-winning ten-part PBS/BBC series The Struggle for Democracy and contributed to the British series Greek Fire. He wrote and narrated the film Music Inn, featured at the Tribeca and Munich film festivals. His plays have been produced off-Broadway and at regional theaters, while his song lyrics for British tenor Martin Best appear on the EMI concept album Knight on the Road. He wrote the libretto for George Quincy’s opera Home and the River, produced by Encompass in New York.
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Dr. Benjamin R. Barber discusses:
- Democracy
- Politics
- Economic Trends
- Political Trends
- Global Trends
Interview
Books
- Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (2008)
A powerful sequel to Benjamin R. Barber’s best-selling Jihad vs. McWorld, Consumed offers a vivid portrait of an overproducing global economy that targets children as consumers in a market where there are never enough shoppers and where the primary goal is no longer to manufacture goods but needs. To explain how and why this has come about, Barber brings together extensive empirical research with an original theoretical framework for understanding our contemporary predicament. He asserts that in place of the Protestant ethic once associated with capitalism—we are constantly being seduced into an “infantilist” ethic of consumption.
- Jihad vs. McWorld: Terrorism’s Challenge to Democracy
A work of persuasive originality and penetrating insight, Jihad vs. McWorld holds up a sharp, clear lens to the dangerous chaos of the post-Cold War world. Critics and political leaders have already heralded Benjamin R. Barber’s work for its bold vision and moral courage. Jihad vs. McWorld is an essential text for anyone who wants to understand our troubled present and the crisis threatening our future.
