Benjamin Barber

Benjamin R. Barber (born August 2, 1939) is an American political theorist and author perhaps best known for his 1995 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld and 2013's If Mayors Ruled the World.

Career

Benjamin R. Barber is a Senior Research Scholar at The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society of The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, the President and Founder of the Interdependence Movement, and Walt Whitman Professor of Political Science Emeritus, Rutgers University.^[1] From 2007^[2]–2012, he was a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos.

As a political theorist, Barber argues for a renewed focus on civil society and engaged citizenship as tools for building effective democracy, particularly in the post-Cold War world. His current work examines the failure of nation-states to address global problems, and argues that cities and intercity associations are more effectively addressing shared concerns. Benjamin Barber has been a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy since 2005.

Barber was an outside adviser to President Bill Clinton and a foreign policy adviser to Howard Dean's 2004 Presidential campaign. He has advised political parties and political leaders in the U.K., Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland and Italy on civic education and participatory institutions.

Barber has met with and worked alongside civil society and government leaders in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, China, and Moammar Gadhafi's Libya.^[3][4][5]

Barber was educated at Grinnell College (B.A., 1960) and Harvard University (M.A., 1963; Ph.D., 1966), after earning certificates at Albert Schweitzer College (1959) and the London School of Economics (1957).

Barber's father, Philip W. Barber, directed the New York City unit of the Federal Theatre Project, which produced plays including Macbeth and the Living Newspaper. His mother, Doris Frankel, was a playwright and wrote for television.^[6] Barber himself has also been active as a playwright, lyricist (libretto for George Quincy's opera Home and the River) and film-maker (The Struggle for Democracy, with Patrick Watson; Music Inn, with Ben Barenholtz).

Honors

Barber's honors include a knighthood from the French Government (Palmes Academiques/Chevalier) (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.

Sonderkommando Controversy

In November 2016, Barber was highlighted in a Project Veritas undercover video taken earlier in the year comparing Black Republican Supporters to "Sonderkommandos" or Jewish Persons who Aided Nazis in Extermination Camps.^[7] Immediate outcry was evident on Social Media, with Barber issuing a statement that he regretted that he had been recorded while making the comment (but did not retract the sentiment or position).^[8] Calls for academic and professional disavowal or boycott of Barber have continued.

Bibliography

• Superman and Common Men: Freedom, Anarchy and the Revolution (1971) ISBN 978-0-14-021430-7
• The Death of Communal Liberty: A History of Freedom in a Swiss Mountain Canton (1974) ISBN 978-0-691-61808-1
• Liberating Feminism (1976) ISBN 978-0-8164-9214-5
• Marriage Voices (1981 novel) ISBN 978-0-671-44808-0
• Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age (1984) ISBN 978-0-520-05115-7
• The Conquest of Politics: Liberal Philosophy in Democratic Times (1988) ISBN 978-0-691-07764-2
• An Aristocracy of Everyone: The Politics Of Education and the Future of America (1992) ISBN 978-0-19-985417-2
• America Skips School (1993) appeared in Harper's Magazine
• Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World (1996) ISBN 978-0-345-38304-4
• A Place for Us: How to Make Society Civil and Democracy Strong (1998) ISBN 978-0-8090-7656-7
• A Passion for Democracy: American Essays (2000) ISBN ISBN 978-0-691-05024-9
• The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House (2001) ISBN 978-0-231-14439-1
• Fear's Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy in an Age of Interdependence (2003) ISBN 978-0-393-32578-2
• Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age (Twentieth Anniversary Revision 2004) ISBN 978-0-520-24233-3
• Schwächt oder stärkt E-Technologie die Demokratie?, in: Robertson-von Trotha, Caroline Y. (ed.): Kultur und Gerechtigkeit (= Kulturwissenschaft interdisziplinär/Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society, Vol. 2), Baden-Baden (2007)
• Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (2007) ISBN 978-0-393-04961-9
• If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities (October 2013) ISBN 978-0-300-16467-1

References

Further reading

• Saward, Michael (2012), "A conversation with Benjamin Barber.", in Browning, Gary; Dimova-Cookson, Maria; Prokhovnik, Raia, Dialogues with contemporary political theorists, Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 24–41, ISBN 9780230303058 

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Benjamin Barber

• Official website
• Benjamin Barber at TED
  
  • Why mayors should rule the world, a TED talk (TEDGlobal 2013)
• CivWorld
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• The Interdependence Movement
• A Conversation on American Political Culture with Benjamin Barber
• Barber discusses his book Consumed: How markets corrupt.... Audio on Media Matters April 15, 2007 UIUC.EDU
• Benjamin Barber's blog on the Huffington Post
• Benjamin Barber on Twitter
• Interview with Benjamin R. Barber by JK Fowler for The Mantle March 19, 2011
• A film clip "The Open Mind – A New Requirement for the Educated Person: Community Service (1990)" is available at the Internet Archive