Occupation Academic Role Author Name Benjamin Barber | Genre Political theory Nationality American | |
 | ||
Born August 2, 1939 (age 84) New York City ( 1939-08-02 ) Education Harvard University (1966), Grinnell College (1960) Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, US & Canada Influenced by Hannah Arendt, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey, Walt Whitman, Thomas Jefferson Books Jihad vs McWorld, If Mayors Ruled the World: Dy, Strong Democracy, Consumed: How Markets, Fear's Empire: War - Terr Similar Patrick Watson (producer), Carl Joachim Friedrich, Hannah Arendt Profiles | ||
Benjamin barber iaac lecture series 2014
Benjamin R. Barber (August 2, 1939 – April 24, 2017) was an American political theorist and author, perhaps best known for his 1995 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld, and for 2013's If Mayors Ruled the World as well as the classic of democratic theory, 1984's Strong Democracy (revised in 2004). He became a top-level international consultant on participatory democracy as well as an adviser to Bill Clinton and Howard Dean.
Contents
- Benjamin barber iaac lecture series 2014
- Benjamin barber inequality and the city
- Personal life
- Career
- Honors
- 2016 elections
- References
Benjamin barber inequality and the city
Personal life
Barber was born in New York City in 1939. He 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. Barber was also 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, and Music Inn, with Ben Barenholtz).
Barber died on April 24, 2017, after a four-month battle with cancer.
Career
Barber was 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. From 2007–2012, he was a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos.
As a political theorist, Barber argued for a renewed focus on civil society and engaged citizenship as tools for building effective democracy, particularly in the post-Cold War world. His work examined the failure of nation-states to address global problems, and argued that cities and intercity associations are more effectively addressing shared concerns. Barber was a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy in 2005–2017. In February 2016, he joined the Fordham University Urban Consortium as its first Distinguished Senior Fellow and announced the inaugural convening of the Global Parliament of Mayors.
Barber was an outside adviser to President Bill Clinton and a foreign policy adviser to Howard Dean's 2004 Presidential campaign. He advised political parties and political leaders in the U.K., Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland and Italy on civic education and participatory institutions.
Barber met with and worked alongside civil society and government leaders in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, China, and Moammar Gadhafi's Libya.
Honors
Barber's honors included 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 was also awarded Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Social Science Research Fellowships, honorary doctorates from Grinnell College, Monmouth University and Connecticut College, and held the chair of American Civilization at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris.
2016 elections
In November 2016, Barber was falsely cited as a "major Hillary donor" and recorded expressing his opinion that black voters who vote for Republicans are voting against their own interests, in a Project Veritas undercover video produced earlier in the year. Project Veritas, which now works with the conservative media outlet Breitbart News, filmed Barber without his knowledge. Project Veritas has been criticized for misleading audiences, splicing video footage, entrapping people, lying, and fraud.