Paul Berman

Who is Paul Berman?

Paul Lawrence Berman is a writer on politics and literature whose articles and reviews have appeared in numerous influential publications. His admirers liken his cosmopolitan style to that of the so-called New York Intellectuals of the mid-twentieth century, whose conversation-shaping essays on big topics came out in the little magazines of the day.

His books—published in fifteen languages—include Terror and Liberalism, The Flight of the Intellectuals, A Tale of Two Utopias, Power and the Idealists, and an illustrated children's book, Make-Believe Empire. He edited, among other anthologies, Carl Sandburg: Selected Poems, for the American Poets Project of the Library of America.

Berman attended Columbia University, receiving an M.A. in American history in 1973. He is a contributing editor of The New Republic and a member of the editorial board of Dissent. He has been awarded fellowships from the MacArthur and Guggenheim foundations and from the Cullman Center for Scholars & Writers at the New York Public Library. He was a Regents' Lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.