Stephen Schlesinger | |
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| Born | Stephen Schlesinger (1942-08-17)August 17, 1942 (age 83) Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |
| Occupation | Author, political commentator, historian,international affairs specialist |
| Genre | Nonfiction |
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Stephen C. Schlesinger (born August 17, 1942) is an American historian, political commentator, and international affairs specialist. He is a Fellow at theCentury Foundation in New York City. He served as director of the World Policy Institute at theNew School University from 1997 to 2006. He was foreign policy advisor toNew York State GovernorMario Cuomo during his three terms in office.[1]
He has authored and co-authored books, includingAct of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations andBitter Fruit: The Story of the U.S. Coup in Guatemala.[2] His work spansjournalism,public policy, andacademia, focusing on foreign relations, political history, and the role of international organizations.[3]
Schlesinger was born toArthur M. Schlesinger Jr. andMarian Cannon Schlesinger inCambridge, Massachusetts.[4] His two grandfathers, father, and uncle all held teaching positions atHarvard University. Schlesinger attendedPhillips Exeter Academy, Harvard College, andHarvard Law School.[5]
Schlesinger began as a freelance writer investigating the 1967 Algiers Motel murders in Detroit and covering the 1968 Czechoslovakia uprisings against the Soviet occupation. Later he served as special assistant toEdward Logue atthe New York State Urban Development Corporation from 1968 to 1969. In the early 1970s, Schlesinger edited and publishedThe New Democrat Magazine, a monthly publication focused on uniting progressive voices within the Democratic Party.[6] The magazine was critical ofDemocratic National Committee chairmanLarry O'Brien, and promoted the candidacy of South Dakota SenatorGeorge McGovern rather than of Maine SenatorEd Muskie and former Vice PresidentHubert Humphrey during the1972 Democratic presidential primaries.[7] He later worked as a staff writer forTime Magazine, where he reported on a variety of domestic and international topics.[1]
For twelve years, Schlesinger served as speechwriter and foreign policy advisor to New York State GovernorMario Cuomo during his three terms in office.[8] In the mid-1990s, he joined theUnited Nations, working with Habitat, the agency focused on urban development and housing.[9]
From 1997 to 2006, Schlesinger was the director of the World Policy Institute atThe New School in New York City.[2] He also served as publisher of its flagship quarterly magazine,The World Policy Journal.[10]
Schlesinger's book,Bitter Fruit (1982), co-authored withStephen Kinzer, was about the1954 US coup in Guatemala.[11] His subsequent book, about the UN's founding, wasAct of Creation (2003), an account of the 1945 San Francisco conference that drafted theUN Charter.[12] In 2007, with his brother, Andrew, he edited his father'sJournals 1952-2000 Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (2007) which covers Schlesinger's life through the second half of the twentieth century. Subsequently, Schlesinger co-edited with his brotherThe Letters of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (2013).[13]
