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Benjamin R. Barber (born August 2, 1939) is an American political theorist perhaps best known for his 1996 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld
Jihad vs. McWorld

Jihad vs. McWorld is the title of a 1992 article that was later adapted into a book by political scientist Benjamin R. Barber, in which he puts forth a theory that describes the struggle between "McWorld" and "Jihad" ....
.

Career
Barber currently holds the positions of Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a public research university located in the city of College Park, Maryland in Prince George's County, Maryland outside Washington, D.C....
 School of Public Policy
University of Maryland School of Public Policy

The Maryland School of Public Policy is one of 14 schools at the University of Maryland, College Park and the only policy school in the Washington, D.C.-area affiliated with a major research university....
, as well as president and director of the international NGO CivWorld, and its annual Interdependence Day event, and distinguished senior fellow at Demos
Demos

Demos may refer to:* Glossary_of_rhetorical_terms#Demos, a rhetorical term for the population of an ancient Greek state** Deme or Demoi, the term for an ancient subdivision of Attica, Greece...
.






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Encyclopedia


Benjamin R. Barber (born August 2, 1939) is an American political theorist perhaps best known for his 1996 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld
Jihad vs. McWorld

Jihad vs. McWorld is the title of a 1992 article that was later adapted into a book by political scientist Benjamin R. Barber, in which he puts forth a theory that describes the struggle between "McWorld" and "Jihad" ....
.

Career


Barber currently holds the positions of Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a public research university located in the city of College Park, Maryland in Prince George's County, Maryland outside Washington, D.C....
 School of Public Policy
University of Maryland School of Public Policy

The Maryland School of Public Policy is one of 14 schools at the University of Maryland, College Park and the only policy school in the Washington, D.C.-area affiliated with a major research university....
, as well as president and director of the international NGO CivWorld, and its annual Interdependence Day event, and distinguished senior fellow at Demos
Demos

Demos may refer to:* Glossary_of_rhetorical_terms#Demos, a rhetorical term for the population of an ancient Greek state** Deme or Demoi, the term for an ancient subdivision of Attica, Greece...
. As a political theorist, Barber argues for a renewed focus on civil society
Civil society

Civil society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures of a state and commercial institutions of the market....
 and involved citizenship as tools for building effective democracy
Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which power is held directly or indirectly by citizens under a free electoral system. It is derived from the Greek language d?????at?a , "popular government" which was coined from d???? , "people" and ???t?? , "rule, strength" in the middle of the 5th-4th century BC to denote the political syst...
, particularly in the post-Cold War
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
 world. Benjamin Barber has been a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy
USC Center on Public Diplomacy

The University of Southern California Center on Public diplomacy is a joint academic research, teaching and training center created and run jointly by the Annenberg School for Communication and the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences' University of Southern California School of International Relations....
 since 2005.

Barber was educated at Grinnell College
Grinnell College

Grinnell College is a private Liberal arts colleges in the United States in Grinnell, Iowa, Iowa, U.S. with a strong tradition of social activism....
 (B.A., 1960) and Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
 (M.A., 1963; Ph.D., 1966), after earning certificates at Albert Schweitzer College (1959) and the London School of Economics
London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science, more commonly referred to as The London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist college of the University of London in London, England....
 (1957). He has served as an advisor to various politicians in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 and around the world, including Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the fifteenth Democrat elected to that office....
 and Howard Dean
Howard Dean

Howard Brush Dean III is an United States Politics of the United States and physician from the U.S. state of Vermont. He served six terms as Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination....
. Dean made Barber his foreign policy advisor in his failed 2004 campaign.

He has also moonlighted as a playwright, novelist and songwriter, with modest success.

Honors

Barber's honors include a distinction (Palmes Academiques/Chevalier) from France (2001), the Berlin Prize of the American Academy of 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 Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Paris.

Bibliography


  • Superman and Common Men: Freedom, Anarchy and the Revolution (1971)
  • The Death of Communal Liberty: A History of Freedom in a Swiss Mountain Canton (1974)
  • Liberating Feminism (1976)
  • Marriage Voices (1981 novel
    1981 in literature

    The year 1981 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age
    Strong Democracy

    Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age by Benjamin Barber was published by the University of California Press in 1984 and republished in a twentieth anniversary edition in 2004....
     (1984)
  • The Conquest of Politics: Liberal Philosophy in Democratic Times (1988)
  • An Aristocracy of Everyone: The Politics Of Education and the Future of America (1992)
  • America Skips School (1993) appeared in Harper's Magazine
    Harper's Magazine

    Harper's Magazine is a monthly, general-interest magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. It is the second-oldest, continuously-published monthly magazine in the U.S.; current circulation is more than 220,000 issues....
  • Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World
    Jihad vs. McWorld

    Jihad vs. McWorld is the title of a 1992 article that was later adapted into a book by political scientist Benjamin R. Barber, in which he puts forth a theory that describes the struggle between "McWorld" and "Jihad" ....
     (1996)
  • A Place for Us: How to Make Society Civil and Democracy Strong (1998)
  • A Passion for Democracy: American Essays (2000)
  • The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House (2001)
  • Fear's Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy in an Age of Interdependence (2003)
  • Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age
    Strong Democracy

    Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age by Benjamin Barber was published by the University of California Press in 1984 and republished in a twentieth anniversary edition in 2004....
     (Twentieth Anniversary Revision 2004)
  • Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (2007)


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