Stephen C. Schlesinger (born August 17, 1942) is an American historian, political commentator, and international affairs specialist. He is a Fellow at the Century Foundation in New York City. He served as director of the World Policy Institute at the New School University from 1997 to 2006. He was foreign policy advisor to New York State Governor Mario Cuomo during his three terms in office.

Early career (1968–72)

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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 to Edward Logue at the New York State Urban Development Corporation from 1968 to 1969. The next year, he began publishing, with some other former devotees of Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene J. McCarthy, The New Democrat, a monthly magazine dedicated to uniting "the left and radical wings"[1] and replacing the "dead leadership" in the Democratic Party. The magazine was critical of Democratic National Committee chairman Larry O'Brien, and promoted the candidacy of South Dakota Senator George McGovern rather than of Maine Senator Ed Muskie and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey during the 1972 Democratic presidential primaries.[2]

Author

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Schlesinger's book, Bitter Fruit (1982), co-authored with Stephen Kinzer, was about the 1954 US coup in Guatemala. His subsequent book, about the UN's founding, was Act of Creation (2003), an account of the 1945 San Francisco conference that drafted the UN Charter. In 2007, with his brother, Andrew, he edited his father's Journals 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 brother The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (2013).

Bibliography

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  • Why England Slept by John F. Kennedy (new edition, Praeger 2016, with introduction by Stephen Schlesinger)
  • The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (Random House 2013, co-editor)
  • Journals 1952-2000 Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (Penguin Press 2007, co-editor)
  • Act of Creation: The Founding of The United Nations (Westview Press 2003)
  • Bitter Fruit: The Story of the U.S. Coup in Guatemala (Doubleday 1982, with Stephen Kinzer)
  • The New Reformers (Houghton Mifflen 1975)

References

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  1. ^ "Liberal Monthly is Started Here; Unity of Leftist and Radical Democrats is Goal", New York Times, p. 92, April 26, 1970
  2. ^ He later worked as a speechwriter for Senator George McGovern during his 1972 presidential campaign. "Liberal Voice", Time Magazine, May 15, 1972, archived from the original on October 22, 2010
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