James Traub

James Traub is a historian, journalist and scholar. Over a career of almost fifty years he has written extensively about international affairs, national politics, urban issues and education.He worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker from 1993 to 1998 and as a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine from 1998 to 2011. His tenth and most recent book, True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest For A More Just America, was published in February. His other books include What Was Liberalism? The Past, Present and Promise of  Noble Idea as well as biographies of John Quincy Adams and the Jewish Confederate leader Judah Benjamin. He is currently writing a book about the role that schools should play–and now largely fail to play–in preparing young people for democratic citizenship. He teaches classes on American foreign policy and on the history of liberalism at NYU Abu Dhabi and at NYU. He is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.