Karl E. Meyer

Karl E. Meyer is a third generation journalist. His grandfather, George Meyer, was the editor of the leading German language newspaper in Milwaukee, the "Germania"; his father, Ernest L. Meyer, was a columnist for "The Capital Times" (Madison, Wisconsin) and then "The New York Post".

Karl Meyer’s career in journalism began while as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. During his junior year, he became the editor of "The Daily Cardinal", the student newspaper, while serving as the campus correspondent of the "Milwaukee Journal". During his senior year, he edited the university literary magazine, "The Athenaean". He received his MPA (Master of Public Affairs) from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. After being awarded a Proctor Fellowship, he earned a Ph.D. (Politics), also from Princeton University.

After graduation in 1956, he became a member of the editorial board of "The Washington Post", which began his career in foreign affairs. He also wrote a weekly column from America for "The New Statesman". He won an Overseas Press Club award for his coverage of Latin America, and during the Cuban revolution he interviewed Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra.

From 1965-70, he was the "Post"’s London Bureau Chief where he became a weekly regular on the BBC and a character in the humor magazine "Private Eye". In 1968, he covered the Soviet invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia. Returning home in 1970, he headed the "Post"’s New York Bureau.

He was a television columnist and contributing editor of "The Saturday Review" (1975-79) and also a contributing editor of "Archaeology" (1999-2005). He joined "The New York Times" Editorial Board in 1979 where he served until 1998 as the senior writer on foreign affairs and a frequent contributor to the Arts and Ideas section.

After his retirement from the "Times", Meyer became editor of the "World Policy Journal", published quarterly by the World Policy Institute, which was a position he held until 2008 when he became editor emeritus.

He has been a visiting professor at Yale University, Tuft University’s Fletcher School, Bard College, and the McGraw Professor of Writing at Princeton. He is a fellow of Green College, Oxford University, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute of Advanced Studies, Berlin), and of Davenport College, Yale. He has served as judge for the Peabodys, the Pulizer Prize, and the Arnold Toynbee History Prize. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Century Association.

Meyer is married to Shareen Blair Brysac with whom he has co-authored two books. He has two sons, Ernest and Jonathan Meyer (link: http://www.jonmeyer.com/), and a daughter, Heather Meyer.

Bibliography of Works

* [http://kingmakersbook.com/ "Kingmakers: the Invention of the Modern Middle East"] (with Shareen Blair Brysac), WW Norton, June 2008.

* "The Dust of Empire", PublicAffairs/Century Foundation, 2002; 2003 in UK by Little, Brown; reissued in paperback; NY Times Notable Book, Best Book of the Year, LA Times and finalist for the Gelber Prize. Several foreign publications Including UK by Little, Brown.

* "Tournament of Shadows: The Race for Empire in Central Asia" (with Shareen Blair Brysac), Counterpoint, 1999, paperbound 2000 republished with new introduction by Basic Books in 2006)Finalist, Gelber Prize; NY Times Notable Book. Published in UK by Little, Brown. Selection of History Book Club. Forthcoming in a Spanish edition.

* "Pundits, Poets and Wits: An Omnibus of American Newspaper Columns", Oxford University Press, 1990; reissued in paperback.

* "The Art Museum: Power, Money, Ethics", Morrow, 1978. Twentieth Century Fund study. Reissued in paperback.

* "Teotihuacan", Newsweek Books, 1975. Translated into Italian and Spanish.

* "The Plundered Past", Atheneum, 1973. Serialized in "The New Yorker". Reissued in paperback, translated into six languages; Book-of-the-Month Club alternate; published in UK by Hamish Hamilton. Subject of an hour ABC News documentary with Peter Jennings.

* "The Pleasures of Archaeology", Atheneum, 1970. Featured alternate, Book-of-the-Month Club Published in UK by Andre Deutsch.

* "Fulbright of Arkansas: The Public Positions of a Private Thinker", Robert Luce: McKay, Washington D.C., 1963. Preface by Walter Lippmann; reissued in paperback.

* "The Cuban Invasion" (with Tad Szulc), Praeger, 1962. Ballantine paperback.

* "The New America", Basic Books, 1961. Main selection, Readers Subscription

Recent Articles on the Middle East

* “Forty Years in the Sand,” "Harper’s Magazine", June, 2005.

* “Syriana, or The Godfather, Part IV,” "World Policy Journal", Winter 2005/06http://worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj06-1/coda.html

* “The Perfect Debacle”, "World Policy Journal", Fall 2004 (Iraq occupation) http://worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj04-3/coda.htm

* “Regime Change” and Other Enigmas,” "World Policy Jo"urnal, Fall 2002

* “On Showing 'A Decent Respect'”, "World Policy Journal", Spring 2002 (opposing the invasion of Iraq, http://worldpolicy.org/journal/wpj02-1.html

Recent Articles on Religion

* “The Black Book of Religion” (Part I), "World Policy Journal", Spring 2005, http://worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj05-sp/meyerk2.html

* “The Black Book of Religion” (Part II), "World Policy Journal", Fall 2005, http://worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj05-3/

* “The Black Book of Religion” (Part III), "World Policy Journal", Summer 2006, http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/wopj.2006.23.2.105

External links

* [http://kingmakersbook.com/ "Kingmakers"]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F06EFDE1030F931A25754C0A9649C8B63&scp=3&sq=%22Sounding+Out+Words%22&st=nyt "Sounding Out Words of Caution During Wartime, Public Lives Profile of Meyer"] by Chris Hedges in "The New York Times", July 12, 2002,

* Radio interview and discussion of the Middle East and Afghanistan with Lewis Lapham of "Lapham's Quarterly" on Bloomberg Radio's show "The World in Time," http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/radio/show_9_karl_e_meyer.mp3

* OpEd piece "Another Bad Deal for Baghdad" in "The New York Times" on June 17, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/opinion/17meyer.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

* OpEd piece "How To Lose Iraq" in "Newsweek" July 7-14, 2008 issue, http://www.newsweek.com/id/143674
* [http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?query=%22Karl+E.+Meyer%22&date_select=full&srchst=nyt Archived articles in "The New York Times,"]

References

* Meyer’s webpage www.kingmakersbook.com

* "Who’s Who in America"