- Mary Eberstadt
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Mary Tedeschi Eberstadt is an American author and a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. She also serves as consulting editor of Policy Review, the Hoover Institution’s bimonthly journal. Her work focuses on issues in American society, culture, and philosophy.
Eberstadt graduated magna cum laude in 1983 from Cornell University, where she was a four-year Telluride Scholar.[1]
Contents
Professional career
Throughout her career, Eberstadt has written for a variety of magazines and newspapers, including National Review Online, Policy Review, The Weekly Standard, Commentary, the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Times, First Things, and the American Spectator.
She is also the author of numerous influential essays, including "Why Ritalin Rules,"[2] "Home-Alone America,"[3] "Eminem is Right,"[4] "How the West Really Lost God,"[5] and "Is Food the New Sex?"[6] and "The Vindication of Humanae Vitae,"[7] "How Pedophilia Lost its Cool,"[8] and "Christianity Lite."[9]
New York Times columnist David Brooks has twice awarded Eberstadt's writing a “Sidney,” his annual award for best essay writing of the year.[10] Columnist George Will has called Eberstadt "intimidatingly intelligent," and author George Weigel has called her “our premier analyst of American cultural foibles and follies, with a keen eye for oddities that illuminate just how strange the country’s moral culture has become.”
Eberstadt’s first book, Home-Alone America,[11] argued that separating children from family members at early ages is linked to childhood problems such as obesity and rising rates of mental and behavioral disorders. The book also connected these problems to contemporary popular culture, particularly as reflected in adolescent music (including the award-winning chapter, “Eminem is Right”). National Review called the book “important”and “thought-provoking.” R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called it “a book that should be read by every concerned parent, pastor, and policy maker.”
In 2007, Eberstadt published and contributed the introductory essay to Why I Turned Right: Leading Baby Boom Conservatives Chronicle their Political Journeys,[12] which featured personal essays by prominent conservative writers, editors, and pundits, including P.J. O’Rourke, Dinesh D’Souza, Stanley Kurtz, Tod Lindberg, Joseph Bottum, Sally Satel, Heather Mac Donald, Peter Berkowitz, Danielle Crittenden, Richard Starr, David Brooks, and Rich Lowry. Christopher Buckley called the book “A thoroughly engaging, witty, and instructive series of essays by the best and rightest of our generation."
In 2010, Eberstadt published her first work of fiction, The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism.[13] Scot McKnight of beliefnet wrote that “[C.S.] Lewis now has a rival: The Loser Letters.” The Catholic Post called it “an instant classic.” P.J. O’Rourke wrote that “Mary Eberstadt is the rightful heir and assignee of C.S. Lewis, and her heroine in The Loser Letters is the legitimate child (or perhaps grandchild) of ‘the patient’ in The Screwtape Letters.”
From 1990 to 1998, Eberstadt was executive editor of National Interest magazine. Between 1985 and 1987, she was a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department[14] and a speechwriter for then Secretary of State George P. Shultz. In 1984-85 she was a special assistant to Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick.[15] Eberstadt is also a former managing editor of the Public Interest.[16]
Publications
- Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs and Other Parent Substitutes (Penguin/Sentinel, 2004) ISBN 1595230041
- Why I Turned Right: Leading Baby Boom Conservatives Chronicle Their Political Journeys - Editor (Simon and Schuster/Threshold, 2007) ISBN 1416528555
- The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism (Ignatius Press, 2010) ISBN 1586174312
References
- ^ Hoover Institution: Mary Eberstadt
- ^ Why Ritalin Rules (Policy Review)
- ^ Home-Alone America (Policy Review)
- ^ Eminem is Right (Policy Review)
- ^ How the West Really Lost God (Policy Review)
- ^ Is Food the New Sex? (Policy Review)
- ^ The Vindication of Humanae Vitae (First Things)
- ^ How Pedophilia Lost its Cool (First Things)
- ^ Christianity Lite (First Things)
- ^ David Brooks' Sidney Awards (New York Times)
- ^ Home-Alone America (Sentinel, 2004)
- ^ Why I Turned Right: Leading Baby Boom Conservatives Chronicle their Political Journeys (2007)
- ^ The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism (2010)
- ^ Commentary Magazine
- ^ Right Wing Watch
- ^ Simon & Schuster
External links
Categories:- American magazine editors
- American Roman Catholics
- American writers
- Cornell University alumni
- Hoover Institute people
- Living people
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