Mark Danner
Mark Danner has written widely on foreign affairs and politics for more than three decades. A longtime staff writer for The New Yorker and a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, Danner has covered war and political conflict in Central America, Haiti, the Balkans, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East and, most recently, the story of torture during the War on Terror. He also writes frequently on American politics, covering every presidential campaign since 2000 and focusing, since 2015, on the rise of Donald Trump. Danner holds the Class of 1961 Distinguished Chair in Undergraduate Education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches politics and foreign policy at the Graduate School of Journalism and literature and film in the Department of English. Among his books are Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War (2016), Stripping Bare the Body (2009), The Secret Way to War: The Downing Street Memo and the Iraq War’s Buried History (2006), Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror (2004), The Road to Illegitimacy: One Reporter’s Travels through the 2000 Florida Vote Recount (2004), and The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War (1994).
Apart from The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, Danner’s writing has appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Aperture, and many other newspapers and magazines. He co-wrote and helped produce two hour-long documentaries for the ABC News program Peter Jennings Reporting, and his work has received, among other honors, a National Magazine Award, three Overseas Press Awards, an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a Guggenheim and an Emmy. In 1999 Danner was named a MacArthur Fellow. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Century Association, the World Affairs Council, is affiliated with Institute for International Studies at Berkeley and has served for a decade as a resident curator at the Telluride Film Festival, where he helps choose and introduce films and interviews filmmakers. Danner speaks and lectures widely on foreign policy, politics and the United States’ role in the world.
His writing and speaking can be found at www.markdanner.com.
Recent articles:
- “The Slow-Motion Coup (Part 1)”. The New York Review of Books. September 14, 2022.
- “We’re in an Emergency – Act Like It!” The New York Review of Books. August 18, 2022.
- “Reality Rebellion”. The New York Review of Books. July 1, 2021.
- “‘Be Ready to Fight'”. The New York Review of Books. January 14, 2021
- “The Con He Rode In On”. The New York Review of Books. October 21, 2020.
- “Moving Backward: Hypocrisy and Human Rights”. The New York Review of Books. June 1, 2020.
- “What He Could Do”. The New York Review of Books. March 23, 2017.
- “The Real Trump”. The New York Review of Books. December 22, 2016.
- “On the Election– II”. The New York Review of Books. November 10, 2016.
- “The Magic of Donald Trump”. The New York Review of Books. May 26, 2016.
- “The CIA: The Devastating Indictment”. The New York Review of Books. February 5, 2015.
- “State of Siege: Their Torture, and Ours”. The Criterion Collection. May 27, 2015.
- “How Robert Gates Got Away With It” The New York Review of Books. August 24, 2014.
- “Cheney: “The More Ruthless the Better”. The New York Review of Books. May 8, 2014.
- “He Remade Our World” The New York Review of Books. April 3, 2014.
- “Rumsfeld: Why We Live in His Ruins” The New York Review of Books. February 6, 2014.
- “Rumsfeld’s War and Its Consequences Now” The New York Review of Books. December 19, 2013.
- “After September 11: Our State of Exception”. The New York Review of Books. October 13, 2011.
- “To Heal Haiti, Look to History, Not Nature”. The New York Times. October 21, 2010.
- “The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means”. The New York Review of Books. April 30, 2009.
- “US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites”. The New York Review of Books. April 9, 2009.
AWARDS & HONORS
2019: Guggenheim Fellow
2016 – 17: Andrew Carnegie Fellow, April 2016
2007: The Best American Essays, For “Iraq: The War of the Imagination"
2006: Best American Political Writing, For “Taking Stock of the Forever War”
2006: Carey McWilliams Award, American Political Science Association
2004: Overseas Press Award: The Madeline Dane Ross Award for For Torture and Truth
1999: MacArthur Fellow
1998: Overseas Press Award: The Ed Cunningham Award for "Yugoslav Wars,” The New York Review of Books
1994: Emmy Award for "While America Watched: The Bosnia Tragedy," ABC News Peter Jennings Reporting
1994: Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Special Media Award for "The Truth of El Mozote"
1993: Overseas Press Award: The Madeline Dane Ross Award for Best International Reporting for "The Truth of El Mozote"
1990: National Magazine Award for Reporting: "A Reporter at Large: Beyond the Mountains," The New Yorker
TEACHING SCHEDULE:
| Sec. | Title | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 009 | J298 Political Reporting Seminar – Domestic/Global Spring 2025 | Mon 2–5pm | 106 North Gate (Upper News) — 106 North Gate (Upper News) |
| 009 | J298 War on the Borderlands — Conflict Reporting in Today’s World Spring 2024 | Mon 2–5pm | 104 North Gate — 104 North Gate |
| 005 | J298 In A Time of Emergency: Covering American Politics Now Fall 2023 | TU 2–5pm | 104 North Gate — 104 North Gate |
| 012 | J298 In a Time of Emergency, Covering American Politics Now Spring 2023 | W 1–4pm | 106 North Gate (Upper News) — 106 North Gate (Upper News) |
MEDIA PLATFORMS
Narrative Writing