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Bruce Shapiro

Contributing Editor

Bruce Shapiro, a contributing editor to The Nation, is executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a global resource center and think tank for journalists covering violence, conflict and tragedy.

He has been described as one of the most “sharp and thoughtful” (Washington Post), “perceptive” (Slate) and “nuanced” (Village Voice) analysts on the contemporary American scene.

Shapiro began his career on the fertile journalistic and political terrain of Chicago in the 1970s, where he was a founding editor of the radical magazine Haymarket. He was later co-founder and editor of the New Haven Independent, a weekly newspaper devoted to innovative grassroots muckraking. From 1991-1995 Shapiro was director of The Nation Institute’s Supreme Court Watch, a civil liberties watchdog.

Shapiro has written extensively on civil liberties and human rights. For The Nation, Shapiro has reported since 1981 on subjects ranging from the psychopolitics of cults to the privatization of public schools, and dissected national events from the nomination of Clarence Thomas to Bush Administration war crimes.

Shapiro is co-author of Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty and America’s Future, with Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (New Press), praised by Washington Post Book World for “intellectual clarity” which “might convince even the strongest supporters that the machinery of death has run its course.” His most recent book is Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America (Nation Books), called “vibrant and pertinent” by Columbia Journalism Review.

Since 1994 Shapiro has taught investigative journalism at Yale University. He contributes a weekly report on American politics and culture to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Late Night Live.


  • ActivismDecember 14, 2005

    Hypocrisy Trumps Clemency

    The refusal of the California governor, who built his fame feeding adolescent fantasies of killing, to grant clemency to a former gang leader who tried to dissuade kids from violence only adds to the widening discomfort over the death penalty in America.

    Bruce Shapiro

  • ActivismNovember 17, 2005

    More Leaks, Please!

    Power-friendly reporters like Judith Miller are easily manipulated by selective leaks. But what we need now is more civil disobedience by whistle-blowers exposing renditions, acts of torture and the flagrant abuse of power.

    Bruce Shapiro

  • LawOctober 28, 2005

    Lessons From the Miers Debacle

    What have Bush and his allies learned from this sorry epidode? Intellectual substance matters. Executive privilege is not absolute. Roe v. Wade is a bear trap for the GOP.

    Bruce Shapiro

  • LawSeptember 23, 2005

    The Roberts Converts

    The political chess match between the White House and Senate Democrats over the future of the Supreme Court took on new complexity as three Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to confirm John G. Roberts Jr.

    Bruce Shapiro

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  • LawSeptember 8, 2005

    William Rehnquist

    William Rehnquist showed little regard for the social consequences that followed his unrelenting application of conservative legal theory.

    Bruce Shapiro

  • LawSeptember 6, 2005

    In Rehnquist’s Footsteps

    The death of William Rehnquist, the nomination of John G. Roberts Jr. to replace him and the agony of New Orleans represent a sad symmetry of events.

    Bruce Shapiro

  • ActivismAugust 13, 2005

    The Cindy Factor

    Will her solitary protest become a turning point for a nation disillusioned with a President and his war?

    Bruce Shapiro

  • LawJuly 28, 2005

    Roberts’s Chill Heart

    Is John Roberts worth a fight?

    Bruce Shapiro

  • LawJuly 20, 2005

    The Stakes in Roberts’s Nomination

    If you like the Patriot Act and Guantánamo, you’ll love John Roberts. More than anything else, to fill Sandra Day O’Connor’s seat on the Supreme Court, the Bush White House sought an advocate for ever-expanding executive branch powers. The stakes in Roberts’s nomination could not be higher. Bruce Shapiro reports.

    Bruce Shapiro

  • LawJuly 14, 2005

    Supreme Court Watch

    The stand Democrats take on Bush’s Supreme Court nominee may well define their legacy.

    Bruce Shapiro

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