Daniel Singer

Europe Correspondent

Daniel Singer, for many years The Nation's Paris-based Europe correspondent, was born on September 26, 1926, in Warsaw, was educated in France, Switzerland and England and died on December 2, 2000, in Paris.

He was a contributor to The Economist, The New Statesman and the Tribune and appeared as a commentator on NPR, "Monitor Radio" and the BBC, as well as Canadian and Australian broadcasting. (These credits are for his English-language work; he was also fluent in French, Polish, Russian and Italian.)

He was the author of Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968 (Hill & Wang, 1970), The Road to Gdansk (Monthly Review Press, 1981), Is Socialism Doomed?: The Meaning of Mitterrand (Oxford, 1988) and Whose Millennium? Theirs or Ours? (Monthly Review Press, 1999).

A specialist on the Western European left as well as the former Communist nations, Singer ranged across the Continent in his dispatches to The Nation. Singer sharply critiqued Western-imposed economic "shock therapy" in the former Eastern Bloc and US support for Boris Yeltsin, sounded early warnings about the re-emergence of Fascist politics into the Italian mainstream, and, across the Mediterranean, reported on an Algeria sliding into civil war.

The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation was founded in 2000 to honor original essays that help further socialist ideas in the tradition of Daniel Singer.

 

Too Good to Be True Too Good to Be True

This is the rather flattering self-portrait of a populist leader who has already traveled quite far: Boris Yeltsin, once a protégé of Mikhail Gorbachev, is now his ...

Jan 2, 1998 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Singer

Socialism’s Setting Sun Socialism’s Setting Sun

Amid the noise of the unending Urbatechnic affaire, a scandal over the Socialist Party's fraudulent financing of its electoral funds, the tenth anniversary of François Mitte...

Jan 2, 1998 / Feature / Daniel Singer

Buba Knows Best Buba Knows Best

By the skin of their teeth... Watching on French television the gloomy faces of the alleged winners one could not help feeling there was an element of defeat in their victory.

Jan 2, 1998 / Editorial / Daniel Singer

Forza’s Destiny in Italy Forza’s Destiny in Italy

The description of Rifondazione Comunista here has been corrected as indicated in a correction that ran in the issue of May 2, 1994.

Jan 2, 1998 / Feature / Daniel Singer

The Politics and the Pity The Politics and the Pity

"We are all German Jews" chanted 50,000 Frenchmen at the gates of the Bastille in 1968; I was recently reminded of this episode, which has become revolutionary lore, when Holocau...

Jan 2, 1998 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Singer

Socialism Takes Two Steps Back Socialism Takes Two Steps Back

The French socialist saga makes awkward reading for left-wingers. It has a wistful air of déjà vu.

Jan 2, 1998 / Feature / Daniel Singer

October Memories October Memories

With Zbigniew Bujak, Bogdan Lis, Adam Michnik and their comrades out of jail, there is reason to rejoice.

Jan 2, 1998 / Editorial / Daniel Singer

From Balzac to Salvador Dali From Balzac to Salvador Dali

"You are mistaken, dear angel, if you think that King Louis-Philippe rules--a mistake the King himself does not make.

Jan 2, 1998 / Feature / Daniel Singer

Silent Reproach Silent Reproach

Some events carry an exceptional symbolic charge.

Jan 2, 1998 / Editorial / Daniel Singer

Fiddling While Rome Smolders Fiddling While Rome Smolders

Is Italy on the eve of a major political crisis? Is a change of regime, or perhaps even the birth of a new republic, imminent?

Jan 2, 1998 / Feature / Daniel Singer

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