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Christopher Caldwell (journalist)

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Christopher Caldwell
Born1962 (age 61–62)
Lynn, Massachusetts, U.S.
OccupationJournalist, editor, author, writer
LanguageEnglish
Alma materHarvard College
GenreJournalism

Christopher Caldwell (born 1962) is an American journalist and a former senior editor at neoconservative magazine The Weekly Standard to the Financial Times, and a former contributor of book reviews at Slate.[1] He is a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Claremont Institute and contributing editor to the Claremont Review of Books.[2] His writing also appears in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, where he is a contributing opinion writer.[3]

Early life and education

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Caldwell was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard College in 1983, where he studied English literature.[4][5]

Career

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Caldwell's 2009 book Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, which deals with increased Muslim immigration to Europe, received mixed reactions. The Economist newspaper called it "an important book as well as a provocative one: the best statement to date of the pessimist's position on Islamic immigration in Europe."[6] The Marxist historian Perry Anderson, though critical of his arguments, nonetheless called it "the most striking single book to have appeared, in any language, on immigration in Western Europe".[7] Others were more blunt, accusing Caldwell of stoking what The Guardian referred to as a "culture of fear".[8][9][10] Caldwell insists that he is "instinctively pro-immigration" and conscious of the media tendency to "sensationalize stories against Muslims".[11]

In 2020, Caldwell published The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties, in which he argues that the civil rights movement has had significant unintended consequences: "Just half a decade into the civil rights revolution, America had something it had never had at the federal level, something the overwhelming majority of its citizens would never have approved: an explicit system of racial preference. Plainly the civil rights acts had wrought a change in the country's constitutional culture."[12] Caldwell writes that the Civil Rights Act 1964 was "not just a major new element in the Constitution," but "a rival constitution, with which the original one was frequently incompatible."[13]

It was reviewed in The New York Times,[14] The Wall Street Journal, and the Claremont Review of Books. Richard Aldous wrote in The Wall Street Journal, "It's curious that a book subtitled 'America Since the Sixties' doesn't actually have much history in it", going on to say: "The reader turns the page expectantly, waiting to see what Mr. Caldwell has to say about President Trump. We will never know, at least not from reading this book, because Mr. Caldwell ends in 2015. ... That's a shame, because 'The Age of Entitlement' raises important questions not just about the future of the republic but about Western society more generally."[15] The newspaper went on to list it as one of their Best Political Books of 2020, however.[16]

Caldwell has written about the arrival of the Pilgrims in North America from the perspective of the Wampanoag Indians.[17]

Personal life

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His wife, Zelda, is the daughter of journalist Robert Novak.[18] His daughter, Lucy Caldwell, was the campaign manager for Joe Walsh's presidential campaign challenging Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in 2020.[19] Caldwell is a practicing Catholic.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Christopher Caldwell". Slate. Archived from the original on December 8, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
  2. ^ "Recovering the American Idea". Claremont Institute. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  3. ^ "Christopher Caldwell". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 23, 2024. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Interview with Christopher Caldwell". Interviews with Max Raskin. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
  5. ^ "Christopher Caldwell". The Claremont Institute. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
  6. ^ "Europe and Islam: A treacherous path?". The Economist. August 27, 2009. Archived from the original on August 5, 2011. Retrieved August 5, 2011.
  7. ^ Anderson, Perry (August 28, 2009). "Portents of Eurabia". The National. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  8. ^ Goodhart, David (January 17, 2009). "Do we need more people in Europe?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
  9. ^ "Europe is changing to accommodate Islam, says US author". NRC Handelsblad. September 8, 2009. Archived from the original on February 22, 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
  10. ^ Mishra, Pankaj (August 15, 2009). "A culture of fear". The Guardian. London. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
  11. ^ "An Interview with Christopher Caldwell". Pickled politics. June 3, 2009. Archived from the original on February 24, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
  12. ^ Dreher, Rod (January 27, 2020). "'Civil Rights' And Totalitarianism". The American Conservative. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  13. ^ MacDougald, Park (January 21, 2020). "A New Conservative Theory of Why America Is So Polarized". Intelligencer. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  14. ^ Rauch, Jonathan (January 17, 2020). "Did the Civil Rights Movement Go Wrong?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  15. ^ Aldous, Richard (January 17, 2020). "'The Age of Entitlement' Review: The Dividing Line". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  16. ^ Swaim, Barton (December 10, 2020). "The Best Books of 2020: Politics". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  17. ^ "Plymouth Rock Landed on Them". Claremont Review of Books. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
  18. ^ Novak, Robert (September 8, 2008). "Robert Novak: Me and my brain tumor". Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  19. ^ Olito, Frank. "11 of the most powerful women who are running the 2020 presidential campaigns from behind the scenes". Insider. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
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