Benjamin R. Barber is the Gershon and Carrol Kekst Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland and a principal of the Democracy Collaborative , with offices in New York, Washington, and the University of Maryland. Dr. Barber brings an abiding concern for democracy and citizenship to issues of politics, culture, and education in America and abroad. He consults regularly with political and civic leaders in the United States and Europe, including former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Senator Bill Bradley, and President Roman Herzog of Germany, as well as with institutions such as the Corporation for National Service, the United States Information Agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in Europe, UNESCO, the European Parliament, the Swedish Parliamentary Commission on Democracy, and "Mission 2000" (the French Millenial Commission).

Benjamin Barber's 15 books include the classic STRONG DEMOCRACY (1984), the novel MARRIAGE VOICES (1981), and the recent international bestseller JIHAD VS. MCWORLD (1995, translated into ten languages). His collected American essays, A PASSION FOR DEMOCRACY, were published by Princeton University Press in 1999, and his new book THE TRUTH OF POWER: INTELLECTUAL AFFAIRS IN THE CLINTON WHITE HOUSE was published this year by W.W. Norton & Company.

Barber's honors include Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Social Science Research Fellowships, an honorary doctorate from Grinnell College, the Berlin Prize of American Academy of Berlin (2001), and the chair of American Civilization at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. In 2001 he received the Palmes Academiques (Chevalier) from the French Government. He writes frequently for HARPER'S MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE ATLANTIC, THE NATION, LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR, DIE ZEIT, and many other scholarly and popular publications in America and Europe. He was a founding editor and for ten years editor-in-chief of the distinguished international quarterly POLITICAL THEORY. He holds a certificate from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an M.A. and Doctorate from Harvard University.

For television, Barber co-wrote with Patrick Watson the prize-winning CBS/PBS ten-part series THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY (1998, re-released in 2000) and the companion book; he also contributed to the Channel Four (U.K.) series GREEK FIRE, as well as to the American series THE AMERICAN PROMISE and other educational documentaries. His work for the theater includes the libretto for George Quincey's opera HOME AND THE RIVER (produced in New York), the performance piece KASPAR (produced at Café La Mama in New York) created with his wife, the choreographer and performer Leah Kreutzer, and other dramatic musical works off-Broadway and in regional theaters.

Barber is chairman and chief strategic vision officer of Bodies Electric, a democracy software company co-founded with Dr. Beth Noveck and Peter Dolch. Bodies Electric has developed deliberative chat software, including PnyzUnchat[TM]

Contact Information:
The Democracy Collaborative
c/o OSI
400 W. 59th Street
New York, NY 10019
(212) 548-0696 (Tel)
(212) 548-4659 (Fax)