- Adam Hochschild
Adam Hochschild (born 1942) is an American author and journalist.
Biography
Hochschild was born in
New York City . As a college student, he spent a summer working on an anti-government newspaper inSouth Africa and subsequently worked briefly as a civil rights worker in Mississippi in 1964. Both were politically pivotal experiences about which he would later write in his book "Finding the Trapdoor." He later was part of the movement against theVietnam War , and, after several years as a daily newspaper reporter, worked as a writer and editor for the leftwing "Ramparts" magazine. In the mid-1970s, he was one of the co-founders of "Mother Jones".Hochschild's first book was a memoir, "Half the Way Home: a Memoir of Father and Son" (1986), in which he described the difficult relationship he had with his father. His later books include "The Mirror at Midnight: a South African Journey" (1990; new edition, 2007), "The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin" (1994; new edition, 2003), "Finding the Trapdoor: Essays, Portraits, Travels" (1997), which collects his personal essays and reportage, and "
King Leopold's Ghost : A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa" (1998; new edition, 2006), a history of the conquest and colonization of the Congo byBelgium 's King Léopold II, which some claim intentionally vastly overstated the number of natives who died under King Leopold's regime in order to gain attention. His "Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves", published in 2005, is about the antislavery movement in theBritish Empire .Hochschild has also written for "
The New Yorker ", "Harper's Magazine ", "The New York Review of Books ", "The New York Times Magazine ", and "The Nation ". He was also a commentator onNational Public Radio 's "All Things Considered". Hochschild's books have been translated into twelve languages.Hochschild lives in San Francisco and teaches writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the
University of California, Berkeley . He is married to sociologistArlie Russell Hochschild .Awards
*"King Leopold's Ghost" won the
Duff Cooper Prize in Britain theMark Lynton History Prize , and was a finalist for theNational Book Critics Circle Award in the United States.
*"Bury the Chains" was a finalist for theNational Book Award .
*Both "King Leopold's Ghost" and "Bury the Chains" have won the Gold Medal of the California Book Awards.
*"Bury the Chains" won theLos Angeles Times Book Prize for History and the PEN USA Literary Award for Research Nonfiction.
*Hochschild is the first person to have twice won Canada'sLionel Gelber Prize for the best book on international affairs published in English.
*In 2005, he was the recipient of a Lannan Literary Award for Non-Fiction for the full body of his work.
*Hochschild has received honorary degrees from [http://www.curry.edu/special/magazine/fall2004/page15.asp Curry College] in Massachusetts and theUniversity of St Andrews in Scotland.External links
* [http://fora.tv/2005/05/09/Abolition_in_the_British_Empire Video discussion of "Bury the Chains" on Fora.TV]
Pieces from "Finding the Trapdoor":
* [http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/narrative/digest/notable/russians-mjones-090179-a.html “Two Russians”]
* [http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/narrative/digest/notable/gypsy-mjones-020178-a.html “A Gypsy for Our Time”]
* [http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/narrative/digest/notable/amazon-sfexmag-010195-a.html “Fishhooks and Chickens”]
* [http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/narrative/digest/notable/safrica-mjones-010198-a.html "Aristocratic Revolutionary"]From other books:
* [http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/01/12_403.html An excerpt from "Bury the Chains"]
* [http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/readers_guides/hochschild_king_leo.shtml#afterword New edition afterword from "King Leopold’s Ghost"]Articles:
* [http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2000/07/brick_master.html from Mother Jones]
* [http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/02-1NRspring/45-47.pdf on narrative writing]
* [http://www.bu.edu/historic/_hs_pdfs/Hochschild_Mar_Ap_2008.pdf on writing history]Author Bio:
* "Who's Who in America", 62nd Edition (2008)
* [http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/authordetail.cfm?authorID=2188 Publisher's website]Reviews of Hochschild's books:
* "Half the Way Home" [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE7DC163EF932A15755C0A960948260&scp=3&sq=Hochschild%20%22Half%20the%20Way%20Home%22&st=cse] , [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEED71638F936A25755C0A960948260&scp=4&sq=Hochschild%20%22Half%20the%20Way%20Home%22&st=cse]
* "The Unquiet Ghost" [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/whc/4.1/br_immediata.html] , [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19940701fabook8768/adam-hochschild/the-unquiet-ghost-russians-remember-stalin.html] , [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E0DD1E3DF934A15750C0A962958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1]
* "King Leopold's Ghost" [http://web.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v3/v3i2a12.htm] , [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/09/27/RV34459.DTL] , [http://www.hrw.org/community/bookreviews/hochschild.htm] , [http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/20/reviews/980920.20hardint.html]
* "Bury the Chains" [http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0111/p15s01-bogn.html] , [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2005/01/23/RVGDGAQB471.DTL&type=books] , [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25167-2005Jan20.html] , [http://www.kirkusreviews.com/kirkusreviews/search/search_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000683648]
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