Greetings. I’m a writer, historian, and editor of Lingua Franca magazine. Please check it out.

John Summers, 2022  Photo by Auri Akerele

I’m writing a biography of sociologist C. Wright Mills for Simon and Schuster. On April 28, 2026, the University of Chicago Press will publish my edition of Dwight Macdonald’s writings, Atrocities of the Mind: Essays on Violence and Politics in the American Century.

I’ve edited four other books and written essays on a wide variety of topics in history and contemporary culture. Every Fury on Earth collected some of my writings.

I received my Ph.D. in American history from the University of Rochester. For a decade or so, I taught at Harvard University, Boston College, and Columbia University. After leaving academia, I edited The Baffler magazine for five years.