Mark Danner

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Mark Danner is a writer and reporter who for twenty-five years has written on politics and foreign affairs, focusing on war and conflict. He has covered, among many other stories, wars and political conflict in Central America, Haiti, the Balkans, Iraq and the Middle East, and, most recently, the story of torture during the War on Terror. Danner is Professor of Journalism, English and Politics at the University of California, Berkeley and James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs, Politics and the Humanities at Bard College. Among his books are Stripping Bare the Body (2009), The Secret Way to War: The Downing Street Memo and the Iraq War's Buried History (2006), Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror (2004), The Road to Illegitimacy: One Reporter's Travels through the 2000 Florida Vote Recount (2004), and The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War (1994). Danner was a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker and is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books. His work has appeared in Harper's, The New York Times, Aperture, and many other newspapers and magazines. He co-wrote and helped produce two hour-long documentaries for the ABC News program Peter Jennings Reporting , and his work has received, among other honors, a National Magazine Award, three Overseas Press Awards, and an Emmy. In 1999 Danner was named a MacArthur Fellow. He speaks and lectures widely on foreign policy and America's role in the world.

Published Stories & Highlights:

Six Powerful Voices: Deep Inside Israel's Shin Bet

MarkDanner.com

Shin Bet, Israel’s internal intelligence service, is branded as the “Defender that shall not be seen.” Yet Dror Moreh, director of The Gatekeepers, sat down with not one but all six of Shin Bet’s surviving directors. Professor Mark Danner asks him how he extracted the details they tell, not only about their shadow war with Palestinian terrorists but their bitter conflicts with Israeli politicians,

To Heal Haiti, Look to History, Not Nature

New York Times

Recovery [in Haiti] can come only with vital, even heroic, outside help; but such help, no matter how inspiring the generosity it embodies, will do little to restore Haiti unless it addresses, as countless prior interventions built on transports of sympathy have not, the manmade causes that lie beneath the Haitian malady.

The Paradoxes of the Torture Scandal

Washington Post

Here's a question: When was the last time American officials waterboarded a detainee? Well, that would be 2003 -- six years ago. Here's another: When did Americans first find out about it? That would be 2004 -- five years ago. Professor Mark Danner writes about the torture scandal in an article for the Washington Post.

The ICRC Torture Report: What It Means

New York Review of Books

For the New York Review of Books

Tales from Torture's Dark World

The New York Times

For The New York Times Sunday Week in Review, an exclusive report by Mark Danner on the ICRC report on The Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody.

US Torture: Tales from the Black Sites

The New York Review of Books

An exclusive report by Mark Danner, for The New York Review of Books, on the ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High-Value" Detainees in CIA Custody.

Taking Stock of the Terror War

Tomdispatch.com

To contemplate a prewar map of Baghdad — as I do the one before me, with sectarian neighborhoods traced out in blue and red and yellow — is to look back on a lost Baghdad, a Baghdad of our dreams...(Based on a lecture delivered by Mark Danner at the Tenth Asia Security Conference, New Delhi. March 2008)

Weapons of Mass Destruction and Other Imaginative Acts

The New York Times

For the New York Times, Mark Danner reviews Ron Suskind's "The Way of the World:
A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism"

2008: The Weight of the Past

The New York Review of Books

Mark Danner's contribution to the New York Review of Book's a symposium on the upcoming election entitled "What's at Stake." (October 6, 2008)

Obama & Sweet Potato Pie

The New York Review of Books

You would think first of all of a village fair: the entire community of Germantown, Northwest Philly, taking itself up on the brightest of bright sunny fall days and moving en masse, clumps of people—groups of young men in the obligatory hoodies and low-riding jeans, moms pushing strollers, dads lugging car seats... Professor Mark Danner writes in The New York Review of Books.

Frozen Scandal

The New York Review of Books

Scandal is our growth industry. Revelation of wrongdoing leads not to definitive investigation, punishment, and expiation but to more scandal. Permanent scandal. Frozen scandal... Professor Mark Danner writes in The New York Review of Books

Words in a Time of War (abridged)

Los Angeles Times

For the Los Angeles Times, an op-ed essay by professor Mark Danner, adapted from remarks delivered at the commencement ceremony for the UC-Berkeley Department of Rhetoric, May 15, 2007.

'The Moment Has Come to Get Rid of Saddam'

The New York Review of Books

For the The New York Review of Books, an introductory essay and commentary on the latest crucial document attesting to "the gap between what President Bush and members of his administration were saying publicly during the run-up to the [Iraq] war and what they were saying, and doing, in more private settings": the Crawford Transcript of Bush's conversation with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, February 22, 2003.

Words in a Time of War

tomdispatch.com

"Taking the measure of the first Rhetoric-major president": A commencement address by Mark Danner delivered to graduates in the Department of Rhetoric, Zellerbach Hall, the University of California, Berkeley. The address is available online at tomdispatch.com.

Iraq: The War of the Imagination

The New York Review of Books

In a major 13,000 word piece for For The New York Review of Books, Professor Mark Danner dissects the Bush administration's prosecution of the Iraq War as we enter "the time of solutions".

You Can Do Anything With a Bayonet Except Sit on It

tomdispatch.com

At tomdispatch.com, Professor Mark Danner was interviewed by Tom Engelhardt. The two had a conversation about Iraq, torture, and Bush's state of exception.

Taking Stock of the Forever War

The New York Times Magazine

In a cover-story for the The New York Times Magazine, published on the four-year anniversary of 9/11, Professor Mark Danner assesses the history and future of the War on Terror.

Iraq's Buried History: The Memo, the Press, and the War

The New York Review of Books

In an exchange with Michael Kinsley of the Los Angeles Times for The New York Review of Books, Mark Danner takes up the press reception of the Downing Street Memo and other documents that tell the secret story of how the Iraq war began.

The Secret Way to War

The New York Review of Books

For the For The New York Review of Books, Mark Danner introduces the Downing Street Memo and explains the Bush Administration's willful manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War. The text accompanies the first U.S.-print publication of the notorious memo.

What Are You Going To Do With That?

The New York Review of Books

The New York Review of Books presents a commencement address by Mark Danner, given to graduating students in the English Department at UC-Berkeley, Hearst Greek Theater, May 15, 2005.

Iraq: The Real Election

The New York Review of Books

For The New York Review of Books, Professor Mark Danner reports from Baghdad on the recent Iraq election and the state of Iraqi politics two years into the year (the first of a two-part story).

Bush's Victory: Second Thoughts

The New York Review of Books

An extended exchange prompted by Mark Danner's essay "How Bush Really Won" in the The New York Review of Books, January 13, 2005. Letters by Andrew Hacker and Paul Cohen, response by Mark Danner.

Torture and Truth

The New York Times Book Review

Andrew Sulliivan in The New York Times Book Review reviews a new book, "Torture and Truth" by J-School Professor Mark Danner, which combines his reporting for The New York Review of Books with public records from both government files and the International Committee of the Red Cross that document torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.

We Are All Torturers Now

The New York Times

On the New York Times Op-Ed page, Professor Mark Danner lays out the case against President Bush's nominee for attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, describing his role in legitimizing torture as U.S. policy in the "War on Terror".

How Bush Really Won

New York Review of Books

For New York Review of Books, Professor Mark Danner provides his take on the historic presidential election of 2004, through the lens of his travels in Florida over the final days of the campaign.

A Doctrine Left Behind

New York Times

For the New York Times, Professor Mark Danner writes about Colin Powell, Iraq and the "Post-Factual Age."

Abu Ghraib: The Hidden Story

The New York Review of Books

For The New York Review of Books, Professor Mark Danner writes about how deep the Abu Ghraib prison scandal really goes.

Struggles of Democracy

The New York Times

For The New York Times, Professor Mark Danner writes "The Struggles of Democracy and Empire."

Courses Taught by Mark Danner:

Fall 2002: J294 Master's Project Tutorial - Fall 2002

Spring 2003: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Spring 2003

Spring 2003: J298 Covering Catastrophe - Spring 2003

Spring 2003: J298 Writing about Violent Political Change - Spring 2003

Fall 2003: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Fall 2003

Spring 2004: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Spring 2004

Spring 2004: J298 Covering Conflict in an Age of Terror - Spring 2004

Spring 2004: J298 The Editor as God - Spring 2004

Fall 2004: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Fall 2004

Spring 1999: J298 Reporting on Economic Chaos - Spring 1999

Fall 1999: J234 International Rptg: Nightmares - Fall 1999

Spring 2000: J298 Editing Workshop - Spring 2000

Spring 2000: J298 Reporting on India, Pakistan, & Tibet - Spring 2000

Spring 2001: J205 Editing Workshop - Spring 2001

Spring 2001: J298 Nonfiction Novella - Spring 2001

Spring 2001: J298 Ending Conflict, Limiting Arms - Spring 2001

Spring 2002: J298 New World Horror Show: Covering the Crisis - Spring 2002

Spring 2002: J298 Nonfiction Novella - Spring 2002

Spring 2005: J298 Reporting the Iraq War - Spring 2005

Spring 2005: J298 Covering Conflict in a Dangerous World: Crisis Management and American Power - Spring 2005

Spring 2005: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Spring 2005

Fall 2005: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Fall 2005

Spring 2006: J251 Dostoevsky: The Novelist as Journalist, the Journalist as Novelist - Spring 2006

Spring 2006: J298 Covering Conflict in a Dangerous World: Crisis Management and American Power - Spring 2006

Spring 2006: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Spring 2006

Fall 2006: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Fall 2006

Spring 2007: J251 How To Tell The Story: Chekhov and the Depiction of Reality - Spring 2007

Spring 2007: J298 Covering the Arc of Crisis - Spring 2007

Spring 2007: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Spring 2007

Fall 2007: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Fall 2007

Spring 2008: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Spring 2008

Fall 2008: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Fall 2008

Spring 2009: J298 Out of the Ruins: Rebuilding US Foreign Policy After Bush’s War on Terror - Spring 2009

Spring 2009: J294 Master's Project Seminar - Spring 2009

Spring 2009: J243 Narrative Writing - Spring 2009

Spring 2011: J298 Tolstoy - Spring 2011

Spring 2011: J243 The Long Fact - A Workshop - Spring 2011

Spring 2012: J298 Juicy, Juicy Scandal - Spring 2012

Spring 2013: J298 Catastrophe, Conflict, Scandal: Long Form and the Decoding of Reality - Spring 2013

Spring 2014: J0 TBD - Spring 2014