Zelizer, Julian E. 1969-

views updated

Zelizer, Julian E. 1969-

PERSONAL:

Born December 6, 1969. Education: Brandeis University, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1991; Johns Hopkins University, M.A., 1993, Ph.D., 1996.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, Princeton University, 226 Dickinson Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544-1013. E-mail—jzelizer@princeton.edu.

CAREER:

Historian and academic. State University of New York at Albany, assistant professor, 1996-99, associate professor of history, 1999-2002, associate professor of public administration and policy, 2002-04; Boston University, Boston, MA, professor of history, 2004-07; Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, professor of history and public affairs, 2007—. Faculty associate at Harvard University's Center for American Political Studies, Cambridge, MA, 2004-07; Brookings Institution research fellow, 1995-96; Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History research fellow, 2000; University of Cambridge Mellon visiting senior scholar, 2004. Member of the board of directors of the Dirksen Congressional Center; former chair of the Hugh Davis Graham Research Grant Committee.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association, American Political Science Association (council member, 2005—), American Politics and History Initiative (director, 2003-05), New Yorkers for Public Affairs Television (commission member, 1999-2002), Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Ford Foundation undergraduate fellow, 1989-1991; Johns Hopkins University Department of History fellow, 1991-95; grant from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, 1997; D.B. Hardeman Prize, Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation, and Ellis Hawley Prize, Organization of American Historians, both 1998, both for Taxing America; summer research stipend award, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2000; Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation Harry Middleton fellow, 2005; John Simon Guggenheim fellow, 2006-07; distinguished lecturer, Organization of American Historians, 2007-08; recipient of numerous faculty research and travel grants.

WRITINGS:

Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945-1975, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

(Editor, with Meg Jacobs, William J. Novak) The Democratic Experiment: New Directions in American Political History, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2003.

(Editor) The American Congress: The Building of Democracy, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2004.

On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and Its Consequences, 1948-2000, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

(Editor) New Directions in Policy History, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA), 2005.

(Editor, with Bruce J. Schulman) Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2008.

Contributor to academic journals and periodicals, including Social Science History, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Huffington Post, Politico, American Prospect, Boston Globe, Albany Times Union, Los Angeles Times, and Journal of Policy History. Contributor of book reviews to academic journals, including Journal of American History, Proofmagazine.com, Reviews in American History, Business History Review, H-Net, Economic History Review, Labor History, and American Historical Review. Cofounder and coeditor of the Journal for Multimedia History. Coeditor of the "Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America" book series, 2002—. Editorial board member of Journal of Policy History. Manuscript reviewer for a number of periodicals, including Milbank Quarterly, Journal of Political History, Social Science History, Journal of Public Administration, Studies in American Political Development, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Peace and Change, and for publishing houses, including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Princeton University Press, Columbia University Press, Houghton Mifflin, and Pearson.

SIDELIGHTS:

Julian E. Zelizer is an historian and academician. He has written and edited a number of books on the U.S. Congress and government and contributes regularly to academic journals, periodicals, and television and radio programs on the topic of U.S. history. Zelizer's first book, Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945-1975, was published in 1998. Zelizer looks at the tax-writing committees of Congress in the period between World War II and the 1970s and analyzes the effects of the tax policies, particularly those of the House Ways and Means Committee Chair Wilbur D. Mills, had on the country. A contributor to the Historian wrote that the book is "a major contribution toward our understanding of the rise of the liberal welfare state in post-war" United States. Writing in the Business History Review, W. Elliot Brownlee called this book "a brilliant reassessment of Mills." Brownlee noted that "Zelizer's book will force scholars to reconsider Mills's career and encourage them to take a hard look at the role of tax policy in the development of liberalism during the years since World War II." Brownlee concluded that "Zelizer has written what is certainly the best scholarly assessment of the career of Wilbur Mills. … He has crafted the most stimulating history of the role of systematic knowledge and government experts on the formation of post-World War II tax policy."

In 2004 Zelizer edited The American Congress: The Building of Democracy. The book divides the history of Congress into four periods and outlines how it has changed itself or been changed from outside forces to adapt to the needs of the country at that point in history. John W. Malsberger, writing in History: Review of New Books, commented that "although the volume seems to be intended for general readers because the articles nicely summarize the current state of scholarship, all students of Congress, regardless of their level of expertise, will profit from this handsome volume." Writing in Teaching History: A Journal of Methods, Teresa L. Hutchins described the book as "an excellent collection of essays." Hutchins wrote that the book "goes beyond the sometimes stale stories of the formation of the institution and its function." Hutchins concluded that The American Congress "provides the reader with an inside look as to how Congress really works, while providing the juicy details about the members and the deals that were made to advance the institution and the nation."

Also published that same year was On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and Its Consequences, 1948-2000. The book delineates the slow reform process Congress implemented at the end of World War II. Led primarily by Southern Democrat committee chairs, Congress had a different feel than it did in 2000, for which Zelizer makes his comparisons. Keith W. Olson, writing in the Journal of Southern History, observed that "one of the most impressive strengths of Zelizer's book is the description of congressional reform integrated within shifts of the national culture and under the influence of other external forces." Olson declared On Capitol Hill to be "a worthy successor to his prize-winning study Taxing America." Olson concluded that together, both of these "books move Zelizer into the front ranks of scholars who specialize in political history, political culture, policy, and Congress."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February, 2001, Gareth Davies, review of Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945-1975, p. 214; February, 2005, Glenn Altshuler, review of The Democratic Experiment: New Directions in American Political History, p. 125.

Business History, January, 2002, Glen Asner, review of Taxing America, p. 126.

Business History Review, winter, 1999, W. Elliot Brownlee, review of Taxing America; summer, 2004, Robin L. Einhorn, review of The Democratic Experiment.

Campaigns & Elections, May, 2005, David Mark, review of The American Congress, p. 46.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, July 1, 1999, E.C. Dreyer, review of Taxing America, p. 2020; July 1, 2004, J.D. Doenecke, review of The Democratic Experiment, p. 2106; November, 2004, review of On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and Its Consequences, 1948-2000, p. 566; May, 2005, J.J. Bean, review of The American Congress: The Building of Democracy, p. 1652.

Historian, spring, 2001, review of Taxing America.

History: Review of New Books, winter, 2005, John W. Malsberger, review of The American Congress, p. 54.

Journal of American History, June, 2001, Edwin Amenta, review of Taxing America, p. 273; June, 2005, Richard L. Schott, review of On Capitol Hill, p. 288.

Journal of Economic Literature, September, 1999, review of Taxing America, p. 1284.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, summer, 2006, Kenneth O'Reilly, review of On Capitol Hill.

Journal of Social Policy, January, 2001, William M. Cross, review of Taxing America, p. 162.

Journal of Southern History, May, 2005, Keith W. Olson, review of On Capitol Hill, p. 497.

Perspectives on Political Science, summer, 1999, Paul Lenchner, review of Taxing America; summer, 2004, Patrick Fisher, review of On Capitol Hill.

Political Studies, December, 2000, Sven Steinmo, review of Taxing America, p. 1057.

Reviews in American History, March, 2005, review of On Capitol Hill, p. 111.

Teaching History: A Journal of Methods, fall, 2006, Teresa L. Hutchins, review of The American Congress.

Washington Post Book World, April 10, 2005, review of On Capitol Hill, p. 5.