David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and a frequent commentator on historical and political affairs. He is the author or editor of several books on American history and politics including Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image and Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency. Formerly acting editor of The New Republic and then a columnist for Slate, Greenberg now writes regularly for Politico, Liberties, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. His work has also been featured in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous academic journals. In support of this book Greenberg won awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library, and the Leon Levy Center for Biography. He holds a PhD in history from Columbia University and a BA from Yale and lives with his family in Manhattan.
"""John Lewis was my friend, steadfast ally, and personal hero. I loved him and miss him very much. Every page of David Greenberg's biography brings him back to life with rich details that reveal not only his legendary moral compass, but the pressures and practical realities he maneuvered in both protest and politics."" --President Bill Clinton ""Behold an American life like no other - lived from outsider protest activist to insider savvy politician with epic, spiritual consequences. From hundreds of revealing interviews and exhaustive documentary research, Greenberg captures Lewis's poetic life in lyrical prose. How dearly we need this model right now of both unsurpassed moral leadership and of the craft of biography.""--David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom ""David Greenberg's comprehensive and compelling biography of John Lewis is a landmark book-- rich and sober-minded account of one of the most consequential Americans who ever lived. With his perennial commitment to American aspiration and to bearing witness to the gap between that aspiration and tragic reality, often at fundamental peril to himself, Lewis changed a nation. Greenberg's powerful book shows us how."" --Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House ""An authoritative and indeed definitive biography of a lovely and deeply-principled man who was a true American hero.""--David J. Garrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross and Rising Star """"This is the book we've all been awaiting. Deeply researched, beautifully written, and frequently revelatory, Greenberg's portrait of John Lewis is as inspiring as the civil-rights hero himself."" --Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life ""John Lewis: A Life is a book especially for these challenging times when so much of Black history is under attack. David Greenberg's book provides the kind of in-depth history that spells out in vivid detail how obstacles are overcome via people like John and the many others chronicled in the book. A much needed roadmap to the effort John embraced--to 'make America one.'""""--Charlayne Hunter Gault, American Civil Rights activist ""Full of revelations and compulsively readable, this book is--at long last--the biography that the great John Lewis deserves."" --Ambassador Andrew J. Young, former mayor of Atlanta and top aide to Martin Luther King, Jr. ""Monumental. A profoundly moving, indefatigably researched, and absorbingly written biography of one of the true heroes of the civil rights movements. Greenberg has given us a brilliantly comprehensive, thought provoking, and deeply personal history of an American hero.""--Dr. Peniel E. Joseph, author of Stokely: A Life. ""I knew John Lewis from earliest times. David Greenberg's brilliant biography captures all the 'Good Trouble' John wrought to save his country from itself.""--David Levering Lewis, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Du Bois: A Biography"