Todd Gitlin

Todd Gitlin has been engaged in American culture and politics as both an activist and critic since the 1960's. He has written on issues ranging from student activism and community life, to analyses of journalism, television and our culture at large. His book, The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left is recognized as a landmark work in media sociology. Gitlin has continued to write extensively on many aspects of the mass media and journalism in works including Inside Prime Time and Media Unlimited. His history, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, is widely used in college classrooms. In addition, his articles on anti-Americanism, patriotism and war in the wake of September 11 were widely distributed and quoted.

Of particular interest has been his examination of contemporary challenges facing American culture and the cultural sector in The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America is Wracked by Culture Wars and in several works on the meaning of our media-saturated lives.

After many years on the faculty of the University of California Berkeley and New York University, Gitlin moved to Columbia University in the fall of 2002 and became Professor of Journalism and Sociology. He received his B.A. in mathematics at Harvard University and his Ph.D in sociology at UC Berkeley. Gitlin is the recipient of multiple honors and awards and recently served as a fellow at the Media Studies Center in New York from 1998 to 1999.

Gitlin has also published works of poetry and fiction, including two novels, Sacrifice and The Murder of Albert Einstein.