John Leo
Before joining U.S. News in 1988, he covered the social sciences and intellectual trends for Time magazine and the New York Times. He also reported on religion for the Times, and wrote essays and humor for Time.
Mr. Leo has worked as associate editor of Commonweal magazine, editor of a Catholic weekly paper in Iowa, “Press Clips” columnist for the Village Voice, book editor of the social science magazine Society, and deputy administrator of New York City’s Environmental Protection Administration. He serves as an editorial adviser to the Columbia Journalism Review and teaches a journalism class at Southampton College.
He is the author of two collections of his U.S. News columns, “Incorrect Thoughts” (2001) and “Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police” (1994), as well as a book of humor, How the Russians Invented Baseball and Other Essays of Enlightenment (1989).
A New York Times review of “Two Steps” said that Mr. Leo’s articles “display a heft--and a hilarity--seldom found in what passes for punditry these days.” The Atlanta Constitution said: “Leo’s columns are one of the media desert’s few sources of uncontaminated information.. .he ranks near the top for intelligence and integrity.” The Pittsburgh PostGazette said “Leo has written some of the pithiest and most cogent social criticism found in a national venue. He never ducks an issue and he takes no prisoners.”
Vanity Fair featured him in a four page spread, calling him the “cult columnist of the intelligentia... the secret pleasure of smart, powerful well-connected members of the cultural elite.”
Before joining U.S. News in 1988, he covered the social sciences and intellectual trends for Time magazine and the New York Times. He also reported on religion for the Times, and wrote essays and humor for Time.
Mr. Leo has worked as associate editor of Commonweal magazine, editor of a Catholic weekly paper in Iowa, “Press Clips” columnist for the Village Voice, book editor of the social science magazine Society, and deputy administrator of New York City’s Environmental Protection Administration. He serves as an editorial adviser to the Columbia Journalism Review and teaches a journalism class at Southampton College.
He is the author of two collections of his U.S. News columns, “Incorrect Thoughts” (2001) and “Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police” (1994), as well as a book of humor, How the Russians Invented Baseball and Other Essays of Enlightenment (1989).
A New York Times review of “Two Steps” said that Mr. Leo’s articles “display a heft--and a hilarity--seldom found in what passes for punditry these days.” The Atlanta Constitution said: “Leo’s columns are one of the media desert’s few sources of uncontaminated information.. .he ranks near the top for intelligence and integrity.” The Pittsburgh PostGazette said “Leo has written some of the pithiest and most cogent social criticism found in a national venue. He never ducks an issue and he takes no prisoners.”
Vanity Fair featured him in a four page spread, calling him the “cult columnist of the intelligentia... the secret pleasure of smart, powerful well-connected members of the cultural elite.”
