Lecturers at the Jefferson Educational Society

E.J. Dionne Jr. employs his passions for people and politics and his keen intellect to deliver reasoned analysis that is followed by a wide circle of policy-makers nationwide –  on the left, right and center. In his columns as well as his appearances as a commentator for National Public Radio, ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” and NBC's "Meet the Press," Dionne demonstrates that he "knows the present with the keen sense of a beat reporter and the past with the perspective of a scholarly historian" (America Magazine, 2008). Dionne began his now twice-weekly op-ed column for The Washington Post in 1993. In 1996, it was syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group, and he now appears in more than 100 newspapers in the United States and abroad, including Erie’s Times-News. Before joining The Post in 1990 as a reporter covering national politics, he spent 14 years with The New York Times, reporting on state and local government, national politics, and from around the world, including stints in Paris, Rome and Beirut.

In selecting Dionne as its 1996 recipient of the annual Carey McWilliams Award to honor a major journalistic contribution to the understanding of politics, the American Political Science Association called Dionne "one of Washington's finest journalistic thinkers …. His tireless efforts uplift the public ... in a time that cries for reasoned debate, not more negative ads, rumor or simplistic sound bites." In 1997, he was named one of the 25 most influential Washington journalists by National Journal and among the capital city's top 50 journalists by the Washingtonian magazine.

Writings Include:

Why Americans Hate Politics. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. ISBN 978-0671682552

They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. ISBN 978-0684807683

Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America (editor). Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1998 ISBN 0815718675

Stand Up, Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the Politics of Revenge. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. ISBN 978-0743258586

Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008. ISBN 0691134588