Born and raised in Ireland, Alexander Cockburn has been an American journalist since 1973. He has established a reputation as one of the foremost reporters and commentators of the left by writing newspaper and magazine columns for the past decade.

Cockburn's areas of interest include the American political scene, economics, the environment, labor issues and international policy. The author of a bi-weekly column for The Nation called "Beat the Devil," Cockburn also writes a syndicated newspaper column, which is distributed nationally by Creators Syndicate and has appeared regularly in such papers as the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Examiner, Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Detroit Free Press.

In 1987, Cockburn authored a highly successful collection of essays, some autobiographical, entitled "Corruptions of Empire" for which he was called "the most gifted polemicist now writing in English" by the Times Literary Supplement. Another reader of Cockburn's columns, Rep. Henry Gonzalez of Texas, referred to Cockburn as "one of the most perceptive and one of the most brilliant minds we have in America."

Cockburn also co-authored the acclaimed "The Fate of the Forest, Developers, Destroyers and Defenders of the Amazon." He has appeared on numerous national television programs, including interviews with Ted Koppel and Phil Donohue. He also lectures regularly on environmental issues and global politics.

Educated in Ireland, England and Scotland, Cockburn graduated with honors from Oxford University in 1963. He now lives in Northern California and travels extensively.

Articles by Author

02 February 2006
I'd become so used to Nicholas Kristof's January visits to prostitutes in Cambodia that it was a something of a shock to find him this January in Calcutta's...
19 January 2006
Sanora Babb died on Dec. 31, aged 98. Harry Magdoff died on New Year's Day, at 92. Frank Wilkinson died a day later, at 91.

My line has...
14 January 2006
The FBI was probably tapping Edward Said's phone right up to the day he died in September of 2003. A year earlier, when he was already a very sick man, Said...
29 December 2005
These days, editorials barely matter. Few people outside the professional political classes bother to read them. It's a form of writing as dead as the dodo, so...
21 December 2005
Start with Bush. Never at ease before the cameras, he now has the hunted blink and compulsive nasolabial twitch of the mad dictator, a cornered rat with...
13 December 2005
Disregard the momentary uptick in his approval rating, and ask yourself, was there ever a president in worse shape a year after reelection than George Bush?...

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