Benjamin Joseph Wattenberg (born Joseph Ben Zion Wattenberg;
[Roberts, Sam]
New York ''Times'', June 29, 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-29. August 26, 1933 – June 28, 2015) was an American author, neoconservative political commentator and
demographer, associated with both Republican and Democratic presidents and politicians in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.
''
National Affairs'' claimed that Wattenberg "challenged and reshaped conventional wisdom (...) at least once a decade".
Early life and education
Joseph Ben Zion Wattenberg was born on August 26, 1933, to
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
immigrants from Eastern Europe in
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...
.
He grew up in the Sholem Aleichem Houses, which was built by Yiddish socialists in the 1920s, and attended
DeWitt Clinton High School
, motto_translation = Without Work Nothing Is Accomplished
, image = DeWitt Clinton High School front entrance IMG 7441 HLG.jpg
, seal_image = File:Clinton News.JPG
, seal_size = 124px
, ...
. In 1955, he graduated from
Hobart College Hobart College may refer to:
* Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Hobart and William Smith Colleges are Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts colleges in Geneva, New York. They trace their origins to G ...
with a major in English.
From 1955 to 1957, he was in the
US Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
, based in
San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
. His first writing position was as a marine expert and edited ''Rivers & Harbors'' and ''Water Transportation Economics'', and the ''
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology''.
In 1975, Hobart College awarded Wattenberg an honorary Doctor of Laws degree and gave the commencement address to the graduating class that year.
Career
Writing
Wattenberg first came to national attention in 1965 with the book ''This U.S.A.: An Unexpected Family Portrait of 194,067,296 Americans Drawn From the Census'' co-authored with census director
Richard M. Scammon.
The authors utilized data from the 1960 Census to support the theory that the United States had entered a
golden age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the Go ...
by citing decreases in the rates of divorce, traffic deaths, drug addictions, and school dropouts as well as greater economic and educational opportunity for African Americans. Critics of the book cited the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War to call it propaganda of the American society.
His process of layering data with narrative led to the creation of the term "
data journalism."
The publication caught the attention of
Lyndon B. Johnson and Wattenberg became a White House speechwriter in 1966.
He later became an advisor to
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing M ...
's
1970 Senate race and Senator
Henry M. Jackson's contest for the
1972 Democratic presidential nomination, and Democratic Party presidential primaries of 1976, and served on the
1972 and
1976 Democratic National Convention platform committees.
In 1970, Wattenberg teamed up again with
Richard M. Scammon to write ''
The Real Majority.'' The authors analyzed electoral data including, the
1968 presidential election, polls, and surveys to argue that the American electorate was
centrist, and that parties or candidates, to be viable, must appeal to the "real majority" of the electorate at the center.
The real majority was described as “middle aged, middle class and middle minded” and therefore politicians ought to move to the middle to remain in touch with mainstream America.
As a Democrat, Watternberg intended the analysis to be embraced by his party, instead the cultural touchstones of race, crime, and poverty were the basis of the campaign strategies of the
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...
administration in the
1970 congressional elections and
1972 presidential election.
After the defeat of Senator
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 pre ...
in 1972, Wattenberg helped found the
Coalition for a Democratic Majority which focused on pocketbook issues and centrist themes to move the party back to the center.
In 1978, he was sponsored by the
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. ...
(AEI) in
Washington, D.C. to publish the magazine ''Public Opinion''.
His 1984 book, ''The Good News Is the Bad News Is Wrong'', suggested that the United States wasn't as troubled as the media and liberals proclaimed, despite economic and social upheaval.
In 1995, his book ''Values Matter Most'' drew the attention of President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (Birth name, né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 ...
which examined how centralist themes of the Republican party had helped win congressional victories of 1994.
The publication also expressed concern at the waning of American values both abroad and at home but felt that the government could help cure the "culture of irresponsibility."
In 1996,
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., referred to the book as "the book that prompted Clinton’s infamous midnight-of-the-soul telephone call to the author."
As a senior fellow at AEI, he wrote ''
The First Measured Century
''The First Measured Century: The Other Way of Looking at American History'' is a three-hour PBS documentary film hosted by Ben J. Wattenberg. The film was produced for PBS by BJW, Inc. and New River Media, Inc. and was first broadcast in December ...
'' in 2001 with
Theodore Caplow and Louis Hicks.
His published works helped popularize the term "
psephology
Psephology (; from Greek el, ψῆφος, psephos, pebble, label=none) or political analysis is a branch of political science, the "quantitative analysis of elections and balloting". As such, psephology attempts to explain elections using the ...
", the study of elections. He is credited with the introduction of the term “
social issue
A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society and ones that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's cont ...
s” to the political lexicon.
Television commentator
Wattenberg was the host of a number of
PBS television specials, including ''Values Matter Most'', ''The Grandchild Gap'', ''America's Number One'', ''Ben Wattenberg's 1980'', ''The Stockholder Society'', ''A Third Choice'' (about the role of
third parties in American politics), ''
Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism'', and ''
The Democrats''. He hosted the weekly PBS television program, ''
Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg'', from 1994 to 2010, and previously hosted PBS series ''In Search of the Real America'' and ''Ben Wattenberg At Large''.
Personal life
Wattenberg was the son of real-estate attorney Judah Wattenberg and Rachel Gutman Wattenberg, and he was the younger brother of actress
Rebecca Schull.
He had four children, Ruth,
Daniel
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...
and Sarah with his first wife, the former Marna Hade who died in 1997, and Rachel with his second wife, Diane Abelman.
[ Wattenberg died on June 28, 2015, from complications following surgery.]
Bibliography
* ''This U.S.A.'', 1965
* ''The Real Majority: An Extraordinary Examination of the American Electorate'', 1970
* ''The Real America'', 1974
* ''Against All Enemies: A Novel'', co-authored with Ervin S. Duggan 1977
* ''The Good News is, the Bad News is Wrong'', 1984
* ''The Birth Dearth'', 1987
* ''The First Universal Nation'', 1991
* ''Values Matter Most'', 1995
* '' The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America 1900–2000'', co-authored with Theodore Caplow and Louis Hicks, 2000
* ''Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future'', 2004
* ''Fighting Words: A Tale of How Liberals Created Neo-Conservatism'', 2008
Filmography
* '' Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism'' (2005)
References
External links
*
Official ''PBS Think Tank'' Page
Ben Wattenberg
Archive of columns published on Jewish World Review.
American Enterprise Institute Bio Page
*
Open to Greatness: We need immigrants
Critique of Wattenberg's fertility analysis.
John Kerry Is Wrong: Vietnam vs. Iraq
''Booknotes'' interview with Wattenberg on ''The First Universal Nation'', January 6, 1991.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wattenbeg, Ben
1933 births
2015 deaths
American demographers
American Enterprise Institute
American male journalists
American political commentators
American political writers
American television journalists
Hobart and William Smith Colleges alumni
Jewish American writers
PBS people
Writers from the Bronx
New York (state) Democrats
Journalists from New York City
Mathematicians from New York (state)
21st-century American Jews