Steven Attewell was an author, policy historian, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Policy at

CUNY The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

's Murphy Institute for Labor Studies. He was best known for his blog ''Race for the Iron Throne'', which covered the historical and political side of

George R. R. Martin George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948) also known by the initials G.R.R.M. is an American author, television writer, and television producer. He is best known as the author of the unfinished series of Hi ...

's ''

A Song of Ice and Fire ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is a series of high fantasy novels by the American author George R. R. Martin. Martin began writing the first volume, ''A Game of Thrones'', in 1991, and published it in 1996. Martin, who originally envisioned the ser ...

'' and HBO's ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

'', for which he published several books on the series.

Career

Attewell started off as an undergraduate history major at Columbia and then went into the history PhD program at

UC Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joined ...

, where he wrote his dissertation ''Public At Work: Direct Job Creation Policy From The New Deal to the Rise of Reagan.'' This became his book ''People Must Live by Work'', which traces "the rise and fall of direct job creation by the government as federal economic and social policy." ''People Must Live by Work'' has been cited by other works, such as

Eric Rauchway Eric Rauchway (born 1969 or 1970) is an American historian and professor at the University of California, Davis. He received his B.A. from Cornell in 1991, and his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1996. Rauchway's scholarship focuses on modern US political, ...

's ''Why the New Deal Matters'' and Kate Aronoff's ''Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet--And How We Fight Back''. From 2009 to 2013, he worked as a freelance policy analyst for the

New America Foundation New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is an American Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal think tank founded in 1999. It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security, technology, health, gender, ...

. He received the Patricia and John Klingenstein Short-Term Fellowship from the

New York Historical Society The New York Historical (known as the New-York Historical Society from 1804 to 2024) is an American history museum and library on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. It ...

in 2014 for his project "The Tammany Tiger in an Era of Mass Unemployment." Starting in 2014, he began working as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at CUNY's Murphy Institute for Labor Studies, where he taught

Urban Studies Urban studies is based on the study of the urban development of cities and regions—it makes up the theory portion of the field of urban planning. This includes studying the history of city development from an architectural point of view, to th ...

. In March 2012, he began writing the blog ''Race for the Iron Throne'', which was dedicated to doing a chapter-by-chapter analysis of ''

'' and an episode-by-episode analysis of ''

.'' He also wrote frequent guest essays for the blog ''Tower of the Hand'' and for the blogs ''Lawyers, Guns & Money'' and ''Graphic Policy'', where he wrote a series of articles titled "The People's History of the

Marvel Universe The Marvel Universe is a fictional shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Comics take place. Superhero teams such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Guardia ...

" and co-hosted an episode-by-episode podcast about ''

The Venture Bros ''The Venture Bros.'' is an American adult animation, adult animated action comedy television series created by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer for Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. Following a pilot episode on February 1 ...

.'' He also co-founded The Realignment Project, a group blog dedicated to discussing "current political events, political strategy, ideology, and history." In 2014, he wrote articles about ''Game of Thrones'' for

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, including ones comparing the characters to their historical counterparts and discussing the controversial rape scene in " Breaker of Chains," and in 2015, he wrote articles about the fifth season of ''Game of Thrones'' for

Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive and liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, includ ...

. In October 2024, journalist and author

Spencer Ackerman Spencer Ackerman (born June 1, 1980) is an American journalist and writer. Focusing primarily on national security, he began his career at ''The New Republic'' in 2002 before writing for ''Wired'', ''The Guardian,'' and ''The Daily Beast''. He ...

confirmed that he included Steven in his first issue of ''

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'' as a tribute.

Personal life

Attewell's parents are Katherine S. Newman and Paul Attewell and he has one brother, David Attewell. Attewell dealt with cancer on-and-off for years and lost a leg to it. He died of complications due to the cancer in April 2024. One of his ancestors, Adam Attewell, had joined John Ball's Great Society and was executed for rebellion against the crown.

Bibliography

Non-fiction Books

* ''Race for the Iron Throne: Political and Historical Analysis of "A Game of Thrones"''. First published through Kindle in 2014, then paperback in 2018. . * ''Hands, Kings, & City-States: Analyzing a World of Ice and Fire''. Self-published through Kindle in 2015, then in paperback in 2019. . * ''Race for the Iron Throne, Vol. II: Political and Historical Analysis of "A Clash of Kings"''. Self-published in two parts through Kindle in 2016, then paperback in 2018. . * ''People Must Live by Work: Direct Job Creation in America, from FDR to Reagan (Politics and Culture in Modern America)''. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. . * ''The American Middle Class: An Economic Encyclopedia of Progress and Poverty volumes'. Co-wrote the article "The Origins of the Middle Class." Greenwood, 2017. .

Articles

* "Obama's Health-Care Gamble: History Is on His Side," ''

Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is an American newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals, including staff members and administrators. A subscriptio ...

'', April 11, 2010, with Katherine Newman. * "'No Business hat Pays Less Than a Living Wage��Has Any Right to Continue'—Changing Rhetorics of the Minimum Wage," 1933–1981, ''

Society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

'', January 17, 2022.

References

External links

Race for the Iron Throne

Race for the Iron Throne Tumblr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Attewell, Steven 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American bloggers American male bloggers American male non-fiction writers Historians of the United States New America (organization) University of California, Santa Barbara alumni 2024 deaths