Well-Informed Contrarian

GAMBIER, Ohio (November 9, 2004) Renowned for his biting wit and scathing commentary on hypocrisy inside the Beltway, journalist and cultural critic Christopher Hitchens visits Kenyon on Monday, November 15. He will give a talk that evening at 8:00 p.m. in Rosse Hall Auditorium on the value of dissent in modern politics and the role of a liberal-arts education in producing well-informed contrarians.

Hitchens began his career in England in the 1970s as a writer for the New Statesman and the Evening Standard. From 1977 to 1979, he worked for London's Daily Express as a foreign correspondent and then returned to the New Statesman as a foreign editor until 1981. Hitchens has also served as the Washington editor for Harper's and as the U.S. correspondent for The Spectator and The Times Literary Supplement. From 1986 to 1992 he was the book critic at New York Newsday. He contributes an essay on books each month to The Atlantic Monthly and writes for many American and British periodicals. He also appears regularly as a commentator on radio and television.

Born in Portsmouth, England, Hitchens received a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from Balliol College, Oxford University. He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Pittsburgh, and the New School for Social Research.

Hitchens is the author of ten books, including A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq, Why Orwell Matters, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, and Letters to a Young Contrarian. His most recent volume is Blood, Class, and Empire: The Enduring Anglo-American Relationship.

Hitchens's appearance at Kenyon is sponsored by the Student Lectureships Committee.