Ronald Steel
Ronald Steel | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ronald Lewis Sklut March 25, 1931 Morris, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | May 7, 2023 (aged 92) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Occupation | Author, journalist, historian, professor |
| Education | Northwestern University (BA) Harvard University (MA) |
| Subjects |
|
| Years active | 1959–2008 |
Ronald Lewis Steel (né Sklut; March 25, 1931 – May 7, 2023) was an American writer, historian, and professor. He is the author of the definitive biography of Walter Lippmann.[1][a]
Early life
[edit]Ronald Lewis Sklut was born on March 25, 1931, in Morris, Illinois, outside of Chicago.[2] He was Jewish, and his father immigrated to the United States from Russia.[3]
Steel earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and English[1] from Northwestern University (1953) and a Master of Arts degree in political economy from Harvard University (1955).[4][5] He served in the United States Army, stationed in Paris and was a diplomat in the United States Foreign Service, stationed in Hamburg.[6][3]
Career
[edit]Steel was an editor for the Scholastic Corporation from 1959 to 1962.[3] By 1960, he had begun writing under the pen name Ronald Steel.[3] After leaving Scholastic, he lived in Europe, working in Paris and London as a writer and translator.[3]
Steel was the author of Walter Lippmann and the American Century,[6][7] the definitive biography of Lippmann.[1] For this book, he was awarded the 1980 National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, a National Book Award,[8][a] the Bancroft Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History. The book was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography.
He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973.[9]
Steel was a professor of International Relations, History, and Journalism at the University of Southern California, where he taught from 1986 to 2008.[6][3] Before teaching at USC, he taught at Yale University, Rutgers University, Wellesley College, Dartmouth College, George Washington University, UCLA, and Princeton University.[6]
Steel wrote for The New Republic in the 1980s.[10] He has also written for the Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times and The New York Review of Books.[4]
Later life and death
[edit]In 2016, Steel moved to a nursing home in Washington, D.C., due to increasing cognitive impairment from dementia.[3] He died there on May 7, 2023, at the age of 92.[2]
Works
[edit]- U.S. Foreign Trade Policy, 1962
- Italy, 1963
- The End of Alliance: America and the Future of Europe, 1964
- North Africa, 1967
- Pax Americana, 1967
- Imperialists and other Heroes: A chronicle of the American Empire, 1971[3]
- Walter Lippmann and the American century, 1980
- Temptations of a Superpower, 1995
- In Love with Night: the American romance with Robert Kennedy, 2000[3]
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b
Walter Lippmann won the 1982 award for paperback "Autobiography/Biography".
From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Award history there were dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories, and several nonfiction subcategories including General Nonfiction. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including this one.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Kreisler, Harry (March 1, 2004). "Conversation with Ronald Steel, Professor of International Relations, USC". Conversations with History. Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
- ^ a b Schudel, Matt. "Ronald Steel, acclaimed historian and Walter Lippmann biographer, dies at 92". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i McFadden, Robert D. (May 8, 2023). "Ronald Steel, Critic of American Cold War Policies, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
- ^ a b "Professor Ronald Steel (Department profile)". School of International Relations, University of Southern California. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
- ^ "Ronald Steel". NNDB. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
- ^ a b c d "Faculty - School of International Relations - Ronald Steel". University of Southern California. Archived from the original on October 28, 2008. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
- ^ Steel, Robert (April 26, 1987). "I Had to Win". New York Times. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
- ^ "National Book Awards – 1982". National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
- ^ "1973 U.S. and Canadian Fellows". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
- ^ Alterman, Eric (June 18, 2007). "My Marty Peretz Problem — And Ours". The American Prospect. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
External links
[edit]
- "Bibliography of books and articles by Ronald Steel". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
- Steel, Ronald (August 24, 2008). "A Superpower Is Reborn". New York Times. p. WK11. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- 1931 births
- 2023 deaths
- 20th-century American historians
- 20th-century American male writers
- 21st-century American historians
- 21st-century American male writers
- American expatriates in England
- American expatriates in France
- American male non-fiction writers
- American foreign policy writers
- American people of Russian-Jewish descent
- Bancroft Prize winners
- Deaths from dementia in Washington, D.C.
- Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
- Historians from California
- Historians from Illinois
- Jewish American historians
- National Book Award winners
- Northwestern University alumni
- People from Morris, Illinois
- The New Republic people
- United States Army soldiers
- United States Foreign Service personnel
- University of Southern California faculty