E.J. Dionne

E.J. Dionne, Jr. is a senior fellow and the W. Averell Harriman Chair in American Governance in the Governance Studies program at Brookings. He is also a Distinguished University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at Georgetown University, affiliated with the McCourt School of Public Policy, and a contributing columnist to the New York Times. Dionne began his career with New York Times, where he spent 14 years reporting on state and local government, national politics, and from around the world, including stints in Paris, Rome, and Beirut. The Los Angeles Times praised his coverage of the Vatican as the best in two decades. In 1990, Dionne joined the Washington Post as a reporter covering national politics, and was a columnist for The Post from 1993 to 2025, when he became a Times contributor. He was an NPR commentator for two decades.

His best-selling book, “Why Americans Hate Politics” (Simon & Schuster), was published in 1991. The book, which Newsday called “a classic in American political history,” won the Los Angeles Times book prize, and was a National Book Award nominee. He is the author or co-author of eight other books, edited or co-edited six volumes published by the Brookings Institution Press, and co-edited a collection of the speeches of Barack Obama. His books include “Why Americans Hate Politics,” “Our Divided Political Heart,” “Why the Right Went Wrong,” and “100% Democracy” (with Miles Rapoport). Among his edited volumes are “Community Works,” “United We Serve,” and “Sacred Places, Civic Purposes.”

Dionne has received numerous awards, including the American Political Science Association’s Carey McWilliams Award to honor a major journalistic contribution to the understanding of politics. He has been named among the 25 most influential Washington journalists by the National Journal and among the capital city’s top 50 journalists by the Washingtonian magazine. He was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2002, he received the Empathy Award from the Volunteers of America, and in 2004 he won the National Human Services Assembly’s Award for Excellence by a Member of the Media. The Sidney Hillman Foundation presented him with the Hillman Award for Career Achievement in 2011. Dionne grew up in Fall River, Mass. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. from Harvard University in 1973 and received his doctorate from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.