Max Rodenbeck
{{Short description|British-American journalist and foreign affairs expert}}
Max Rodenbeck is a British/American journalist and author based in London .{{Cite web|url=https://mediadirectory.economist.com/people/max-rodenbeck/|title=Max Rodenbeck}} He is currently the Israel/Palestine Director at the International Crisis Group. Previously, he was the Culture Correspondent for The Economist magazine, where he wrote on international affairs for over 20 years.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ucf.edu/news/economist-writer-discuss-transition-middle-east/|title = 'Economist' Writer to Discuss Transition in Middle East | University of Central Florida News|date = 31 January 2014}} He was previously The Economist's Berlin Bureau Chief in Berlin, South Asia Bureau Chief in New Delhi from 2016 to 2022 and Middle East Bureau Chief in Cairo from 2000 to 2015. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Cairo: The City Victorious, regarded as one of the best single-volume biographies of the city available, and is a contributor to the New York Review of Books,{{cite magazine |last1=Rodenbeck |first1=Max |title=A Mighty Wind |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/04/19/narendra-modi-mighty-wind/ |website=The New York Review of Books |accessdate=2 June 2020}} the New York Times {{cite news |last1=Rodenbeck |first1=Max |title=The Muslim Past |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/books/review/Rodenbeck-t.html |work=The New York Times |date=25 June 2010 |accessdate=2 June 2020}} and Foreign Policy magazine.{{cite web |last1=Rodenbeck |first1=Max |title=The Day After: Egypt |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/11/02/the-day-after-egypt/ |website=Foreign Policy |publisher=Foreign Policy Magazine |accessdate=2 June 2020}} He has been described as "one of the foremost experts on today’s Middle East".
Early life and education
Max Rodenbeck was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, to a British mother and American father.{{cite web |last1=Jobbins |first1=Jenny |title=Profile of John Rodenbeck, Ahram Weekly |url=https://www.masress.com/en/ahramweekly/22960 |publisher=Ahram Weekly}} His family moved to Cairo when he was two years old, and he was raised between Egypt, Britain and the US.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/02/28/reviews/990228.28mortimt.html?scp=8&sq=max+rodenbeck&st=cse|title=The Much More Eternal City|website=archive.nytimes.com}} Following boarding school in Massachusetts, he studied Arabic and Islamic History at the American University in Cairo.
Writing
= Journalism =
Rodenbeck began covering Egypt and the Middle East as a stringer for The Economist, while also writing as a freelancer for the Financial Times, Middle East International, The Cairo Times and numerous other publications.
In 2000 he was appointed Middle East Bureau Chief for The Economist, covering the region from Iran to Morocco.{{Cite web|url=http://mediadirectory.economist.com/people/max-rodenbeck/|title=Max Rodenbeck}} During his 15{{cite web |title=The Economist Media Directory |url=https://mediadirectory.economist.com/people/max-rodenbeck/ |publisher=The Economist Group |accessdate=2 June 2020}} years in the post he covered events ranging from the toppling of Saddam Hussein and the US occupation of Iraq,{{cite magazine |last1=Rodenbeck |first1=Max |title=Bohemia in Baghdad |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2003/07/03/bohemia-in-baghdad/ |publisher=The New York Review of Books |accessdate=2 June 2020 |language=en |date=3 July 2003}} to the failed revolutions of 2009 in Iran,{{cite news |last1=Rodenbeck |first1=Max |title="Demanding to be counted: An apparently rigged election is shaking the fragile pillars on which the Iranian republic rests" |url=https://www.economist.com/briefing/2009/06/18/demanding-to-be-counted |newspaper=The Economist |date=18 June 2009 |accessdate=2 June 2020}} and the Arab Spring in 2011.{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/special-report/2010/07/17/the-long-wait|title = The long wait|newspaper = The Economist|date = 17 July 2010}} Notably, Rodenbeck's reportage in 2010 correctly predicted the eruption of the Arab Spring.{{cite news |title=Holding its Breath: a special report on Egypt |url=http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/special-reports-pdfs/16576799.pdf |newspaper=The Economist |accessdate=2 June 2020}} Since January 2016 he has been South Asia Bureau Chief for The Economist, based in Delhi.
=''Cairo: The City Victorious'' =
Rodenbeck's historical portrait of Egypt's capital, Cairo: The City Victorious, was first published by Picador in the UK, and Alfred A. Knopf in New York, where it met wide critical acclaim. The work "traces the life of Cairo from birth...through the heights of medieval splendor, and on to the present day".{{cite web |title=Cairo: The City Victorious, AUC Press |url=https://aucpress.com/product/cairo-3/ |website=AUC Press |publisher=American University in Cairo Press |accessdate=2 June 2020}} In its review of the book, The Washington Post Book World described Cairo as "an enormously entertaining read... Rodenbeck's lively and affectionate portrait...veers easily between past and present, personal and historical."{{Cite web|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/156471/cairo-by-max-rodenbeck/|title=Cairo by Max Rodenbeck: 9780679767275 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books|website=PenguinRandomhouse.com}} The book was cited as "a book to read" by the New York Review of Books,{{cite web |last1=Mortimer |first1=Edward |title=The Much More Eternal City |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/02/28/reviews/990228.28mortimt.html |publisher=The New York Review of Books |accessdate=2 June 2020}} as one of the five best travel books of the year by The Sunday Times, and "the most authoritative and entertaining read on the convoluted and picturesque 1000-year history of the Egyptian capital” by Lonely Planet.Cairo: The City Victorious has since been translated into eight languages.
Media appearances and fellowships
Rodenbeck has been interviewed on Charlie Rose,{{cite web |title=Journalist Max Rodenbeck of The Economist phones in from Cairo to report on the continued protests in Egypt's Tahrir Square in light of the recent election |url=https://charlierose.com/videos/14110 |website=Charlie Rose |publisher=Charlie Rose Program |accessdate=2 June 2020}} with Christiane Amanpour on CNN,{{cite web |title=Egyptian Vote -- CNN Transcript |url=https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/ampr/date/2012-06-18/segment/01 |website=CNN |publisher=CNN |access-date=2 June 2020}} on National Public Radio (NPR),{{cite web |title=Money Flows Into Egypt, But Where Does It Come From? Renee Montagne talks to Max Rodenbeck, Middle East correspondent for The Economist |url=https://www.npr.org/2013/08/20/213728233/money-flows-into-egypt-but-where-does-it-come-from |website=NPR.org |publisher=NPR |accessdate=2 June 2020}} The Wire (India),{{cite web |title=India's Kashmir Decision: What are Its Repercussions for India's International Image? Dr. Happymon Jacob speaks to Max Rodenbeck (South Asia Bureau Chief of the Economist) about the international reactions to the situation in Jammu & Kashmir |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXvKnwo92Dk |website=YouTube |publisher=The Wire |accessdate=2 June 2020}} as well as The Economist Radio, and podcasts such as The Arabist.{{cite web |last1=El Amrani |first1=Issandr |title=Max Rodenbeck on Iran |url=https://arabist.net/podcast/2009/6/28/podcast-max-rodenbeck-on-iran.html |publisher=The Arabist |accessdate=2 June 2020}}
Rodenbeck has also been a regular panelist at the annual Jaipur Literary Festival in Rajasthan, India, and was a visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC in 2015.{{cite web |title=Wilson Center Profile: Max Rodenbeck |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/max-rodenbeck |publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center |accessdate=2 June 2020}}
References
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Category:American male journalists