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John R. MacArthur

John R. (Rick) MacArthur is president and publisher of Harper’s Magazine and an award-winning journalist and author. Under his leadership, the magazine has received twenty National Magazine Awards, the industry’s highest recognition. He writes regularly for The Spectator (U.K.). Le Monde Diplomatique, and writes a column in French, for Montreal’s Le Devoir newspaper. In 2017 he was named a Commander in the Order of Arts and Letters, an honor bestowed by the French government.  His critically acclaimed first book, Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War, won the Illinois ACLU's 1992 Harry Kalven Freedom of Expression award and was a New York Times notable book. His second book, The Selling of “Free Trade”: NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy, was published in 2000. He has also written You Can’t Be President, published in 2008 and reissued in 2012 as The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. L’Illusion Obama was published in 2012 in France and Canada. In 2004 he received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Eastern Connecticut State University.  Mr. MacArthur grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, and graduated in 1978 from Columbia University with a B.A. in history. He lives with his wife and two daughters in New York City.