Joseph Harriss
Joseph Arnold Harriss is a journalist and non-fiction writer who spent much of his career in Paris and has also reported extensively from Brussels, Algiers, and Washington, D.C. for national publications. These publications include Time, The New York Times, The Reader’s Digest, Smithsonian, and The American Spectator. Harriss is the author of four books on French subjects.
Career
Born on March 19, 1936, in Galveston, Texas, Harriss graduated in journalism from the University of Notre Dame in 1958.[citation needed] After Air Force service with the Strategic Air Command, he did post-graduate studies in French and international relations at the Sorbonne and Institut d’études politiques in Paris.[citation needed]
Harriss was a Time correspondent in Paris, Algiers (where he also reported for The New York Times[1] and The New Republic[2]) and Brussels from 1963 to 1969.[citation needed] He covered events such as the May-June 1968 Paris riots and the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle, the Algerian government’s attempt to establish a form of Arab Socialism, and the early years of the European Economic Community (later European Union).[citation needed]
From 1969 to 1985 and again from 1992 to 1994, Harriss was with the European Editorial Office of The Reader’s Digest in Paris as a roving correspondent.[citation needed] Among the notable investigative pieces Harriss did were two on the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC).[citation needed]
One article in 1982 charged that the world-wide ecumenical organization’s Program to Combat Racism had become politicized, funding revolutionary guerilla movements and Soviet front groups.[3] A statement published by a group of U.S. church leaders criticized the article as “a biased and unfairly negative view of the World Council unsubstantiated by facts;”[4] a spokesman for the magazine said it stood by the piece, asserting it was “carefully researched and thoroughly documented.”[5]
Another in 1993 stated that Soviet KGB agents had infiltrated the WCC’s Central Committee to influence the organization’s policies and public statements.[6] WCC General Secretary Konrad Raiser of Germany rebutted the criticism, calling it “an extremely distorted and one-sidedly negative view" of the WCC. He said that the charge of KGB influence "includes nothing which has not been published by many European media.”[7] A Reader’s Digest spokesman defended the article, calling it "thoroughly researched and absolutely correct." The Christian Century noted that "The article focuses on a problem that has dogged the Geneva-based World Council for years--its relationship to Marxist regimes--and raises the ante by alleging that some of the council's leaders were Soviet KGB agents."[8][full citation needed]
From 1981 to 1985, Harriss wrote an editorial page foreign affairs column from Paris, “Europe Today,” for The Dallas Morning News.[citation needed]
Harriss joined the United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C., from 1985 to 1988 as a senior editor at America Illustrated, a magazine published in the Soviet Union (as Amerika (magazine)) in exchange for distribution in the U.S. of the Soviet-produced magazine Soviet Life.[citation needed]
Returning to Paris in 1988,[citation needed] Harriss wrote for numerous publications including Smithsonian, Air & Space/Smithsonian, and The American Spectator. Among his investigative pieces was one revealing that the Concorde supersonic airliner, which crashed on takeoff in Paris on July 25, 2000 (Air France flight 4590), had been flying for years with a design flaw that could lead to tire blowouts, leading to punctured fuel tanks and engine fires.[8]
In a 2012 investigative piece for The American Spectator, Harriss wrote that admission to membership of the Palestinian Authority by UNESCO, the United Nations’ Paris-based educational, scientific and cultural agency, demonstrated that it had become politicized and anti-Western, to the detriment of its cultural mandate, and called for the United States to withdraw from the organization.[9] A UNESCO spokesman termed the article “bigoted, undemocratic cant,” and suggested that Harriss’s brain “be embalmed as a perfect example of cold war mentality.”[10] Citing “the need for fundamental reform in the organization,” the United States withdrew from UNESCO on December 31, 2018.[11]
Other
Harriss served as treasurer of the Anglo-American Press Association in Paris from 1976 to 1977. He was president of the University Club of Paris from 1978 to 1979.[citation needed]
Books
- The Tallest Tower: Eiffel and the Belle Epoque (Houghton-Mifflin, 1975) ISBN 0-395-20440-2 Search this book on
. "An interesting story interestingly told, and as such it is welcome. . . offers a particularly clear description of Eiffel's engineering principles, skillfully woven into the narrative."--The New York Times "Harriss succeeds admirably. . . This is a well-organized, exceptionally readable book; entertaining, informative, and highly recommended."--Library Journal "This volume is a delightful illustrated social history of the tower. . . telling the full story of the structure, so intricately twined with contemporary history."--Scientific American "Certainly the best biography of a building and the cultural climate which spawned it we've read in a very long time."--Kirkus Reviews "A comprehensive account of the man who designed and built [the tower], the period out of which it came and the significance it has assumed in art, engineering and architecture."--Los Angeles Times - About France (iUniverse, 2005) ISBN 978-0-595-34695-0 Search this book on . "Joseph Harriss may just understand the French better than the French understand themselves. Harriss's perceptive observations, mixed with a little humor, make his writings irresistible."--Alfred Regnery, Publisher, The American Spectator "Joseph Harriss is a reporter of the old--and best--school, whose sharp insights illuminate whatever subject to which he turns his considerable talents. In this case, it is France."--Carey Winfrey, Editor, Smithsonian magazine
- An American Spectator in Paris (Unlimited, 2012) ISBN 978-1-58832-229-6 Search this book on . "The author explains the French psyche easily with columns on subjects as diverse as Chartres Cathedral, Vietnam, French cuisine, Tocqueville, and the National Front party. . . well worth reading to get a better insight into the France that was, what she may become, and why."--Publishers Weekly
- Jean Gabin: The Actor Who Was France (McFarland, 2018) ISBN 978-1-4766-7627-2 Search this book on . "Insightful and beautifully written. Its insights extend beyond Gabin and his films to French life and society during much of the 20th century."--Power Line "Fascinating and thoroughly researched. . . This is the first full-length account of Gabin's colorful life in English and is likely to be the book of choice for film scholars and Anglophone French cinema fans for some time to come. . . A Paris-based writer with strong reporting credentials and three previous books on France, Harriss brings narrative skill and sweeping historical context to the Gabin saga."--Facts and Arts "Beautiful. . . a thorough, well-researched biography of perhaps the most iconic of French actors. . . hard for cinephiles to resist."--Los Angeles Times
References
- ↑ "Algeria Spurs Oil Development as Socialist Regime Finds Profits in Pragmatism". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ↑ Harriss, Joseph. ""Algerian Socialism's Slow Leak"". The New Republic: 19 – via Author's copy of article.
- ↑ Harriss, Joseph (August 1982). "Karl Marx or Jesus Christ?"". The Reader's Digest: 130–134 – via Author's copy of article.
- ↑ "UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ↑ ""A Reader's Digest article critical of the interfaith World..." UPI". UPI. 3 August 1982. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ↑ Harriss, Joseph (February 1993). ""The Gospel According to Marx"". The Reader's Digest: 68–73 – via Author's copy of article.
- ↑ "Episcopal News Service". Episcopal News Service. 2 February 1993. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ↑ "The Concorde Redemption". Air&Space Smithsonian: 16-25. September 2001 – via Author's copy of article.
- ↑ Harriss, Joseph (February 2012). ""The United Nations' Rogue Agency"". The American Spectator: 28–37 – via Author's copy of article.
- ↑ Ford, Neil (April 2012). "Correspondence, Neil Ford, director, UNESCO Division of Public Information". The American Spectator: 8–9 – via Author's copy of article.
- ↑ Harris, Gardiner; Erlanger, Steven (12 Oct 2017). "U.S. Will Withdraw From Unesco, Citing Its 'Anti-Israel Bias'". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
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