Bill Boyarsky

Fellow

Bill Boyarsky has devoted most of his career to reporting on domestic American politics and its impact on urban life. It has taken him from presidential campaigns to the streets of Los Angeles
during riots and from New England to the rustbelt of the Midwest to the sprawl of the Sunbelt. In his book Big Daddy: Jesse Unruh and The Art of Power Politics (University of California, 2007), he explored politics and life in Cold War America through the life of a famous California political boss. The Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle selected it as one of the year's best books. He chronicled the beginnings of the conservative movement in the post Second World War period, and the defection of blue-collar Democrats to the Republican Party in his biographies of Ronald Reagan - The Rise of Ronald Reagan (Random House, 1968) and Ronald Reagan: His Life and Rise to the Presidency (Random House, 1981). He and his co-author and wife, Nancy Boyarsky, exposed the corrupt workings of urban and suburban government in Backroom Politics (Tarcher/Hawthorne, 1974). It was named one of the best books of that year by The New York Times.

Boyarsky was a political writer for the Associated Press before joining the staff of the Los Angeles Times in 1970. With the Times, he reported from the Washington bureau, covered national, state and local politics and government, was a featured columnist for nine years and served as city editor for three years, until his retirement in 2001. He was a member of the teams that won three Pulitzer Prizes and has received many other awards, including the Journalist Award from the California First Amendment Coalition.

Boyarsky has a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the John Jacobs fellowship for political biographers by Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism, and was a fellow at the Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. He has taught journalism at both schools and was a lecturer in political science at USC.

Selected Articles and Interviews:

Courting the 'White Vote'
Column | Truthdig | April 24, 2008

ABC's Philadelphia Story: Punditry Over Politics
Column | Truthdig | April 19, 2008

Sinking Into the Quagmire
Column | Truthdig | Aril 10, 2008

Nobody Votes for a Quitter
Column | Truthdig | April 3, 2008

City Voice: The perfect combination
Op-Ed | Jewish Journal | March 28, 2008

Looking Beyond the 'Racial' Divide
Column | Truthdig | March 17, 2008

Bill Boyarsky discusses his book, The Big Daddy
Appearance | Los Angeles Press Club | January 16, 2008
See the rest of his talk here and here.

Read the rest of Bill Boyarsky's columns on Truthdig.

Selected Book Reviews:

LA Times review
Big Daddy: Jesse Unruh and the Art of Power Politics