Thomas B. Edsall

Thomas Byrne Edsall (born August 22, 1941) is an American journalist and academic.

Early life and education Edsall was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Richard Linn Edsall, a market research executive, and Katherine Byrne, a museum executive. Edsall is the grandson of David Linn Edsall, who served as Dean of the Harvard Medical School from 1918 to 1935. He is the nephew of John Tileston Edsall, a noted protein scientist and professor at Harvard University and Geoffrey Edsall, the former president of the American Association of Immunologists.

He attended Brown University, before receiving his B.A. from Boston University in 1966.

Career Edsall served as a VISTA volunteer from 1966 to 1967, and he wrote for The Providence Journal in 1965. a correspondent for The New Republic from 2006 to 2013, and for the National Journal from 2006 to 2007.

From 2006 to 2014, Edsall served as the Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Public Affairs Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism,

From 2011 to at least December 2025, Edsall was a contributor to the Opinion section of the New York Times.

His "frequent" TV and radio appearances include the venues of CNN, CSPAN, MSNBC, PBS, FOX, and NPR. a 1992 Pulitzer Prize finalist in general nonfiction.

The couple has one daughter, Alexandra, a graduate of Harvard Law School and former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

Awards and fellowships Shapiro Fellowship, School of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University (2015) Markwell Award of the International Society of Political Psychology (2014) Finalist, General Nonfiction, Pulitzer Prize, 1992, for Chain Reaction: The Impact on American Politics of Race, Rights and Taxes (W.W. Norton) Bill Pryor Memorial Award, Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, 1981 Carey McWilliams Award, American Political Science Association, 1994 Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars 1996–1997. Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 1997, 2000, 2003–2006, 2010–2012.

Works

—— (April 11, 2023). The Point of No Return: American Democracy at the Crossroads. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-16489-2.