James
Fallows

Journalist, author

James writes about: Media, Politics

James Fallows is a longtime correspondent for The Atlantic magazine. He has reported for the magazine from around the world since the late 1970s, including extended assignments in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and within the United States in Texas, Washington state, and California. He has written 12 books and won the National Book Award, the National Magazine Award, and a documentary Emmy. He has also done extensive commentary on National Public Radio.

His most recent book, written with his wife, Deborah Fallows, is the 2018 Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America, a New York Times bestseller. It was the result of several years traveling through smaller-town America, reporting on innovation, optimism, and reinvention. The book is the basis of an upcoming HBO documentary, also called Our Towns, which HBO will air early in 2021. Other books of his include National Defense, for which he won a National Book Award, and Breaking the News, which helped spark a much-needed national debate about the profound problems in American journalism.

He is founding Chairman of New America’s Board of Directors and once worked in the White House as president Carter’s chief speechwriter. He and Deborah Fallows have recently founded the nonprofit Our Towns Civic Foundation, to promote journalism about local resilience and innovations.

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