Joseph Sobran

Joseph Sobran (born February 23, 1946, Michigan) is an American journalist and writer, formerly with the National Review and currently a syndicated columnist. Today, a large part of his notoriety stems from his being accused of anti-semitism before being fired from the National Review.

Academic and professional career

Sobran graduated from Eastern Michigan University and recieved a bachelor's degree in English. He studied for a graduate degree in English, concentrating on Shakespearean studies, following his graduation. In the late 1960s, Sobran spent time lecturing on Shakespeare and English on a fellowship with the university.

In 1972, Sobran started working at William F. Buckley Jr's National Review magazine in 1972. He stayed twenty-one years, eighteen of them as senior editor, before being fired following complaints by readers and charges of anti-semitism.

Along with his work at National Review, Sobran spent 21 years as a commentator on the CBS Radio "Spectrum" program series. His writings are currently distributed by the Griffin Internet Syndicate.

Sobran also contributes regular columns to the Roman Catholic newsweekly The Wanderer, where he contributes a weekly column entitled "Washington Watch"

National Review controversy and charges of anti-Semitism

Sobran was ultimately fired from the National Review in 1993 after being accused of being an anti-Semite by Norman Podhoretz and others following a series of writings. Specifically, Podhoretz wrote that "Joe Sobran's columns...[are] anti-Semitic in themselves, and not merely 'contextually.'"

Sobran has also been criticized for his association with the Institute for Historical Review, which has been accused of being the "most active Holocaust denying organization in the United States" by the Roth Institute for The Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism & Racism and called neo-Nazi by Tom Palmer, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. The Roth Institute and Palmer also criticize Sobran for his association with convicted Holocaust denier David Irving.[1]

In an article entitled "Jewish Power," which was published by the IHR, Sobran takes the position that "The 9/11 attacks would never have occurred except for the U.S. Government's Middle East policies, which are pretty much dictated by the Jewish-Zionist powers that be in the United States. The Zionists boast privately of their power, but they don't want the gentiles talking about it."[2]

Current political philosophy

In 2002, Joseph Sobran went from identifying as a paleoconservative to advocacy of a libertarian anarchocapitalism. In December 2002 he announced his philosophical and political shift to libertarian anarchism in Sobran's [3], where he cited inspiration by libertarian theorist Murray Rothbard.

Books and other publications

Sobran is the author of many books, including one about William Shakespeare, Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time (1997), where he endorses the Oxfordian theory that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the plays usually attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon. He is currently working on two books: one concerning Abraham Lincoln's presidency and the United States Constitution, and one concerning the poems of de Vere.

He is also the author of:

Single Issues: Essays on the Crucial Social Questions - Human Life Press - 1983
The Conservative Manifesto - Empire Books - 1984
Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time - Free Press 1997
Hustler: The Clinton Legacy - Griffin Communications - 2000

Sobran has produced a number of published articles and speeches, including:

The Church Today: Less Catholic Than the Pope? - National Committee of Catholic Laymen - 1979
Power and Betrayal - Griffin Communications - 1998
Anything Called a Program is Unconstitutional - Griffin Communications - 2001