Dinesh D’Souza
How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader
Dinesh D’Souza has had a 25-year career as a writer, scholar, and public intellectual. A former policy analyst in the Reagan White House, D’Souza also served as John M. Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He served as the president of The King’s College in New York City from 2010 to 2012.
Called one of the “top young public-policy makers in the country” by Investor’s Business Daily, D’Souza quickly became known as a major influencer on public policy through his writings. His first book, Illiberal Education (1991), publicized the phenomenon of political correctness in America’s colleges and universities and became a New York Times bestseller for 15 weeks. It has been listed as one of the most influential books of the 1990s.
In 1995, D’Souza published The End of Racism, which became one of the most controversial books of the time and another national bestseller. His 1997 book, Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader, was the first book to make the case for Reagan’s intellectual and political importance. D’Souza’s The Virtue of Prosperity (2000) explored the social and moral implications of wealth.
In 2002, D’Souza published his New York Times bestseller What’s So Great About America, which was critically acclaimed for its thoughtful patriotism. His 2003 book, Letters to a Young Conservative, has become a handbook for a new generation of young conservatives inspired by D’Souza’s style and ideas. The Enemy at Home, published in 2006, stirred up a furious debate both on the left and the right. It became a national bestseller and was published in paperback in 2008, with a new afterword by the author responding to his critics.
Just as in his early years D’Souza was one of the nation’s most articulate spokesmen for a reasoned and thoughtful conservatism, in recent years he has been an equally brilliant and forceful defender of Christianity. What’s So Great About Christianity not only intelligently explained the core doctrines of the Christian faith, it also explained how the freedom and prosperity associated with Western Civilization rest upon the foundation of biblical Christianity. Life After Death: The Evidence shows why the atheist critique of immortality is irrational and draws the striking conclusion that it is reasonable to believe in life after death.
In 2010, D’Souza wrote The Roots of Obama’s Rage (Regnery), which was described as the most influential political book of the year and proved to be yet another best seller.
Since 2010, D’Souza has written two other New York Times bestselling books, Godforsaken and Obama’s America: Unmaking the American Dream, the latter climbing to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and inspiring a documentary on the same topic. The film, called 2016: Obama’s America, has risen to the second highest grossing all-time political documentary, passing Michael Moore’s Sicko and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. In addition, 2016 has risen to #6 on the bestselling list of all documentaries.
His most recent book is America: Imagine A World Without Her, in which he explores the landscape of a world in which America had lost the Revolutionary War. A new film based on his book called America opens nationwide on July 2, 2014.
These endeavors—not to mention a razor-sharp wit and entertaining style—have allowed D’Souza to participate in highly-publicized debates about Christianity with some of the most famous atheists and skeptics of our time.
One of D’Souza’s favorite venues for debates and speeches has been college campuses. During the past 20 years, he has appeared at hundreds of colleges and universities, and has spoken with hundreds of thousands of students in these live settings.
Born in Mumbai, India, D’Souza came to the U.S. as an exchange student and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1983.
D’Souza has been named one of America’s most influential conservative thinkers by the New York Times Magazine. The World Affairs Council lists him as one of the nation’s 500 leading authorities on international issues, and Newsweek cited him as one of the country’s most prominent Asian-Americans.
D’Souza’s articles have appeared in virtually every major magazine and newspaper, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, New Republic, and National Review. He has appeared on numerous television programs, including the The Today Show, Nightline, The News Hour on PBS, The O’Reilly Factor, Moneyline, Hannity, Bill Maher, NPR’s All Things Considered, CNBC’s Kudlow Report, Lou Dobbs Tonight, and Real Time with Bill Maher.