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 Curriculum Vitae
(MAY 2008):
Born 1949 in Des
Moines, Iowa, Carlson received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Augustana College
(1971) and his Ph.D. in Modern European History from The Ohio University
(1978). He is married and has four children.
From 1975-78, Carlson served as Assistant Director, Governmental Affairs Office,
Lutheran Council in the U.S.A. In 1977, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Labor
Movement Archive in Stockholm and, in 1979, an NEH Fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC). Later that year, he became Assistant to
the President and Lecturer in History at Gettysburg College (Pennsylvania). In
1981, Carlson became Executive Vice President of The Rockford Institute
(Illinois) and editor of Persuasion at Work. In 1986, he became Institute
President and Publisher of Chronicles, The Family in America, and
The Religion & Society Report. In 1988, President Reagan appointed him to
the National Commission on Children ("The Rockefeller Commission"), where he
played a key role in crafting its 1991 "Final Report," Beyond Rhetoric.
Carlson served as General Secretary of The World Congress of Families (WCF),
held March, 1997, in Prague, The Czech Republic. In October, 1997, he created
and became President of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society. He
served as General Secretary of WCF II, held November, 1999, in Geneva,
Switzerland, with 1600 delegates. During 2001-03, he was a History Team Member
of The Pew Foundation/Woodrow Wilson Center project on “the nature of the human
person.” In 2002-05, Carlson held the additional post of Distinguished Fellow
for Family Policy Studies at the Family Research Council (Washington, DC). In
2003 he served on the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Honors Faculty at Oriel
College, Oxford University. In March, 2004, he was International Secretary for
the WCF III, held in Mexico City, with 3300 delegates; he held the same position
for the WCF IV, held May 2007 in Warsaw, Poland, with 3900 participants. He has
received research grants from Ohio University, The American Scandinavian
Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The Institute for
Educational Affairs, Earhart Foundation, and Fieldstead and Company. Starting
August 2008, Carlson will also be visiting Professor of Political Science and
History at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan.
Carlson is the author of ten books. Family Questions: Reflections on the
American Social Crisis, was published in 1988 by Transaction Press (Rutgers
University). The University Bookman calls it "genuinely profound."
The Swedish Experiment in Family Politics: The Myrdals and the Interwar
Population Crisis, came from Transaction in 1990. Reason magazine
declares it "the social policy book of the year." From Cottage to Work
Station: The Family's Search for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age,
appeared from Ignatius Press in 1993. Critic Bill Kauffman labels it “a brave
and powerful book: a gimlet-eyed analysis with the force of a jeremiad” (a New
Edition entitled The Family in America came from
Transaction in 2003). The New Agrarian Mind: The Movement Toward Decentralist
Thought in 20th Century America, appeared from Transaction in
2000. Barry Alan Shain of Colgate University calls it a "an important
book...deeply learned and finely researched…an excellent piece of intellectual
history." A collection of Carlson’s essays appeared in Russian translation in
2003, entitled Society, Family, & Person and published at Moscow
Lomonosov State University. The ‘American Way’: Family and Community
in the Shaping of the American Identity, came from ISI Books in 2003. James
Schall of Georgetown University deems it “the most countercultural book of the
year.” Fractured Generations: Crafting a Family Policy for 21st
Century America, appeared from Transaction in 2005; “insightful and
provocative…required reading for academics, journalists and policymakers,”
concludes W. Bradford Wilcox of the University of Virginia. Conjugal America:
On the Public Purposes of Marriage came from Transaction in 2006. The
Midwest Book Review labels it “an absolute ‘must read’…Highly recommended.”
Spence published The Natural Family: A Manifesto (co-authored by Paul
Mero) in May 2007. Booklist calls it “perhaps the most succinct,
thorough, and impressive pro-family argument yet made” (a paperback edition
comes from Transaction in July 2008). Third Ways: How Bulgarian Greens,
Swedish Housewives, and Beer-Swilling Englishmen Created Family-Centered
Economies…And Why They Disappeared appeared from ISI Books in October 2007.
“Remarkable and important…. Friends of liberty everywhere should read this
book,” says Professor Patrick Deneen of Georgetown University.
Carlson is Series Editor on “Marriage and Family Studies” for Transaction
Publishers, a Contributing Editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere
Christianity, and a member of the editorial board of The Intercollegiate
Review. His longer essays are included in over 40 anthologies and in The
Washington Post (Outlook Section), Journal of Social Issues, Society,
Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy, New Oxford Review, The
San Diego Law Review, The Public Interest, Regulation, The American Enterprise,
The Weekly Standard, National Review, The Cresset, Family Policy Review, The
Human Life Review, Policy Review, This World, The University Bookman,
Continuity: A Journal of History, Dialogue: A Journal of Theology, Small
Farmers' Journal, Marknads Ekonomisk Tidskrift (Sweden), The Family in
Russia, Communio, The Chesterton Review, Modern Age, Caelum Et Terra,
and other periodicals. He has also written for the Wall Street Journal, San
Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times, International
Herald-Tribune, Detroit News, Atlanta Journal, and Chicago Tribune.
He has appeared on the PBS News Hour, NPR ("Morning Edition," "All
Things Considered," "Talk of the Nation”), Voice of America, ABC, CBS, and
NBC News, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN (“Booknotes” and “Book TV”), Family Channel, CBC,
BBC World Service, Korean, Australian, Czech and Polish TV, eight PBS
productions on family issues, and over 700 regional radio and television
outlets. He is profiled in Contemporary Authors (2002/07) and American
Conservatism: An Encyclopedia (2006).
Carlson has testified as an expert witness before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee
on Family and Human Services, the U.S. Attorney General's Taskforce on Family
Violence, The Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed
Forces, the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Children, Youth,
and Families, Swedish, Polish, and Mexican Parliamentarians, and in State and
Federal Court. He has lectured for Colgate University, Moscow Lomonosov
University, City-University (Sweden), Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto
Rico, Grove City College, Hillsdale College, University of Wisconsin, The North
American College (the Vatican), Wabash College, Hastings College, Brigham Young
University, Georgetown University, The Swedish Employers Federation, The
Children's Defense Fund, The Kellogg Foundation, the North American Bishops of
the Roman Catholic Church, The Australian Family Association, The Catholic
Bishops Conference of the Philippines, and The Civic Institute (Czech
Republic). He has prepared commissioned research papers for the Institute of
Medicine--National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Education, and
has consulted for the U.S. Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services.
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