LERNER, MAX

LERNER, MAX (1902–1992), U.S. author and journalist. Lerner, who was born in Minsk, Russia, was taken to the United States at the age of five. He taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Harvard University, Williams College, and, from 1949, at Brandeis University (1949–73). A liberal social commentator, Lerner became known for his scholarly works on American society and the science of government. Lerner was managing editor of the Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences (1927–33). He also edited the periodical The Nation (1936–38). He was the editorial director of the newspaper PM (1943–48), a columnist for the New York Star (1948–49), and, from 1949 until the 1970s, his work was syndicated by the New York Post. His principal works include It Is Later than You Think (1938), Ideas Are Weapons (1939), Ideas for the Ice Age (1941), America as a Civilization (1957), The Unfinished Country (1959), The Age of Overkill (1962), Values in Education (1976), Epidemic 9 (with M. Gunther, 1980), and Ted and the Kennedy Legend (1982). Lerner's work contains elements of his journalistic style together with more sober academic attempts to analyze American life in his day. He also wrote Wrestling with the Angel: A Memoir of My Triumph over Illness (1991). Nine Scorpions in a Bottle: Great Judges and Cases of the Supreme Court was published in 1994 (ed. Richard Cummings); and Wounded Titans: American Presidents and the Perils of Power, a collection of Lerner's portrayals of U.S. presidents, was published in 1996 (ed. Robert Schmuhl). -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Lakoff, Max Lerner: Pilgrim in the Promised Land (1998). (Lawrence H. Feigenbaum / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)