Ellis Cose is the author of a dozen books on issues of national and international concern, including the best-selling The Rage of a Privileged Class, a novel (The Best Defense), and Democracy, If we Can Keep It, the definitive history of the American Civil Liberties Union. His The Short Life and Curious Death of Free Speech in America will be published in September 2020.
A Chicago native, Cose holds a master’s degree in science, technology and public policy from George Washington University, and lives in New York City. He began his career with the Chicago Sun-Times, where he was a columnist, editor and national correspondent. He has been a contributor and press critic for Time magazine, chief executive officer of the Institute for Journalism Education, chief writer on management and workplace issues for USA Today and a member of the editorial board of the Detroit Free Press. He has held fellowships at the Gannett Center for Media Studies at Columbia University, the University of California, the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, and other prestigious institutions.
For 17 years, Cose was a columnist and contributing editor for Newsweek magazine. He is a former chairman of the editorial board and editorial page editor of the New York Daily News as well as an independent radio documentary producer. Cose was the inaugural writer in residence for the ACLU. He has appeared on a range of national and international news programs, including Dateline, ABC News, and Good Morning America.