Sam Tanenhaus (born October 31, 1955) is an American historian, biographer, and journalist. He currently is a writer for Prospect.

Early years

Tanenhaus received his B.A. in English from Grinnell College in 1977 and a M.A. in English Literature from Yale University in 1978. His siblings include psycholinguist Michael Tanenhaus, filmmaker Beth Tanenhaus Winsten, and legal historian David S. Tanenhaus.

Career

Tanenhaus was an assistant editor at The New York Times from 1997 to 1999, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair from 1999 until 2004. From April 2004 to April 2013 he served as the editor of The New York Times Book Review. He has written many featured articles for that publication, including a 10-year retrospective on the politics of radical centrism. His 1997 biography of Whittaker Chambers won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a finalist for both the National Book Award for Nonfiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Since 2019, Tanenhaus has been a visiting professor at St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto, where he teaches courses on American politics and media studies.

Personal life

Tanenhaus formerly lived in Tarrytown, New York with his wife. Currently, he resides in Essex, Connecticut.