Chalmers Johnson, Contributor

Toshiaki Nakayama

Chalmers Johnson taught from 1962 to 1992 at the Berkeley and San Diego campuses of the University of California and held endowed chairs in Asian politics at both. At Berkeley he was chairman of the Center for Chinese Studies and of the department of political science. His B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics and political science are all from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1968 until 1972 he was a consultant to the Office of National Estimates of the Central Intelligence Agency.

      He first visited Japan in 1953 as a U.S. Navy officer and lived and worked there with his wife, the anthropologist Sheila K. Johnson, between 1961 and 1998. He has written 17 books, including “Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power,” on the Chinese revolution; “An Instance of Treason,” on Japan’s most famous spy; “Revolutionary Change,” on the theory of violent protest movements; and “MITI and the Japanese Miracle,” on Japanese economic development. In 1976 Johnson was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

      He was chairman of the academic advisory committee for the PBS television series “The Pacific Century,” and he played a prominent role in the PBS “Frontline” documentary “Losing the War with Japan,” both of which won Emmy awards. In 2006 he appeared in the prize-winning documentary film “Why We Fight.” His most recent books are “Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire” (Metropolitan Books, 2000) and “The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic” (Metropolitan, 2004). “Blowback” won the 2001 American Book Award of the Before Columbus Foundation, and “Sorrows of Empire” won the 2005 gold medal for nonfiction conferred by the Commonwealth Club of California.

      His new book, “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic,” was published by Metropolitan in February 2007 and in paperback in January 2008. He lives in Cardiff, Calif., with his wife and cat and devotes himself to his hobby of opera.

Publications

The Sorrows of Empire

$16.00