Thomas Sugrue

Thomas Sugrue, born in Detroit in 1962, is a writer, public speaker, and university professor. His first book, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, won several prizes, including the prestigious Bancroft Prize in American History. His other books include Not Even Past, a biography of Barack Obama, Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in American History, and These United States: America in the Making, 1890 to the Present, (with Glenda Gilmore). He has been a dramaturge and historical advisor for many films, notably I'm Your Woman (2020). He has appeared in documentaries, including Driving While Black (2020) , City on Fire: The Story of the '68 Detroit Tigers (2002), and Detroit 48202: Conversations Along a Postal Route (2018). He is a frequent media commentator on history and politics, with appearances on Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson and singer David Crosby, and on the Melissa Harris-Perry show. Sugrue's articles and opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, National Geographic, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, the Hollywood Reporter, the Nation, and more. He lives in New York City and teaches at New York University.