Gal Beckerman

Gal Beckerman is a staff writer at The Atlantic, and the author of the forthcoming book, How To Be a Dissident. He was formerly the magazine’s books editor and before joining the Atlantic was an editor at the New York Times Books Review. His previous books include  The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas, a New York Times notable book, and When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry, which won the Sami Rohr Prize. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications. He has a PhD from Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Latest

  1. Why Iranians Are Weeping for a Tyrant

    Both loyalists and dissidents wept over the death of Ayatollah Khamenei. This common reaction to a tyrant’s demise is a symptom of the damage they do.

    Illustration of liquid on a gray background, showing fragments of the face of a man with a mustache.
    Illustration by Paul Spella / The Atlantic. Sources: Roger Viollet / Getty; Jose A. Bernat Bacete / Getty.
  2. Minnesota Had Its Birmingham Moment

    In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. outlined a strategy to expose official brutality. Anti-ICE protesters are following it—and it’s working.

    Police deploying fire hoses on African-American protestors in Birmingham, Alabama, May 1963.
    Frank Rockstroh / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty