Education
Harvard University; University of Cologne.
(As a reporter for the prestigious New York Times the auth...)
As a reporter for the prestigious New York Times the author interviewed many of the leading political figures of the Balkans (Illyria, as called in classical antiquity). He also sought out the area s intellectuals, not all of whom toed the government line, and whose comments give the reader a sense of how life was lived in those times. Binder devotes a chapter to each ethnic group from Vlachs to Serbs, talks about their individual differences and commonalities, and manages to do so without offense. Also includes a short historical account of the various places he visits which broadens the reader s exposure to local culture and heightens his understanding. A comprehensive yet concise account of the cultural and political situation in the Balkans during the last three decades of the Cold War (1960-1990). Fare Well, Illyria sums up the author s thorough knowledge of the political and cultural history of the Balkans as well as his personal experience gained over four decades covering the region. The reader comes across people from all walks of life: politicians, poets, literary and art critics, journalists, handymen, car mechanics, fishermen, farmers... From Milovan Djilas and Nicolae Ceausescu to Sali Berisha or the Serbian majstor Misha and the un-named Bosnian bar singer, Binder s book features a remarkable gallery of people whose presence contributes to the sense of authenticity and human warmth of the narrative.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9633860091/?tag=2022091-20
Harvard University; University of Cologne.
He was a reporter for the New York Times from 1961 to 2004 serving as a foreign correspondent in Berlin in 1961 where he reported on the building of the Berlin wall. In the Balkans, based in Belgrade 1963–1966. In Germany based in Bonn and later Berlin, 1967 to 1973.
During the latter period he reported on the gradual rapprochement between East and West Germany, and on the Prague Spring of 1968.
He was then transferred to Washington, Doctorate.C as a diplomatic correspondent, later as serving as the bureau"s assistant news editor, and again as a reporter. He was repeatedly sent abroad as a special correspondent for The Times to report on the decline of the Soviet Bloc in 1987, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the end of the Communist regimes in the German Democratic Republic, Romania, Albania and Yugoslavia in 1990-1992.
He traveled to the Balkans to report on the civil wars that brought about the dissolution of Yugoslavia (1990-1995) and the post-Communist regimes in Bulgaria and Romania. He also reported on the unification of West and East Germany.
In 2000-2001 he again went to the Balkans to report on the burgeoning sex trade and drug smuggling in the region for Microsoft and National Broadcasting Company. Early in his career he worked briefly as a science reporter for The Times, returning more than three decades later to reporting on wildlife biology.
Over the years he also contributed to other publications including The Reporter, The Nation, The New Republic, Foreign Policy (published in Washington), Politika (a daily published in Belgrade), Vreme, (a weekly published in Belgrade) Weltwoche (Swiss weekly published in Zurich), der Spiegel, (a German weekly published in Hamburg) Stern, (a German magazine(published in Hamburg) Neues Deutschland, (a daily published in Berlin), Blaetter fuer deutsche und internationale Politik (published in Bonn) and The Wilson Quarterly (published in Washington). In 1970 he was elected president of the Verein der Auslaendischen Presse (Foreign Press Association) of Germany. In 1989 he was appointed to the editorial advisory board of the newly created Mediterranean Quarterly.
In its first issue he published an article entitled The End of the Bloc, saying the Soviet Union"s East European empire was "falling apart before our eyes." This appeared before the opening of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.
He was raised in Highland Park, Illinois in the suburbs of Chicago until the age of 13, when he attended George School, a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard, before going to the University of Cologne to study on Fulbright Fellowship.
He worked an assistant in American literature at the Salzburg Seminar in Austria summer of 1953. Carbondale Free Press-Southern-Illinoisan (summer, 1951)
Louisville Times, Reporter (1954–1956)
Institute of Current World Affairs, fellow in Germany, (1957–1959)
Daily Mail,(London) Reporter in Berlin, (1959–1960)
Minneapolis Tribune, copy editor, (1960–1961)
The New York Times, Reporter, (1961–2004),
President of The Foreign Press Association of Germany,(1970).
(As a reporter for the prestigious New York Times the auth...)