In her early years, Jane attended Ethical Culture Fieldston School (also known as Fieldston).
Gallery of Jane Mayer
Church Rd, Steep, Petersfield GU32 2DG, United Kingdom
During the period from 1972 till 1973, she was an exchange student at Bedales School in Steep village, England.
College/University
Gallery of Jane Mayer
New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States
In 1977, Mayer graduated magna cum laude from Yale University.
Gallery of Jane Mayer
Oxford OX1 2JD, United Kingdom
Jane attended the University of Oxford.
Career
Gallery of Jane Mayer
Jane, giving an interview about her new article, "The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency: How Robert Mercer Exploited America’s Populist Insurgency".
Gallery of Jane Mayer
Gallery of Jane Mayer
Mayer, giving an interview about her book "Dark Money" at Climate One.
Jane, giving an interview about her new article, "The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency: How Robert Mercer Exploited America’s Populist Insurgency".
(This book traces the origins of the Iran-contra affair an...)
This book traces the origins of the Iran-contra affair and the unraveling of the Reagan presidency, taking the readers deep inside a White House, that care more for stagecraft, than statecraft and that mistook a landslide reelection for an unlimited mandate.
(A gripping high-stakes drama, "Strange Justice" is not on...)
A gripping high-stakes drama, "Strange Justice" is not only a definitive account of the Clarence Thomas nomination hearings, but is also a classic casebook of how the Washington game is played by those, for whom winning is everything.
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
("The Dark Side" is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive n...)
"The Dark Side" is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of how the United States made self-destructive decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world — decisions, that not only violated the Constitution, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. In spellbinding detail, Jane Mayer relates the impact of these decisions, by which key players, namely Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, exploited September 11 to further a long held agenda to enhance presidential powers to a degree never known in the United States history, and obliterate Constitutional protections, that define the very essence of the American experiment.
(This is a non-fiction book about a network of extremely w...)
This is a non-fiction book about a network of extremely wealthy conservative Republicans, foremost among them Charles and David Koch, who have together funded an array of organizations, that work in tandem to influence academic institutions, think tanks, the courts, statehouses, Congress and the American presidency for their own benefit.
(In this book, Jane Mayer reveals, that the era of the Koc...)
In this book, Jane Mayer reveals, that the era of the Koch brothers and big money in American politics is far from over, despite how much discussion there is to the contrary.
Jane Mayer is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction writer. Since 1995, she has been holding a post of a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. Also, Jane worked for The Wall Street Journal.
Jane is the author of many articles on different issues, including money in politics, government prosecution of whistleblowers, the United States Predator drone program and others.
Background
Jane Mayer was born in 1955, in New York City, New York, United States. She is a daughter of Meredith (Nevins) Meyer, a painter, former president of the Manhattan Graphics Center and printmaker, and William Mayer, a composer. Also, Jane's paternal great-great-grandfather was Emanuel Lehman, who was one of the founders of Lehman Brothers, a global financial services firm. Her maternal grandparents were Mary Fleming (Richardson) and Allan Nevins, a historian and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s authorized biographer.
Education
Initially, Jane attended Ethical Culture Fieldston School (also known as Fieldston). During the period from 1972 till 1973, she was an exchange student at Bedales School in Steep village, England. Later, in 1977, Mayer graduated magna cum laude from Yale University. Then, she continued her studies at the University of Oxford.
In her early career, after finishing her studies, Jane worked as a senior editor of the Yale Daily News Magazine and as campus stringer for Time magazine. She began her career as a journalist in Vermont, working for The Weathersfield Weekly and The Black River Tribune newspapers. Later, Jane also worked for Rutland Herald daily newspaper and later, she held a post of a metropolitan reporter, working for The Washington Star newspaper.
In 1982, Mayer was appointed a journalist at The Wall Street Journal, a post she held for the next twelve years. During her tenure at the journal, Jane was a war correspondent and foreign correspondent, reporting on the bombing of the American barracks in Beirut, the Persian Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the last days of Communism in the former Soviet Union.
Jane Mayer co-authored two books on pivotal incidents in American public life of the late 1980's and early 1990's. The first, 1988’s "Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984-1988", co-authored with Doyle McManus, is a highly touted examination of the second presidential term of Ronald Reagan, including the clearest chronicle of the Iran-contra affair.
Mayer’s second book, "Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas", published in 1994 and co-authored with Jill Abramson, offers an account of the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court in 1991, with special emphasis on the testimony of Anita Hill, who accused Thomas of sexual harassment. The authors' conclusion, that Thomas likely lied during his Senate confirmation hearings, was the subject of heated debate in the reviewing periodicals.
Also, Mayer penned another three books, including "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals" (2008), "Dark Money" (2016) and "Election Night 2016: From Dark Money" (2018).
During her lifetime, Mayer covered numerous events, writing articles on Obama administration's prosecution of whistleblowers and many others. In 2009, Mayer covered the Obama administration's use of drones. In 2010, she wrote an article about the political activities of the Koch brothers, describing their "war against Obama" and funding of the Tea Party and nonprofit organizations, that sought to block liberal policy proposals and defeat Democratic candidates. The following year, in 2011, Jane published an article on retail sales millionaire Art Pope's dominant spending in North Carolina politics.
Moreover, Jane appeared as a guest on different shows, including Charlie Rose Show, Late Show with David Letterman, Tavis Smiley show and others. Mayer appeared frequently on Free Speech TV's "Democracy Now!" program. Also, she took part in several panel discussions, devoted to the media's coverage of the Iraq War.
Currently, Jane works as a staff writer for The New Yorker, a post she has been holding since 1995. Also, she is a steering board director of the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press.
Jane Mayer is known as an investigative journalist and staff writer, who worked for a well-known Wall Street Journal. She was the first woman at the journal to be named White House correspondent, and subsequently, senior writer and front page editor. Also, she is a prominent staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, as well as author of several books on political issues.
During her lifetime, Jane received many awards, including John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2008, Edward Weinthal Award in 2009, George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting in 2011, Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting in 2012 and others. Also, she was a recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008.
