DOL portrait
Robert Bernard Reich (born June 24, 1946) was the twenty-second United States Secretary of Labor, serving under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. He is currently on the faculty of Brandeis University.
Early life and career
Robert Reich was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1946, and grew up in the rural community of South Salem, New York State. He was born with Fairbanks disease , which left him half-an-inch taller than a technical dwarf (4-foot-10½-inches). His father owned a retail clothing store.
He went on to graduate from Dartmouth College in 1968, obtained an M.A. as a Rhodes Scholar at University College of Oxford University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1973.
For more than 20 years, he has lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife, Clare Dalton , a law professor at Northeastern University who started and runs Northeastern's Center on Domestic Violence. He also has two sons, Sam and Adam.
He has worked as a faculty member at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, director of Policy Planning Staff of the Federal Trade Commission under Carter, assistant to the Solicitor General under Ford, and former chairman of the political magazine The American Prospect, which he co-founded.
In 1992 Reich hosted the PBS documentary miniseries Made In America, an in-depth look at the then-current difficulties of American manufacturing in the face of stiff competition from overseas, particularly Japan, and what American companies could do to become more competitive.
Serving in Clinton administration
A longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton going back to their days together at Oxford, he was invited to head Clinton's economic transition team. He later joined the administration as Secretary of Labor. During his tenure, he implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act, fought sweatshops, increased the minimum wage, and launched a number of job training programs.
At the same time, he lobbied Clinton to address big issues like the increasing gap between the wealthy and the poor. He had only moderate success before the 1996 campaign begun, and Clinton fell under the sway of pollster Dick Morris, who convinced him to move right and promote policies that appealed to the suburban swing voter.
After Clinton administration
In 1997, soon after Clinton's second inauguration, he decided to leave the department to spend more time with his now-teenage sons. He published his experiences working for the Clinton administration as Locked in the Cabinet.
In 2002, he ran for Governor of Massachusetts. He also published an associated campaign book, I'll Be Short. Although his campaign had hardly any money, he came in second in the Democratic primary, with 25% of the vote.
In 2004, he published Reason , a handbook on how liberals can forcefully argue for their position in a country increasingly dominated by what he calls "radcons", or radical conservatives.
In addition to his professorial role, he is a regular contributer to the American Public Media public radio program Marketplace.
Currently, Reich is University Professor and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at the Heller School at Brandeis.
Books
- 2004: Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America
- 2002: I'll Be Short: Essentials for a Decent Working Society
- 2000: The Future of Success: Working and Living in the New Economy
- 1997: Locked in the Cabinet
- 1991: The Work of Nations : Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism
- probably his most important work, it has been translated into at least 22 languages
- 1990: Public Management in a Democratic Society
- 1988: The Power of Public Ideas (editor)
- 1989: The Resurgent Liberal: And Other Unfashionable Prophecies
- 1987: Tales of a New America: The Anxious Liberal's Guide to the Future
- 1985: New Deals: The Chrysler Revival and the American System (with John Donahue )
- 1983: The Next American Frontier
- 1982: Minding America's Business: The Decline and Rise of the American Economy (with Ira Magaziner)
References
