Meet The Editors

KARL ZINSMEISTER 

Editor in chief Karl Zinsmeister first formulated The American Enterprise in 1994, and conceives, edits, and writes extensively for nearly every issue. Thanks to the electronic miracle he does all this from a base in rural New York State, 400 miles from the magazine's Washington production office.

Karl is also J. B. Fuqua Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where his research has spanned demographic and social trends, economics, politics, and cultural topics. In addition to The American Enterprise, he has been published in places ranging from The Atlantic Monthly to Reader's Digest.

Karl has produced a half-dozen books, including three out of his many months as an embedded combat reporter in Iraq:

—Boots on the Ground: A Month with the 82nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraq (an account of the initial invasion);

—Dawn Over Baghdad: How the U.S. Military is Using Bullets and Ballots to Remake Iraq (chronicling the guerilla war and reconstruction);

—and even a book-length non-fiction Marvel comic, Combat Zone: True Tales of G.I.s in Iraq.

Currently, Karl is writing and producing a film for PBS entitled "WARRIORS," which will profile the men and women in America's fighting forces.

Karl is a graduate of Yale University and did further studies in history at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland (the best part of his education). During college he won national rowing championships in both the U.S. and Ireland. Karl's first job in Washington was as an assistant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. While launching his writing career, he supported his young family for several years by working on the side as a carpenter in Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. He is a sixth generation resident of central New York, where he and his wife and three children live in a rural village. 

WINFIELD MYERS

Winfield Myers is managing editor of The American Enterprise, and oversees the Washington operation of the magazine.

Win is principal author and editor of a college guide, Choosing the Right College (introduction by William Bennett), and former editor of a series of study guides for college students, the ISI Guides to the Liberal Arts. He was formerly senior editor of several publications, including the Intercollegiate Review and Campus Magazine.

A native Georgian, Win is a graduate of Young Harris College and the University of Georgia, and attended graduate school in history at Tulane and the University of Michigan. He taught the Great Books and Renaissance history at Michigan, world history at Xavier University of Louisiana, medieval history at Tulane, and early modern history and the philosophy of history at Georgia.

Prior to coming to The American Enterprise, Win co-founded and directed a non-profit organization called the Democracy Project.

DAVID WHITE

Assistant editor David White came to The American Enterprise from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he served as a speechwriter for Secretary Alphonso Jackson.

A graduate of Yale University, David co-edited The Politic, a nonpartisan Yale political magazine, and occasionally pontificated in the Yale Daily News. While in college he also rowed on the varsity crew team and interned at the Kennedy School of Government and the White House Office of Speechwriting.

Considering that David was born in New York, raised in Massachusetts, and educated in Connecticut, some people are shocked to learn that he’s a staunch supporter of individual freedom and limited government. Mystifying things even further, David is a Bruce Springsteen fanatic who has seen the Boss in concert on 20 separate occasions. 

MARIANNE WASSON 

A native Kansan, production editor Marianne Wasson comes to The American Enterprise after co-authoring a curriculum on American history and civics, a project which reinforced her love of the United States. An avid traveler, she has visited more than 35 Presidential homes and libraries.

Marianne studied at Patrick Henry College in rural Virginia, where her most memorable experience was living on a farm with 15 other people as the dormitories were being built. While earning a degree in Literature, she spearheaded the college’s theater troupe and helped produce the first of its Shakespearian productions.

Born to a family of actors, Marianne still occasionally performs with the Wasson clan during her visits to the Midwest. 

BILL KAUFFMAN

Associate editor Bill Kauffman contributes feature articles and occasional shorts to TAE, writes our column reclaiming forgotten aspects of American history (FLASHBACK), and conducts interviews for “LIVE” WITH TAE.

Kauffman has written six books, including the memoir Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette; a novel, Every Man a King; Country Towns of New York, a travel book; America First! Its History, Culture, and Politics; and With Good Intentions? Reflections on the Myth of Progress in America. He also contributes to the Wall Street Journal, the Spectator (the English one, that is), and many other newspapers and magazines.

Bill is a graduate of the University of Rochester. He worked as a assistant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, which he describes as an “anarchist-making” experience. Bill describes his politics as Upstate New York regionalist and Jeffersonian decentralist. Gore Vidal, his favorite writer, has dubbed him “the sage of Batavia, New York.”

BRANDON BOSWORTH

Brandon Bosworth hails from Aiea, Hawaii, the largest city in America with an all-vowel name. He graduated from Chaminade University of Honolulu with a degree in political and historical studies, with an emphasis on Asia.

While completing his degree, Bosworth worked part-time at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an eye-opening look into federal bureaucracy and government fiat that continues to influence his thinking. In 1999 Bosworth moved to the Washington, D.C. area, where he worked for two years as production assistant at The American Enterprise.

In addition to producing BOOKTALK, SIDELIGHTS, and occasional feature and short articles for TAE, Brandon contributes to National Review Online, Frontpage, Liberzine, Chronicles and other publications. Brandon owns over 400 compact discs, is a film geek, and a gun nut who enjoys target shooting among other outdoor activities. He resides in Honolulu.  

KARLYN BOWMAN

Karlyn Bowman is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she is one of the nation’s leading interpreters of polling data. She produces TAE’s public opinion section, Opinion Pulse.

Her publications (some co-written with Everett Carll Ladd or Seymour Martin Lipset) include The 1993-1994 Debate on Health Care Reform: Did the Polls Mislead the Policy Makers?; Attitudes Toward the Environment; Public Opinion in America and Japan; Public Opinion on Abortion; Public Opinion About Economic Inequality; and Public Opinion and the Clinton Legacy.

Karlyn is a regular television and radio commentator, and writes a biweekly column on polling for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband James Bowman, a writer and movie reviewer.