Michael Totten

Michael James Totten (born September 16, 1970) is an American journalist and author who has reported from the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans, Cuba, Vietnam, and the Caucasus. His work appears in various publications, websites, and on his blog. His first book, The Road to Fatima Gate, was published in 2011 and was awarded the Washington Institute Silver Book Prize. In his blog posts, he also describes himself as an "independent journalist", while regularly exposing his thoughts in articles which often focus on Middle Eastern conflicts.

Michael Totten
Totten at a Lebanese cafe in 2005
Born (1970-09-16) September 16, 1970
Salem, Oregon, U.S.
EducationSouth Salem High School (1988)
Alma materUniversity of Oregon (English literature)
OccupationJournalist, blogger, novelist
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)
Shelly Lynn Stephenson
​
​
(m. 2002)​
RelativesGena Layman Pegg (mother)
Writing career
Period2000s and 2010s
SubjectMiddle Eastern geopolitics and international relations
Websitewww.michaeltotten.com

Early life and education
Totten as a high school junior in the 1980s
Totten as a high school senior in the late 1980s

Totten is of English[1] descent and was born in Salem, Oregon[2] on September 16, 1970.[3][2] His mother is Gena Layman Pegg[4] and his father John Totten is a Republican and a military veteran.[5][6] Totten's grandfather was a World War II veteran.[7] Totten attended McKinley Elementary School in Salem, Oregon.[8]

Totten studied English literature at the University of Oregon in the early 1990s,[9] after attending South Salem High School in the 1980s.[10][11] He has said that he did not like his time living in Salem and that he was glad to leave.[12]

Career

In the 1990s, Totten wrote an opinion column for The Daily Iowan.

Since, Totten's work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times,[13] City Journal, the New York Daily News,[14] The Jerusalem Post, the Daily Star of Lebanon, Reason magazine, Commentary,[15] LA Weekly, Front Page, Tech Central Station, and the Australian edition of Newsweek.

In July 2007, Totten traveled to Baghdad to embed with several U.S. Army units before transitioning to Anbar province and embedding with U.S. Marines.[16] In late 2007 he embedded with U.S. Marines in Fallujah, and he embedded again with the U.S. Army in Baghdad in late 2008.

Totten won the 2007 Weblog Award for Best Middle East or Africa Blog,[17] he won it again in 2008, and was named Blogger of the Year in 2006 by The Week magazine for his dispatches from the Middle East. He was in Georgia during the 2008 South Ossetia war.[18]

His most recent book is Tower of the Sun: Stories from the Middle East and North Africa.[19]

Ideology

In the past Totten has described himself as a "weird combination of liberal, libertarian, and neocon" and later he described himself as politically centrist.[20] He believed that the critics of the war in Iraq who noted the lack of progress from 2004 to 2006 were correct while the Bush administration was wrong. He supported the 2007 'surge' strategy.[21]

On June 23, 2010, Totten lauded Barack Obama's decision to accept General Stanley McChrystal's resignation, and Totten labeled it "one of the best decisions the president has made since he took office."[22]

Funding

Totten describes himself as an "independent journalist." Most of his trips—to Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Bosnia, Kosovo, Georgia, and several other places—are paid for out of his own pocket, although he has also accepted funding from the government of Azerbaijan, the American Jewish Committee and the Lebanese pro-western March 14 alliance for trips to Azerbaijan, Israel, and Lebanon, respectively.[23][24]

Personal life

In the early 2000s, Totten married Shelly Lynn Stephenson in Oregon's Multnomah County.[25][26][27] He describes his wife as "conventionally" liberal.[26] They are both registered Democrats and atheists,[28] although Totten did not vote for Barack Obama[18] and is a former Christian.[29] They both live together in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Portland, Oregon.[3][30]

Totten was briefly a Libertarian during the 1990s but became a Democrat afterwards, though he has previously said that he was never fully content with being a Democrat and has considered returning to the Libertarians.[31]

Books

Totten's first book, The Road to Fatima Gate: The Beirut Spring, the Rise of Hezbollah, and the Iranian War Against Israel (Encounter Books, April 2011, ISBN 978-1-59403-521-0), reports his experiences in the Middle East, primarily those in Lebanon.

Other books include:[32]

  • Tower of the Sun: Stories From the Middle East and North Africa (2014)
  • Where the West Ends (2012)
  • Resurrection: A Zombie Novel (2014)
  • Taken – A Novel (2013)
  • In the Wake of the Surge (2011)
  • On the Hunt in Baghdad (2011)
  • In the Land of the Brother Leader (2011)
  • Raid Night (2011)

References
  1. Totten, Michael J. (July 2005). "Al Qaeda Hits London". MichaelTotten.com. Retrieved June 16, 2017. I have never been to England, but it's where my family and my name are from.
  2. "Archive". Normblog. BlogSpot. September 28, 2003. Archived from the original on August 7, 2010. Michael J. Totten was born in Salem, Oregon in 1970. He studied English literature at the University of Oregon, and his interests have since expanded to include writing, history, politics, and travel.
  3. Oregon Elections Division (August 28, 2017). "TOTTEN, MICHAEL JAMES". My Vote. Salem, Oregon: Oregon Secretary of State. Archived from the original on September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  4. https://www.facebook.com/gena.pegg/posts/3504500542909439
  5. https://www.facebook.com/gena.pegg/posts/5134586449900832
  6. Totten, Michael J. (December 23, 2015). "The Truth About American Sniper". City Journal. I was raised with the anti-military prejudice common in my community, despite having a military veteran and Republican for a father.
  7. Totten, Michael J. (October 14, 2003). "Schizophrenic Liberalism". Dispatches. World Affairs Journal. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2017.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. https://archive.today/YkaGC/b9bdc24b48267a44b7ccb620368d0ad67410c5d2
  9. Totten, Michael J. (2017). "Michael Totten". LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Retrieved August 29, 2017. 1990-1994
  10. "Michael Totten, Class of 1988 - South Salem High School - Classmates". www.classmates.com.
  11. "1987 South Salem High School Yearbook". www.classmates.com.
  12. Totten, Michael J. (2004). "Against Suburbia". MichaelTotten.com.
  13. Book review by Michael Totten of Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict by Sandra Mackey, The New York Times, March 30, 2008
  14. "Frontline Lessons from the Iraq Surge", Michael Totten, New York Daily News, August 29, 2007
  15. "The Worst since 9/11", Michael J. Totten, Commentary, August 22, 2007
  16. "Iraq Trip Confirmed", Michael J. Totten.com, July 5, 2007
  17. "The 2007 Weblog Award Winners", Kevin Aylward, November 9, 2007
  18. Totten, Michael J. "December 11, 2017". Facebook. Facebook. Retrieved December 12, 2017. You may recall that I gave Obama a hard time about Russia, too, and I didn't vote for him. I don't vote for pro-Russian or soft-on-Russia candidates. I was in Georgia when Russia invaded.
  19. Totten, Michael J. (20 November 2014). "Tower of the Sun: Stories From the Middle East and North Africa". Belmont Estate Books – via Amazon.
  20. "Quick Poll", Michael J. Totten, January 2008; see comment timestamped "January 7, 2008 1:25 AM"
  21. The Real Iraq, Michael J. Totten, City Journal, May 16, 2008
  22. Good Call, Mr. President, Michael J Totten, June 2010
  23. "On my way to Israel", Michael J. Totten, January 2009
  24. The Explosive Caucasus, Michael J. Totten, August 2008
  25. "Oregon, Marriage Indexes, 1906-2009". 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  26. Totten, Michael J. (November 2, 2006). "My Last Domestic Politics Post of the Election Season". Dispatches. World Affairs Journal. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  27. Totten, Michael J. (July 24, 2004). "A Photo Tour of Tunisia". Archived from the original on May 27, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2017.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  28. "Jerks".
  29. Totten, Michael J. (April 6, 2004). "Fighting Dirty". World Affairs Journal. American Peace Society. Archived from the original on October 27, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015. I'm not a Christian anymore, but I know if I were I would think it a desecration.
  30. Totten, Michael J.z. "Against Suburbia". World Affairs Journal.
  31. Totten, Michael J. "The Libertarian Temptation". World Affairs Journal.
  32. Michael J. Totten Amazon.com

Further reading
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