Background on Neal R. Peirce

Neil Peirce Summary: Neal Peirce is a lead writer, among American journalists, on the dynamics of state and local government, with a special focus in recent years on metropolitan regions — their political and economic dynamics, their emerging national and global roles.Earlier in his career Peirce was the political editor of Congressional Quarterly and then one of the founders of National Journal. He wrote a 10-book series on America’s states and regions culminating in The Book of America: Inside 50 States Today (W.W. Norton, 1983). In 1975, Peirce began — and continues today — the United States’ first national column focused on state and local government themes, syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. With Curtis Johnson, he has co-authored the Citistates Reports on compelling issues of metropolitan futures for leading newspapers in 25 regions across the nation, among them the Seattle Times, Dallas Morning News, Philadelphia Inquirer and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Peirce was lead author of the 1993 book, Citistates. Since 1995 he has been chairman of the Citistates Group, a network of journalists, speakers and consultants who believe that successful metropolitan regions are today’s key to economic competitiveness and sustainable communities.

Peirce lives in Washington, D.C. with a summer and autumn cottage in New Hampshire.

Chairman of the Citistates Group, a group of writers, speakers and consultants focused on the viability of U.S. and international metropolitan regions.

Web site: http://citistates.com/peirce/ — Includes recent speeches, newspaper columns, Peirce Reports, related activities

A founder (in 1969) and former contributing editor of National Journal.

Lecturer on urban, state-local, economic development and environmental issues for government, business and academic groups across the United States. Faculty member, Salzburg Seminar (1980, 1984, 1997) and Moderator, Great Cities of the World Conference, Boston (1980).

Television-radio appearances and commentary: Meet the Press, Today Show, MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, CNN, stations in principal cities. Consultant and commentator on national elections for CBS News, 1967-76, and for NBC News, 1964-66.

Graduate of Princeton University (Phi Beta Kappa), 1954.

Political Editor, Congressional Quarterly, 1960-69.

Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, at the Smithsonian Institution, 1971-74. John L. Weinberg Distinguished Visiting Professor, Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs, 1992.

Biographical listings: Who’s Who in America.

Author: The Book of America: Inside Fifty States Today (with Jerry Hagstrom as coauthor), June 1983 (W.W. Norton & Co., N.Y.; a Book of the Month Club featured dividend; paperback edition Warner Books). The culmination of a multi-year project surveying each of the 50 states of the United States, covering government, politics, business, education, ethnic and minority groups, environmental action and urban affairs. The initial volume was The Megastates of America, treating the 10 most heavily populated states, in 1972. Subsequent regional volumes included The Pacific States of America (1972), The Mountain States of America (1972), The Great Plains States of America (1973), The Deep South States of America (1974), The Border South States of America (1975), The New England States (1976), The Mid-Atlantic States of America (1977), and The Great Lakes States of America (1980).

Other books, reports: The People’s President, on the electoral college in U.S. history and the direct vote alternative (Simon and Schuster, 1968). Corrective Capitalism, on the rise of community development corporations (Ford Foundation, 1987); Enterprising Communities, on community-based development in the U.S. (Council for Community-Based Development, 1990); Breakthroughs: Re-Creating the American City (Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University, 1993). Boundary Crossers: Community Leadership for a Global Age, with Curtis W. Johnson (University of Maryland, 1997). Led team which wrote The Peirce Report on the civic-economic outlook of the Phoenix region, for the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette, February 1987. A second Peirce Report, focusing on the Puget Sound region for the Seattle Times, appeared in 1989. Subsequent reports, for the Baltimore Sun, Owensboro (Kentucky) Messenger-Inquirer, Dallas Morning News and St. Paul Pioneer-Press, followed in 1991. The first six reports were all included in a book, Citistates: How Urban America Can Prosper in a Competitive World (Seven Locks Press, 1993). Subsequent reports were written for newspapers in Charlotte, Philadelphia, Reading (Pa.), Raleigh-Durham, Spokane, Boulder, Indianapolis, Saint Louis, Nashville, South Florida, San Antonio, Kansas City and Northeast Nebraska, as well as San Diego Magazine.

Affiliations: Fellow, National Academy of Public Administration. Trustee: German Marshall Fund of the U.S., 1988-97. Member: Advisory Council, Trust for Public Land. Board, Institute for Educational Leadership and Partners for Livable Communities. Executive committee member, board of the National Civic League, early 70s to 1995.