"Probably the most gifted polemicist writing in English today." - David Reiff, Times Literary Supplement "Never less than ferociously entertaining." - Publishers Weekly "Outspoken, intellectual, uncompromising, combative, witty and incapable of hiding his contempt for the powers that be." - Utne Reader "Snobbish, funny, brutal and nostalgic." - Los Angeles Times "Like Adorno, Cockburn's province is the consciousness industry, and if, unlike Adorno, he isn't mournful, then so much the better ... He is one of the few journalists in America, given that most of them tend to report either each other or what is acceptable to policy-makers." - Edward Said, London Review of Books ""His work stands in the best tradition of Mark Twain, Hazlitt and Paine."" -- Ben Sonnenberg, Editor of Grand Street "Talented, despicable." - New Republic ""Cockburn's weekly pieces ... have set a new standard of gutter journalism in this country."" -- Norman Podhoretz, Commentary "A good mouser." - The New Leader "But a better mole." - Murray Kempton

Alexander Cockburn (1941–2012) was the coeditor of CounterPunch and the author of a number of titles, including Corruptions of Empire, The Golden Age Is in Us, Washington Babylon (with Ken Silverstein) and Imperial Crusades. One of three brothers, all journalists, he is the son of the journalist and author Claud Cockburn. Born in Ireland and educated in Scotland and England, he moved to America in 1972, soon establishing himself as a radical reporter and commentator, writing for the Village Voice, the New York Review of Books, Esquire and Harpers. He also wrote regular columns for the Nation, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New Statesman, and his influential newsletter CounterPunch. In 1991 he settled in Petrolia, a rural hamlet in Humboldt County, Northern California, where he remained until his death.