Gal Beckerman is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of the forthcoming book How to Be a Dissident. He was formerly the magazine’s books editor and, before joining The Atlantic, was an editor at The New York Times Book Review. His previous books include The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas, a New York Times Notable Book, and When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry, which won the Sami Rohr Prize. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications. He has a PhD from Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
