Yoni Appelbaum


Yoni Appelbaum, an American historian and journalist, is Senior Editor for politics at The Atlantic. Appelbaum was previously a columnist for the publication.

Early life and education

Appelbaum is the son of Diana Muir Karter and Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum. He has two siblings: Binyamin Appelbaum and Avigail Appelbaum. His grandfather is nuclear engineer Peter Karter. His aunt is entrepreneur Trish Karter. He was raised in Newton, Massachusetts and is a graduate of the Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts. Appelbaum holds an A.B., magna cum laude from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in history from Brandeis University.

Career

Before moving to The Atlantic, Appelbaum taught at Harvard University. Appelbaum's academic work focused on what he has jokingly called the, "guilded age," the associative republicanism of the late 19th century, an era when mass-membership organizations like the Knights of Pythias, Chicago Lumber Exchange, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union were central to national politics.
In the March 2019 issue of The Atlantic, Appelbaum wrote a long-form article making the case for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. According to Margaret Sullivan writing in The Washington Post, Appelbaum's essay is the article that "moved... impeachment, all-but-taboo in Big Media’s coverage of Trump,...., from the margins into the mainstream — across the journalism spectrum."

Publications

In 2004, he married his college sweetheart, Emily Pressman of Wilmington, Delaware, in a Jewish ceremony at Columbia University. They have two children.