Frans Verhagen

Frans Verhagen has been writing and lecturing on American politics and American society for the last 25 years. He lectures regularly on topics related to the American presidential elections, immigration and American integration, and all aspects of American history.

For the last four years he ran a lecture program for more than a hundred Dutch high schools on immigration and integration and lead the debate on the question if we can learn something from the American experience. In addition Verhagen lectures on communication and political campaigns, a field where he himself is active as a communication trainer for European executives and civil servants. He has a wide experience in leading challenging debates, both in a pro/con format and in a Socratic setting to explore the ins and outs of a topic.

Frans Verhagen holds degrees in constitutional law (1979) and sociology (1980) in Groningen and a Master of International Affairs at Columbia University (1981). From 1983 to 1989 Verhagen was based in Washington D.C. as a foreign correspondent for several Dutch newspapers and weeklies. Thereafter he was managing editor and assistant publisher of Intermediair, a Dutch weekly.

From 1993 to 2003 he ran his own magazine, a quarterly called Amerika. Since 1996 he manages and edits a Dutch website about the United States. Verhagen is a regular contributor to editorial pages and to radio and television programs, mostly on the United States. He wrote several books about the US, the most recent ones All 42 presidents (2000), Bush is stupid and 37 other clichés about the US (2004), The American Way. What we can learn from the  most succesful immigration society (2006) and The best one never wins. The ABC of the American presidential elections (2007).

Currently he is working on a book about American history for a Dutch audience, set to appear in the fall of 2008. A long term project of Verhagen is research into the political and societal position of catholics in the Netherlands between the world wars. He is equally proficient in English and in Dutch.