Michael Totten

{{short description|American journalist and author (born 1970)}} {{Independent sources|date=July 2023}} {{Infobox person | image = Michael J. Totten in Lebanon, 2005.jpg | caption = Totten at a Lebanese cafe in 2005 | name = Michael Totten | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1970|09|16}} | birth_place = Salem, Oregon, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Writer | education = | alma_mater = University of Oregon (English literature) | party =  | relations =  | signature = | spouse = {{marriage|Shelly Lynn Stephenson|2002}} | website = {{URL|http://www.michaeltotten.com/}} | module = {{Infobox writer | genre = | subject = Middle Eastern conflicts, fiction | movement = | period = 2000s and 2010s | influences = | influenced = |embed=yes}} }}

'''Michael James Totten''' (born September 16, 1970) is an American writer who has reported from the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans, Cuba, Vietnam, and the Caucasus. His non-fiction work appears in various publications, websites, and on his blog. Totten's first book, ''The Road to Fatima Gate'' was published by Encounter Books in 2011. In his blog posts, he describes himself as an "independent journalist", and regularly comments on Middle Eastern conflicts.

==Early life and education== thumb|Totten as a high school senior in the late 1980s

Totten is of English<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2005/07/al-qaeda-hits-london.php|first=Michael J.|last=Totten|quote=I have never been to England, but it's where my family and my name are from.|date=July 2005|title=Al Qaeda Hits London|website=MichaelTotten.com|accessdate=June 16, 2017}}</ref> descent and was born in Salem, Oregon in September, 1970.<ref name=birthplace>{{cite web|url=http://normangeras.blogspot.com/2003_09_28_archive.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100807042158/http://normangeras.blogspot.com/2003_09_28_archive.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 7, 2010|title=Archive|date=September 28, 2003|work=Normblog|quote=Michael J. Totten was born in Salem, Oregon in 1970. He studied English literature at the University of Oregon, and his interests have since expanded to include writing, history, politics, and travel.|publisher=BlogSpot}}</ref> His father is a Republican and a military veteran.<ref>{{cite web|last=Totten|first=Michael J.|url=https://www.city-journal.org/html/truth-about-american-sniper-9851.html|title=The Truth About American Sniper|quote=I was raised with the anti-military prejudice common in my community, despite having a military veteran and Republican for a father.|date=December 23, 2015|publisher=City Journal}}</ref> Totten's grandfather was a World War II veteran.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/schizophrenic-liberalism|date=October 14, 2003|title=Schizophrenic Liberalism|work=Dispatches|publisher=World Affairs Journal|last=Totten|first=Michael J.|access-date=December 7, 2017|url-status=usurped|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171208020112/http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/schizophrenic-liberalism|archivedate=December 8, 2017}}</ref>

==Career== Totten's work has appeared in ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The New York Times'',<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/books/review/Totten-t.html Book review] by Michael Totten of ''Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict'' by Sandra Mackey, ''The New York Times'', March 30, 2008</ref> the ''New York Daily News'',<ref>[http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/08/29/2007-08-29_frontline_lessons_from_the_iraq_surge.html "Frontline Lessons from the Iraq Surge"], Michael Totten, New York ''Daily News'', August 29, 2007</ref> ''Commentary'',<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071118061903/http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/totten/825 "The Worst since 9/11"], Michael J. Totten, ''Commentary'', August 22, 2007</ref> and others.

In July 2007, Totten traveled to Baghdad to embed with several U.S. Army units before transitioning to Anbar province and embedding with U.S. Marines.<ref>[http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001482.html "Iraq Trip Confirmed"], Michael J. Totten.com, July 5, 2007</ref>{{better source needed|date=July 2023|reason=per request of editor who added it in 2008, calling it "better but still awful". Source is primary and independent context is badly needed.}} In late 2007 he embedded with U.S. Marines in Fallujah, and he embedded again with the U.S. Army in Baghdad in late 2008.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

Totten won the 2007 Weblog Award for Best Middle East or Africa Blog,<ref>{{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20071110062139/http://2007.weblogawards.org/news/the-2007-weblog-award-winners.php "The 2007 Weblog Award Winners"]}}, Kevin Aylward, November 9, 2007</ref> he won it again in 2008, and was named "Blogger of the Year" in 2006 by ''The Week'' magazine for his dispatches from the Middle East.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

===Ideology=== In comments on his own website from 2008 Totten described himself as a "weird combination of liberal, libertarian, and neocon" and a politically centrist.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Totten |first1=Michael |title=Quick Poll |url=https://michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/01/quick-poll.php |website=Michael J. Totten's Middle East Journal |access-date=24 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080109081655/https://michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/01/quick-poll.php |archive-date=9 January 2008 |date=5 January 2008}} {{br}} see comment timestamped "January 7, 2008 1:25 AM"</ref> He believed that the critics of the war in Iraq who noted the lack of progress from 2004 to 2006 were correct while the Bush administration was wrong. He supported the 2007 'surge' strategy.<ref>[http://www.city-journal.org/2008/bc0516mt.html The Real Iraq], Michael J. Totten, ''City Journal'', May 16, 2008</ref>

Totten was briefly a Libertarian during the 1990s but became a Democrat afterwards, though he has previously said that he was never fully content with being a Democrat and has considered returning to the Libertarians.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/libertarian-temptation|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521003856/http://worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/libertarian-temptation|url-status=usurped|archive-date=May 21, 2013|last=Totten|first=Michael J.|title=The Libertarian Temptation|publisher=World Affairs Journal}}</ref>

===Funding=== Totten describes himself as an "independent journalist." Most of his trips—to Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Bosnia, Kosovo, Georgia, and several other places—are paid for out of his own pocket, although he has also accepted funding from the government of Azerbaijan, the American Jewish Committee and the Lebanese pro-western March 14 alliance for trips to Azerbaijan, Israel, and Lebanon, respectively.<ref>[http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2009/01/on-my-way-to-is.php "On my way to Israel"], Michael J. Totten, January 2009</ref><ref>[http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/08/the-explosive-c.php The Explosive Caucasus], Michael J. Totten, August 2008</ref>

==Personal life== In the early 2000s, Totten married Shelly Lynn Stephenson in Multnomah County, Oregon.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=ormarr&gss=sfs28_ms_db&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=michael%20james%20&gsfn_x=0&gsln=totten&gsln_x=1&MSAV=1&uidh=000|title=Oregon, Marriage Indexes, 1906-2009|access-date=August 29, 2017|date=2009}}</ref><ref name="lastdomestic">{{cite web|url=http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/my-last-domestic-politics-post-election-season|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151027001805/http://worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/my-last-domestic-politics-post-election-season|url-status=usurped|archive-date=October 27, 2015|title=My Last Domestic Politics Post of the Election Season|publisher=World Affairs Journal|last=Totten|first=Michael J.|date=November 2, 2006|access-date=August 29, 2017|work=Dispatches}}</ref><ref name="tunisiaphotos">{{Cite web|url=http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/photo-tour-tunisia |title=A Photo Tour of Tunisia |date=July 24, 2004 |last=Totten |first=Michael J. |accessdate=May 26, 2017 |url-status=usurped |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20170527000857/http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/photo-tour-tunisia |archivedate=May 27, 2017 }}</ref> He is an atheist former christian.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/jerks|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404150103/http://worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/jerks|url-status=usurped|archive-date=April 4, 2015|title=Jerks|publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/fighting-dirty|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151027194039/http://worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/fighting-dirty|url-status=usurped|archive-date=October 27, 2015|quote=I'm not a Christian anymore, but I know if I were I would think it a desecration.|date=April 6, 2004|title=Fighting Dirty|publisher=American Peace Society|work=World Affairs Journal|last=Totten|first=Michael J.|access-date=October 27, 2015}}</ref> They lived together in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Portland, Oregon until they moved in late 2020 or early 2021.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/against-suburbia|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829204827/http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/against-suburbia|url-status=usurped|archive-date=August 29, 2017|title=Against Suburbia|publisher=World Affairs Journal|last=Totten|first=Michael J.z}}</ref>

==Books== Totten's first book, ''The Road to Fatima Gate: The Beirut Spring, the Rise of Hezbollah, and the Iranian War Against Israel'' (Encounter Books, April 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-59403-521-0}}), reports his experiences in the Middle East, primarily those in Lebanon.

Belmont Estate Books is a label Totten has used to self-publish several additional books: * ''Tower of the Sun: Stories From the Middle East and North Africa'' (Belmont Estate Books, 2014, {{ISBN|9780692297537}}) * ''Where the West Ends'' (Belmont Estate Books, 2012, {{ISBN|9781475183641}}) * ''Resurrection: A Zombie Novel'' (Belmont Estate Books, 2014, {{ISBN|9780615964331}}) * ''Taken – A Novel'' (Belmont Estate Books, 2013, {{ISBN|9780615750965}}) * ''In the Wake of the Surge'' (Belmont Estate Books, 2011, {{ISBN|9780615508405}})

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * [http://city-journal.org/2008/18_2_fallujah.html Hope for Iraq's Meanest City] ''City Journal,'' Spring 2008 * [http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/totten200602160845.asp Interview at National Review Online], February 2006 * [http://www.city-journal.org/2011/bc0506ss.html Review of ''The Road to Fatima Gate''] by Sol Stern, ''City Journal'', Spring 2011 * [http://listenonrepeat.com/watch/?=-p9eQJfBYhY ''Uncommon Knowledge:'' Michael Totten – The Road to Fatima Gate ] Peter Robinson interviews Totten, May 2011 * [http://listenonrepeat.com/watch/?=DrgqvrMdNKM What skews news reportage of Israel & Arab issues?], August 2014

==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030810014618/http://www.michaeltotten.com/ |date=August 10, 2003 |title=Official website }} * {{C-SPAN|30046}} * {{LinkedIn page|in/michaeltotten001}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Totten, Michael James}} Category:1970 births Category:American male journalists Category:American political blogs Category:American reporters and correspondents Category:American former Christians Category:American atheists Category:Journalists from Oregon Category:Living people Category:Oregon Democrats Category:Writers from Portland, Oregon Category:Writers from Salem, Oregon Category:Writers on the Middle East Category:South Salem High School alumni Category:American people of English descent