John Mueller
 John Mueller is the author of Astaire Dancing: The Musical
Films (Knopf, 1985) as well as a professor of Political Science
at Ohio State University. Before publication, Astaire Dancing
won the de la Torre Bueno prize of Dance Perspectives Foundation as
the “most distinguished manuscript on dance;” since publication, it
has been called “one of the most satisfying, rich and witty film
books ever written” by Kirkus Reviews, and “an extraordinary
study of film art” by the New York Times. Mueller is also the
director of Ohio State’s
Dance Film Archive, a set of DVDs, videotapes, and 16mm films
that are available for purchase and rental.
Also to his credit are scripts for two musicals. One of these,
A Foggy Day, combines a P.G. Wodehouse play with songs by George
and Ira Gershwin and, co-written by
Norm Foster,
was produced for the 1998 and 1999 seasons at the
Shaw Festival,
in Ontario, Canada for over 125 performances (all sold out) each
season. Another,
One For My Baby, derives from a Fred Astaire film called The
Sky’s the Limit and makes use of songs with lyrics by Johnny
Mercer. Mueller also provides the commentary track on the DVD
version of the 1936 Astaire-Rogers film, Swing Time.
In another field, Professor Mueller holds the Woody Hayes Chair
of National Security Studies, Mershon Center, Ohio State University,
where he teaches courses in international relations.
He is currently working on terrorism and particularly on the
reactions (or over-reactions) it often inspires. His book on the
subject, Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry
Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them, was
published in November 2006 by Free Press.
Mueller is the author of a prize-winning book analyzing public
opinion during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, War, Presidents and
Public Opinion (Wiley, 1973) and of Retreat from Doomsday:
The Obsolescence of Major War (Basic Books, 1989) which deals
with changing attitudes toward war. He also has published Policy
and Opinion in the Gulf War (University of Chicago Press, 1994)
and Quiet Cataclysm: Reflections on the Recent Transformation of
World Politics (HarperCollins, 1995). His Capitalism,
Democracy, and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery was published in 1999
by Princeton University Press.
His book about international and civil wars, The Remnants of
War, was published by Cornell University Press in 2004, and was
awarded the Lepgold Prize that year for the best book on
international relations.
In addition Mueller has published scores of articles in highly
respected political science journals and has written many editorial
page columns and articles in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles
Times, and several other major newspapers. He has been a
visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Cato Institute
in Washington, DC, and has appeared as a commentator on numerous
television news and political talk programs.
Mueller is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
has been a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, and has received grants
from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for
the Humanities. He has also received several teaching prizes.
http://polisci.osu.edu/faculty/jmueller
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