Thomas Harding (writer)

Lucien Thomas Harding ( * 1968 in London ) is a British journalist and author.

Life

Harding attended the Westminster School in London and studied anthropology and political science at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He started as a journalist for the television work and wrote since then for a number of newspapers, including The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent and the Financial Times.

Harding published in 1998 The Video Activist Handbook and thus coined the term video activism. In 2002 he was co-author of the anthology Video for Change. Harding co-founded the organization Undercurrents and received the 1998 the license for the local television channel Oxford.

Harding and his wife relocated to the U.S., and he co-produced at a TV station in the state of West Virginia, a political magazine. In 2006 he was co-editor of the newspaper The Observer Shepherdstown, Shepherdstown. His journalistic work has been hampered administratively by the Government of the State of West Virginia, and he himself was sued because of his reporting. In 2010, he won a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court of the State, and in 2011 came thanks to his political activity in West Virginia, a law into existence, which strengthened the rights of journalists against state intervention.

Harding is a relative of Hanns Alexander (1917-2006), who had to flee in 1936 as a Jew from Nazi Germany and came as a British officer at the end of the Second World War by Germany. His job was to make leading German Nazis identified. He succeeded in 1946 to track down the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoess, who was hiding under a false name in Schleswig -Holstein on a farm and arrest. Harding has researched the history and in 2013 published as a book. The biography was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards 2013.

With Deborah Harding, he has two children and lives in Hampshire, England.

Writings (selection )

• The video activist handbook. Pluto Press, London 1998
• Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the commandant of Auschwitz. Heinemann, London, 2013