Robert Strauss

Robert Strauss is an American journalist and author who has written extensively about politics, baseball, and American culture. Based in the Philadelphia area, Strauss has worked as a reporter and contributor to major newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Sports Illustrated. His journalism has focused particularly on New Jersey politics and on the intersection of sports and American life.

His book Daddy’s Little Goalie (2011) is a personal account of raising athletic children and the particular intensity of youth hockey culture in America, written with the self-deprecating humor of a father who is far more emotionally invested than he ever expected to be. The book resonated with readers navigating the demands of youth sports culture and the ways that children’s athletic endeavors become entangled with parental identity.

His biography Worst. President. Ever.: James Buchanan, the POTUS Rating Game, and the Legacy of the Least of the Lesser Presidents (2016) examines the presidency of James Buchanan — consistently ranked last among American presidents — with wit and historical insight, using Buchanan as a lens through which to examine what makes presidential leadership succeed or fail. The book was well received for its accessible blend of serious history and political commentary.

Strauss has also written about New Jersey’s political culture and figures, and he continues to contribute journalism to regional and national outlets. His work represents the best of the generalist American journalist tradition — curious, readable, and willing to find significance in both the monumental and the everyday.