Jared Taylor (also known as Samuel Jared Taylor) was born in Japan to missionary parents in 1951. He lived there until the age of 16 and attended Japanese public school until he was 12, gaining native fluency in Japanese. He attended Yale, graduating in 1973, and earned a Master’s degree in International Economics at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris in 1978. His online résumé indicates that he has also worked as an international lending officer for Manufacturer’s Hanover Trust, has consulted for American companies seeking to do business in Japan, and was West Coast Editor for PC Magazine from 1983 to 1988. He has also taught Japanese at the Harvard Summer School and worked as a courtroom translator.

In 1983, Taylor drew on his upbringing to write Shadows of the Rising Sun: A Critical View of the Japanese Miracle, a study of Japanese culture published by William Morrow. The book received generally good reviews and presages the themes that Taylor would pursue more extensively with his current organization, the New Century Foundation--in particular the idea that a nation needs a uniform culture and racial heritage to prosper.

Taylor continued to refine his ideas about race and national identity during the next few years, gathering information he believed supported the idea that the United States faced a dangerous period of economic and cultural decline because it had rejected its white Anglo-Saxon heritage in the name of racial and gender equality. He eventually argued that social welfare programs and affirmative action sustained a largely minority underclass that sapped the nation’s will and health. To promote this message, he began publishing the American Renaissance journal in November 1990.

American Renaissance

The stated purpose of the journal, from the outset, was to create “a literate, undeceived journal of race, immigration and the decline of civility.” It held that “for a nation to be a nation - and not just a crowd - it must consist of people that share the same culture, language, history and aspirations.” Under Taylor’s stewardship, American Renaissance has largely avoided the use of crude racial stereotypes. Instead, its authors rely on using pseudoscientific, sociological and philosophical arguments to demonstrate the purported superiority of the white race and the threat nonwhite minorities pose to American society.

The magazine remained largely unknown outside extremist circles until late 1992 when Carroll & Graf, a small mainstream publisher, released Taylor’s book, Paved With Good Intentions: The Failure of Race Relations in Contemporary America. A variety of publications reviewed the book and some mainstream conservatives praised it. The Wall Street Journal called the book “easily the most comprehensive indictment of the race-conscious civil rights policies of the last three decades,” but also criticized Taylor’s dismissal of the impact of racism on the black community, saying that he “does little to improve understanding or breach the [racial] gap.” Peter Brimelow, who has since created the racist Website VDare, was less equivocal in the National Review, declaring the book “the most important to be published on the subject for many years.” Commentary concluded that Paved With Good Intentions “accurately reflects the indignation shared by many who believe that the way America is dealing with its racial difficulties is unfair and self-defeating.”

The relative success of the book helped to raise interest in both American Renaissance and its message, and Taylor did his best to capitalize on his newfound notoriety. He convened the first of what became biennial conferences conducted under the banner of the New Century Foundation (and later, American Renaissance) in May 1994. These gatherings soon became the centerpiece of his efforts, featuring well-known intellectual racists speaking in ostensibly academic seminars, lectures and panel discussions.