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John Gerassi

John Gerassi (July 12, 1931 – July 26, 2012), also known as Tito Gerassi or mononymously Tito, was a French-American professor, journalist, author, scholar, political activist, and revolutionary. Initially working as a journalist for Time magazine and later a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, he grew close to Che Guevara and Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution and analyzed the American policy against Latin America in his 1965 book The Great Fear in Latin America. In 1966, Tito would investigate the Boise homosexuality scandal in The Boys of Boise, exposing the persecution of homosexuals in the city that was carried out under the guise of a moral panic. Tito also used his close ties to figures to construct biographies, creating the only authorized biography of Sartre, Hated Conscience of His Century in 1989. Tito also spent his life as an educator, teaching at institutions including San Francisco State University, The University of Paris (XII, Vincennes), the JFK Institute of the Free University of Berlin, UC Irvine, and Bard College. At the time of his death, he was the senior professor of Political Science at Queens College, City University of New York, where he had been teaching since 1978.

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Article summary

John Gerassi (July 12, 1931 – July 26, 2012), also known as Tito Gerassi or mononymously Tito, was a French-American professor, journalist, author, scholar, political activist, and revolutionary. Initially working as a journalist for Time magazine and later a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, he grew close to Che Guevara and Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution and analyzed the American policy against Latin America in his 1965 book The Great Fear in Latin America. In 1966, Tito would investigate the Boise homosexuality scandal in The Boys of Boise, exposing the persecution of homosexuals in the city that was carried out under the guise of a moral panic. Tito also used his close ties to figures to construct biographies, creating the only authorized biography of Sartre, Hated Conscience of His Century in 1989. Tito also spent his life as an educator, teaching at institutions including San Francisco State University, The University of Paris (XII, Vincennes), the JFK Institute of the Free University of Berlin, UC Irvine, and Bard College. At the time of his death, he was the senior professor of Political Science at Queens College, City University of New York, where he had been teaching since 1978.

Key claims

  1. date of birth: 1931-07-12 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
  2. date of death: 2012-07-26 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the date of birth is "1931-07-12". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. The record states that the date of death is "2012-07-26". What evidence would count against this claim?
  4. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  5. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

No sources recorded.

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.