Mason, John Neilson, 1946-

John Mason was born in New York City in 1946 and raised in Boston and Washington, D.C. Strongly influenced by early experience in racially integrated private schools and the civil rights movement of the 1960's, Mason attended New York University as an undergraduate in the interdepartmental Albert Schweitzer program, ultimately receiving a BA in History in 1972 and an MA in Political Science in 1977. In his undergraduate years, he was involved with Students for a Democratic Society, and other student organizations both sponsored by NYU and independent of the University.

Mason attributes the development of his political orientation in part to Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien, the Left Opposition politician from the Republic of Ireland and long-time contributing editor of the Atlantic Monthly who headed the Schweitzer program from 1965 to 1969. Mason's views were also influenced by a visit to France in the aftermath of the 1968 "Paris Commune" and the national students' strike. He is currently a political science educator at Queens College, part of the City University of New York.