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John R. MacArthur (born June 4, 1956, in New York City) is the son of J. Roderick MacArthur and Christiane L’Entendart. He has a sister and a brother.

He was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal (1977), the Washington Star (1978), The Bergen Record (1978–1979), Chicago Sun-Times (1979–1982), and an assistant foreign editor at United Press International (1982).

He is the grandson of billionaire John D. MacArthur, and his father J. Roderick MacArthur was named to the first board of the charitable foundation that was set up to receive his grandfather's fortune: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 1980 at the urging of his son, then 23, J. Roderick MacArthur persuaded the foundation's Board to partner in creating and funding a Harper's Magazine Foundation to acquire and operate the magazine of the same name. This new entity acquired Harper's Magazine (which was then losing nearly $2 million per year and was on the verge of ceasing publication) for $250,000. Eventually John R. MacArthur took over the foundation that owned Harper’s. He became president and publisher of Harper's Magazine in 1983.

In 1993 he received the Mencken Award for best editorial/op-ed column for his New York Times exposé of "Nayirah", the Kuwaiti diplomat's daughter who helped fake the Iraqi baby-incubator atrocity.

His books include Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the 1991 Gulf War (1992) and The Selling of "Free Trade": Nafta, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy (2000).

He grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, and graduated in 1978 from Columbia College with a B.A. in history. He lives with his wife and two daughters in New York City.

He is a board member of his father's foundation the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation, set up with his father's almost entirely self-made fortune. Neither John R. MacArthur nor his father inherited any substantial amount of money from John D. MacArthur.

• Harper's Magazine