Beinhart has indicated that an early inspiration was the works of
George Bernard Shaw, who besides his writing skills and wit, "created dramas out of ideas". By this dictum, Beinhart seeks to "create situations in which ideas - about God, why we go to war, who gets the money, how politics work, what the media actually does, about science and morality - are challenged by circumstances". Beinhart spent two years at
Wadham College in Oxford, England. He is the recipient of a Raymond Chandler
Fulbright Fellowship in Detective and Crime Fiction Writing. His
No One Rides for Free (1986) received a 1987
Edgar Award. Beinhart has been a columnist for
Al Jazeera since October 2016, at
Alternet 2005–2012, and had a blog at
HuffPost in 2011. His principal concerns are the US economy and politics, taxes, and the rising inequalities moving into the age of Trump. ==Film adaptions==