Martin Peretz received his BA from Brandeis University and his MA and PhD from Harvard University, where he continued on as a teacher in, and later chairman of, the Social Studies program. In 1974, he bought the New Republic, acting as publisher and editor-in-chief for over thirty-five years.

Under his stewardship, the New Republic won numerous National Magazine Awards. Peretz has received honorary degrees from Bard College, Hebrew College, Hebrew Union College, Coe College, Long Island University, Brandeis, the Chicago Theological Seminary, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the winner of the W. E. B Du Bois Medal, awarded by the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, and the Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize.

After many years in Cambridge and Washington, Peretz now lives in his native New York City. He has two children and five grandchildren.