Thomas E. Ricks (journalist)

For the Mormon pioneer, see Thomas E. Ricks (Mormon).

Thomas Edwin Ricks
Ricks in 2007, posing with his book Fiasco
Born	September 25, 1955 (1955-09-25) Beverly, Massachusetts, United States
Nationality	United States
Education	B.A.
Alma mater	Yale University, 1977
Occupation	Writer, journalist, editor, and educator
Employer	Center for a New American Security
Known for	critique of U.S. national security policy, especially Operation Iraqi Freedom
Title	Senior Fellow
Awards	2000 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting (on Wall Street Journal team) for articles on how the U.S. Military might change to meet twenty-first century demands 2002 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting (on Washington Post team) for reporting about the beginnings of the U.S. counteroffensive against terrorism Society of Professional Journalists Award for best feature reporting. 2007 Distinguished alumnus of Scarsdale High School
Notes

Thomas E. Ricks (born September 25, 1955) writes on defense topics. He is a Pulitzer Prize winning former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. He writes a blog at ForeignPolicy.com and is a member of Center for a New American Security, a defense policy think tank.

He lectures widely to the military and is a member of Harvard University's Senior Advisory Council on the Project on U.S. Civil-Military Relations. He has reported on military activities in Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Kuwait, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Ricks is author of the bestselling Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq, its follow-up The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008, Making the Corps, and the novel A Soldier's Duty.

Early life

He grew up in New York and Afghanistan, one of six children of a professor of psychology. He attended the American International School in Kabul (1968–1970), including his freshman year of high school. He graduated from Scarsdale High School (1973).

After earning a degree at Yale (1977), he was an instructor at Lingnan College, Hong Kong (1977–1979), and assistant editor at the Wilson Quarterly (1979–1981). At the Wall Street Journal he was a reporter (1982–1985) and deputy Miami bureau chief (1986). In Washington, D.C., he was a Journal reporter (1987–1989), feature editor (1989–1992), and Pentagon correspondent, (1992–1999). He was a military correspondent at the Washington Post (2000–2008).

Bibliography

Ricks's writings

• The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008. Penguin Press. February 10, 2009. ISBN 1594201978. 
• Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. Penguin. 2006. ISBN 0143038915. 
• A Soldier's Duty: A Novel. Random House. 2001. ISBN 037550544X. 
• Making the Corps. Scribner. 1997. ISBN 0684831090. 
• On American Soil: the Widening Gap between the U.S. Military and U.S. Society. John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Harvard University. 1996. 
• Ricks, Thomas E. (May 1996). "On American Soil: The Widening Gap between the U.S. Military and U.S. Society". Project on U.S. Post Cold-War Civil-Military Relations. Harvard University John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/olin/publications/workingpapers/civil_military/no3.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-01. 
• Contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and other periodicals

Writings about Ricks

• Booklist, October 15, 1997, Gilbert Taylor, review of Making the Corps, p. 368; May 1, 2001, Gilbert Taylor, review of A Soldier's Duty, p. 1668.
• The Economist, August 19, 2006, "A Litany of Abuse: America and Iraq," review of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, p. 71.
• Insight on the News, December 15, 1997, Woody West, review of Making the Corps, p. 36.
• Library Journal, May 1, 2001, Robert Conroy, review of A Soldier's Duty, p. 127.
• Fred Rhodes (November 1, 2006). "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq.(Brief article)(Book review)" (Fee). The Middle East: p. 64. 
• Middle East Policy, winter, 2006, W. Patrick Lang, review of Fiasco, p. 154.
• Military Review, September–October, 2006, Brian C. McNemey, review of Fiasco, p. 115.
• National Review, September 11, 2006, Bing West, "Iraq: Phase One," review of Fiasco, p. 42.
• New York Times, July 25, 2006, Michiko Kakutani, "From Planning to Warfare to Occupation, How Iraq Went Wrong," review of Fiasco, p. E1.
• New York Times Book Review, August 13, 2006, Jacob Heilbrunn, "Eyes Wide Shut," review of Fiasco, p. 1, and Dwight Garner, "TBR: Inside the List," review of Fiasco, p. 1; December 3, 2006, "100 Notable Books of the Year," review of Fiasco, p. 14.
• Cook, Martin L. (Autumn 2001). "review of A Soldier's Duty". Parameters (U.S. Army War College) XXXI (3): 173. http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/01autumn/Aut-rev.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-01. 
• Policy Review, December, 2006, Victor Davis Hanson, "Whose Fiasco?," review of Fiasco, p. 89.
• Publishers Weekly, October 6, 1997, review of Making the Corps, p. 65; April 20, 2001, review of A Soldier's Duty, p. 53.
• TIME, December 25, 2006, Steve Koepp and Mark Thompson, "The Real War," interview with Thomas E. Ricks, p. 158.
• Washington Monthly, October, 2006, Joseph Galloway, review of Fiasco, p. 60; March, 2007, review of Fiasco, p. 66.
• Weekly Standard, August 7, 2006, Max Boot, "Battle for Baghdad: Lessons Learned from the War in Iraq," review of Fiasco.

Interviews

• Frontline Web site, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ (January 28, 2004), interview with Thomas E. Ricks.
• Washington Post Web site, http://projects.washingtonpost.com/ (April 15, 2007), biography of Thomas E. Ricks.
• Ricks, Tom (2009-12-01). C-SPAN Video Player - Thomas Ricks, Center for a New American Security, Senior Fellow (Television production). Washington, D.C.: C-SPAN. http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2009/12/01/HP/A/26644/Thomas+Ricks+Center+for+a+New+American+Security+Senior+Fellow.aspx. Retrieved 2009-12-01. 

External links

• Ricks' current blog at ForeignPolicy.com
• New York Times Book Review of Fiasco
• Harvard Crimson Review of Fiasco
• Interview on Fiasco at the Pritzker Military Library
• Interview on The Gamble
• "Thomas E. Ricks, Penguin Group profile". http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000065743,00.html. Retrieved 2007-02-21. 
• "Thomas E. Ricks". Author Spotlight. Random House. http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=25519&view=fromauthor. Retrieved 2007-02-21. 
• "Thomas E. Ricks". Washington, D.C.: Center for a New American Security. http://www.cnas.org/node/650. Retrieved 2009-12-01.  CNAS biography.
• 1970 photograph of Ricks at American International School, Kabul
• Biography and articles by Tom Ricks at The Washington Post.