Dieser amerikanische Journalist konzentriert sich auf Verteidigungsthemen und bietet tiefe Einblicke in militärische Angelegenheiten. Seine Arbeit zeichnet sich durch detaillierte Berichterstattung und Analyse von Militäroperationen und Kommandostrukturen aus. Durch seine Schriften erforscht er die Komplexität militärischer Unternehmungen und strategischer Entscheidungsfindung. Seine Prosa wird für ihre fundierte Perspektive geschätzt und trägt zu einem differenzierten Verständnis der militärischen Welt bei.
The definitive military chronicle of the Iraq war--and a searing judgment on the strategic blindness with which America has conducted it--draws on the accounts of senior military officers giving voice to their anger for the first time.
Today, as liberty and truth are increasingly challenged, the figures of Churchill and Orwell loom large. Exemplars of Britishness, they preserved individual freedom and democracy for the world through their far-sighted vision and inspired action, and cast a long shadow across our culture and politics. In Churchill & Orwell, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas E. Ricks masterfully argues that these extraordinary men are as important today as they ever were. Churchill and Orwell stood in political opposition to each other, but were both committed to the preservation of freedom. However, in the late 1930s they occupied a lonely position: democracy was much discredited, and authoritarian rulers, fascist and communist, were everywhere in the ascent. Unlike others, they had the wisdom to see that the most salient issue was human liberty – and that any government that denies its people basic rights is a totalitarian menace to be resisted. Churchill and Orwell proved their age’s necessary men, and this book reveals how they rose from a precarious position to triumph over the enemies of freedom. Churchill may have played the larger role in Hitler’s defeat, but Orwell’s reckoning with the threat of authoritarian rule in 1984 and Animal Farm defined the stakes of the Cold War and continues to inspire to this day. Their lives are an eloquent testament to the power of moral conviction, and to the courage it takes to stay true to it.
Ricks discusses "the founding fathers, examining their educations and, in particular, their devotion to the ancient Greek and Roman classics--and how that influence would shape their ideals and the new American nation ... [His book] follows [the first four U.S. presidents] ... from their youths to their adult lives, as they grappled with questions of independence and forming and keeping a new nation. In doing so, Ricks interprets not only the effect of the ancient world on each man, and how that shaped our constitution and government, but offers ... new insights into these legendary leaders"--Publisher marketing.
General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008
The Gamble tells the gripping story of how, in the Iraq War's darkest hour, an unlikely collection of dissident generals, scholars and foreign experts pulled the country back from the edge of the abyss and saved countless lives. This was 'the surge', and at its helm was General David Petraeus, now acknowledged as one of the greatest military tacticians in US history. Based on unprecedented access to the entire chain of army command - at the top and fighting on the ground - this is the definitive account of one of America's biggest ever military gambles, and what it means for the future of Iraq.