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Evan Thomas

Evan Welling Thomas III[2][3] (born April 25, 1951) is an American journalist, historian, and author. He is the author of 11 books, including two New York Times bestsellers.

For other uses, see Evan Thomas (disambiguation).

Evan Thomas

Evan Welling Thomas III
(1951-04-25) April 25, 1951
Huntington, New York, U.S.

American

Non-fiction; history

Osceola Freear Thomas[1]

Early life and career[edit]

Thomas was born in Huntington, New York, and raised in nearby Cold Spring Harbor. A graduate of Phillips Academy, Harvard University (B.A.), and the University of Virginia School of Law (J.D.), from 1991 he was a reporter, writer, and editor at Newsweek for 24 years. Prior to that, he was at Time. Thomas began his reporting career at The Bergen Record in northeastern New Jersey.


In 1992, DCI Robert Gates granted Thomas historical access to view classified Central Intelligence Agency files.[4] The fundamental authority for this policy is Executive Order 12356 (April 1982), as implemented in HR 10–24(c)4. Under these provisions, CIA may grant individual researchers and former presidential appointees access to classified files, once the recipient of this access signs a secrecy agreement and agrees to allow the agency to review his manuscript to ensure that it contains no classified information.[4] Former DCI Robert Gates directed that the CIA history staff locate and provide records that would satisfy Thomas's research request.[4] Thomas's manuscript was subsequently reviewed in accordance with his secrecy agreement and approved on March 2, 1995, by the information review officer of the Directorate of Operations, with the concurrence of the Office of General Counsel.[4] In 1996, Thomas penned an article for the Central Intelligence Agency's journal, Studies in Intelligence, describing his experience having been granted the rare privilege of historical access to CIA's classified files.[4]


He was for 20 years, a regular panelist on the weekly public affairs TV show Inside Washington[5] until the show ceased production in December 2013.[6]


He taught writing and journalism at Harvard and Princeton between 2003 and 2014. For seven years, from 2007 to 2014, he was the Ferris Professor of Journalism in residence at Princeton.

Family[edit]

He is the son of Anna Davis (née Robins) and Evan Welling Thomas II, an editor who worked for HarperCollins and W. W. Norton & Company.[2][7] His grandfather, Norman Thomas, was a six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.[8]


He is married, and he and his wife, an attorney, are the parents of two daughters, including writer Louisa Thomas. They live in Washington, D.C.

. Walter Isaacson, Evan Thomas, Simon & Schuster, 1986; Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 978-0-684-83771-0

The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made

The Man to See: The Life of Edward Bennett Williams. Simon & Schuster, 1992.  978-0-671-79211-4

ISBN

The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA. Simon & Schuster, 1996.  978-0-684-82538-0

ISBN

Back from the Dead: How Clinton Survived the Republican Revolution. , 1997. ISBN 978-0-87113-689-3

Atlantic Monthly Press

Robert Kennedy: His Life. Simon & Schuster, 2000.  978-0-684-83480-1

ISBN

John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy. Simon & Schuster, 2004.  978-0-7432-5804-3

ISBN

Sea of Thunder: Four Naval Commanders and the Last Sea War. Simon & Schuster, 2007.  9780743252225

ISBN

A Long Time Coming: The Inspiring, Combative 2008 Campaign and the Historic Election of Barack Obama. , 2009. ISBN 9781586486075

PublicAffairs

, Little, Brown and Company, 2010. ISBN 978-0-316-00409-1

The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898

Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World. . ISBN 978-0316091046

Little, Brown and Company

Being Nixon: A Man Divided. Random House, 2015.  978-0-8129-9536-7

ISBN

First: Sandra Day O'Connor. Random House, 2019.  978-0399589287

ISBN

Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II. Random House, 2023.  978-0399589256

ISBN

Books


Articles

Official website

on C-SPAN

Appearances