Council Literary Series with Evan Thomas
Evan Thomas joins the January Council Literary Series with his new book Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II. Thomas will be in conversation with his editor and wife Oscie Thomas.
A riveting, immersive account of the agonizing decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan—a crucial turning point in World War II and geopolitical history—with you-are-there immediacy by The New York Times bestselling author of Ike’s Bluff and Sea of Thunder.
“As Christopher Nolan’s movie Oppenheimer shows, the shockwaves reverberate still. The veteran biographer Evan Thomas now enters the debate.” The Wall Street Journal
Council Literary Series with Evan Thomas
Thursday, January 11 at 6:00 p.m.
California Club
6:00 PM | Reception
6:30 PM | Author Program
7:30 PM | Dinner and Book Signing
Bringing critical events to vivid life, bestselling author Evan Thomas draws on the diaries of Henry Stimson, the American Secretary of War, who oversaw J. Robert Oppenheimer under the Manhattan Project; Gen. Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in the Pacific, who supervised the planes that dropped the bombs; and Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo, the only one in Emperor Hirohito’s Supreme War Council who believed even before the bombs were dropped that Japan should surrender. This book contemplates the immense weight of their historic decision. In Road to Surrender, an immersive, surprising, moving account, Thomas lays out the behind-the-scenes thoughts, feelings, motivations, and decision-making of three people who changed history.
Our Guest Writer and Interlocutor:
Evan Thomas
Evan Thomas is the author of eleven books: The Wise Men (with Walter Isaacson); The Man to See; The Very Best Men; Robert Kennedy; John Paul Jones; Sea of Thunder; The War Lovers; Ike’s Bluff; Being Nixon; First; and Road to Surrender. John Paul Jones, Sea of Thunder, Being Nixon, and First were on The New York Times bestsellers. Thomas was a writer, correspondent, and editor for 33 years at Time and Newsweek, including 10 years (1986–96) as Washington bureau chief at Newsweek, where, at the time of his retirement in 2010, he was editor at large. He wrote more than 100 cover stories and in 1999 won a National Magazine Award. He wrote Newsweek’s fifty-thousand-word election specials in 1996, 2000, 2004 (winner of a National Magazine Award), and 2008. He has appeared on many TV and radio talk shows, including Meet the Press and The Colbert Report, and has been a guest on PBS’s Charlie Rose more than 40 times. The author of dozens of book reviews for The New York Times and The Washington Post, Thomas has taught writing and journalism at Harvard and Princeton, where, from 2007 to 2014, he was Ferris Professor of Journalism.
Oscie Thomas
Oscie Thomas graduated from Stanford and the University of Virginia law school, where she was classmates with Evan. In 1977, she joined Donovan Leisure, a litigation firm, in New York and Washington DC, before moving to AT&T, retiring as a Federal Government Affairs Vice President in 2000. Since then, she has worked with Evan as an editor and researcher. She was deeply involved in First, a biography of Sandra Day O’Connor.
EVENT FAQ
Complimentary valet parking is provided.
The reception will begin at 6:00 p.m. and the author program will begin promptly at 6:30 p.m.
Yes, copies of Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II will be available for purchase.
Yes, the author will be available to personalize your book.