UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Thomas E. Ricks, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The New York Times bestseller, “Fiasco – The American Military Adventure in Iraq,” speaking on Sunday, Feb. 22 at 4 p.m. in UCSB Campbell Hall.

Ricks will discuss his new book, “The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008,” his second news-breaking installment on the Iraq War story.

Tom Ricks has covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post since 2000. Prior to that, he had the same beat at the Wall Street Journal, where he was a reporter for 17 years. Ricks was a member of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams for national reporting in 2000 and 2002. He has reported on U.S. military activities in Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Kuwait, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Ricks’ new book, “The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008,” uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reporting to document the inside story of the Iraq War. The book’s focus centers on the events that took place as the American military was forced to reckon with an expanding insurgency and the resulting “surge” strategy that was launched to counter it – at which point – a very different war began.

Tom Ricks is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. This is a free event. Books by Tom Ricks will be available for purchase and signing at the event. Click here for more information or call UCSB Arts & Lectures at 805.893.3535. or go online at www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu.