Michael Hastings Popular Books

Michael Hastings Biography & Facts

Michael Mahon Hastings (January 28, 1980 – June 18, 2013) was an American journalist, author, contributing editor to Rolling Stone, and reporter for BuzzFeed. He was raised in New York, Canada, and Vermont, and he attended New York University. Hastings rose to prominence with his coverage of the Iraq War for Newsweek in the 2000s. After his fiancée Andrea Parhamovich was killed in an ambush, Hastings wrote his first book, I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story (2008), a memoir about his relationship with Parhamovich and the insurgency that took her life. He received the George Polk Award for "The Runaway General" (2010), a Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war. The article documented the widespread contempt for civilian government officials exhibited by the general and his staff and ultimately resulted in McChrystal's resignation. Hastings followed up with The Operators (2012), a detailed account of his monthlong stay with McChrystal in Europe and Afghanistan.Hastings became a vocal critic of the Obama administration, Democratic Party, and surveillance state during the 2013 Department of Justice investigations of reporters, referring to restrictions of freedom of the press as a "war" on journalism. His last story, "Why Democrats Love to Spy On Americans", was published by BuzzFeed on June 7, 2013.Hastings died in an automobile crash on June 18, 2013, in Los Angeles, California. The toxicology report showed evidence of THC (level 12 ng/ml) and methamphetamine positivity (reference LA coroner toxicology report # 2013-04353). Blue Rider Press published his only novel, The Last Magazine (2014), a year after his death. Early life and family Born in Malone, New York, Michael was the son of Molly (née Mahon) and Brent Hastings. Hastings had two brothers, Jon and Jeff. Hastings lived in Malone until he was 11 years old. His family then moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where his mother was trained in the field of pediatric ophthalmology at McGill University. He attended Lower Canada College, a private preparatory high school in Montreal, where he wrote a column for the school's paper.When he was 16, his family relocated to Vermont. He attended Rice Memorial High School, a Roman Catholic secondary school in South Burlington, Vermont. In high school Hastings was elected as class president, where he ran on an "anti-administration platform". He played lacrosse and soccer, and performed in the school's plays before graduating in 1998. After graduating, Hastings wrote for Scholastic, an educational magazine for young adults. He attended Connecticut College before earning his Bachelor of Arts in journalism from New York University in 2002.Hastings married journalist Elise Jordan in May 2011 in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Jordan was a speechwriter for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from 2008 to 2009. Career Hastings began his journalism career as an unpaid intern for Newsweek magazine in 2002, and he was also a regular contributor to Gentlemen's Quarterly and a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine. I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story (2008) In 2005, Hastings began covering the Iraq War while living in NATO-occupied Green Zones in Baghdad. Hastings suffered the loss of his fiancée Andrea Parhamovich in 2007. A former spokeswoman for Air America, Parhamovich moved to Baghdad and began working for the National Democratic Institute. She died after her convoy was ambushed by gunmen, killing Parhamovich and her three security guards. Hastings wrote a book on the incident, titled I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story. Shortly before its publication, Newsweek published an excerpt of the book, in which Hastings recounts the day Parhamovich died. The New York Times gave the book a mixed review. Stanley McChrystal interview In June 2010, Rolling Stone published "The Runaway General", Hastings's profile of U.S. Army general Stanley McChrystal, then commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war. The article reported remarks by McChrystal's staff that were overtly critical and contemptuous of White House staff and other civilian officials. On June 22, news of the forthcoming article reached the attention of the American print media and the White House. McChrystal immediately issued an extensive apology, and Duncan Boothby, the civilian contractor responsible for coordinating the article with Hastings, resigned. U.S. President Barack Obama summoned McChrystal to the White House on June 23, and relieved him of command. Hastings offered his views on relations between McChrystal and the Obama administration.Hastings was originally meant to have controlled contact, which expanded when he had to catch a bus to Berlin with the general and his entourage after international flights were grounded, because of the air travel disruptions caused by the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, which gave him sufficient time to pick up less discreet remarks. How Hastings got access to McChrystal's inner circles is detailed in a Newsweek article. The Huffington Post named Hastings a 2010 Game Changer for his reporting, along with Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone. Hastings was awarded a Polk Award for his reporting.Hastings and Eric Bates, executive editor of Rolling Stone, repeatedly defended the accuracy of Hastings's article about McChrystal. In July 2010, the U.S. Army launched its own investigation into whether McChrystal and his team were insubordinate, and concluded that the most inflammatory comments were made by an officer in the Navy Special Warfare Group, according to The New York Times. This was later confirmed in Hastings's book about the war in Afghanistan that was published in January 2012, The Operators, which attributed a number of damning quotes to Lt. Commander Dave Silverman, now CEO of the McChrystal Group. A subsequent Pentagon investigation challenged the accuracy of Hastings's article "The Runaway General" which anonymously quoted people around McChrystal making disparaging remarks about members of President Obama's national security team, including Vice President Joe Biden. The report from the inquiry states "In some instances, we found no witness who acknowledged making or hearing the comments as reported. In other instances, we confirmed that the general substance of an incident at issue occurred, but not in the exact context described in the article." In response, Rolling Stone stated, "The report by the Pentagon's inspector general offers no credible source – or indeed, any named source – contradicting the facts as reported in our story, 'The Runaway General.'"In an interview with Matt Lauer of NBC's Today show on June 23, 2011, Hastings said "I did not think Gen. McChrystal would be fired. In fact, I thought his position was basically untouchable, I thought it would give them a headache for maybe 72 hours".In February .... Discover the Michael Hastings popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Michael Hastings books.

Best Seller Michael Hastings Books of 2024

  • Making History synopsis, comments

    Making History

    Richard Cohen

    A “supremely entertaining” (The New Yorker) exploration of who gets to record the world’s historyfrom Julius Caesar to William Shakespeare to Ken Burnsand how their biases influenc...

  • London synopsis, comments

    London

    Iain Sinclair

    ‘A book full of richness, unexpected enticements, short sharp shocks and breathtaking writing’ Guardian Welcome to the real, unauthorised London: the disappeared, the unapproved, ...

  • Flinders synopsis, comments

    Flinders

    Grantlee Kieza

    The extraordinary life, loves and voyages of the man who put Australia on the mapIn 1810, Matthew Flinders made his final voyage home to his beloved wife, Ann, his body ravaged by ...

  • The Operators synopsis, comments

    The Operators

    Michael Hastings

    The inspiration for the Netflix original movie War Machine, starring Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, and Ben KingsleyFrom the author of The Last Magazine, a shocking behin...

  • An Englishman Aboard synopsis, comments

    An Englishman Aboard

    Charles Timoney

    From the author of Pardon My French and A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi, this is the charming and hilariously funny story of one man's attempt to travel the entire length of the Seine by...

  • Hudson Fysh synopsis, comments

    Hudson Fysh

    Grantlee Kieza

    The extraordinary life of the Gallipoli veteran and WWI Flying Corp gunner who founded Qantas and gave Australia its wingsBy the critically acclaimed author of bestselling biograph...

  • The Story synopsis, comments

    The Story

    Judith Miller

    Judith Millerstar reporter for The New York Times, foreign correspondent in some of the most dangerous locations, Pulitzer Prize winner, and longest jailed correspondent for protec...

  • Winkle synopsis, comments

    Winkle

    Paul Beaver

    Discover the daring life story and astonishing adventures of Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown Britain's greatestever pilotSmall in stature but immense in reputation and talent, there w...

  • The Shell Country Alphabet synopsis, comments

    The Shell Country Alphabet

    Geoffrey Grigson

    In the 1960s Geoffrey Grigson travelled around England writing the story of the secret landscape that is all around us, if only we take the time to look and see. The result is a bo...

  • Knockout synopsis, comments

    Knockout

    Grantlee Kieza

    A noholdsbarred collection of Australian boxing yarns by one of Australia's bestselling storytellers and boxing aficionado, Grantlee KiezaBoxing has given Australian sport some of ...

  • Arnhem synopsis, comments

    Arnhem

    Christopher Hibbert

    The vivid account of how a brilliant plan turned into an epic tragedy made into the BAFTA awardwinning film A BRIDGE TOO FAR'Alive with the detail that evokes the smoking backgrou...

  • Monash synopsis, comments

    Monash

    Grantlee Kieza

    Stunning trade paperback edition of Grantlee Kieza's bestselling biography of Australia's greatest generalIt's December 1918 and the world war is over. General Sir John Monash atte...

  • The Makers of Rome synopsis, comments

    The Makers of Rome

    Plutarch & Ian Scott-Kilvert

    These nine biographies illuminate the careers, personalities and military campaigns of some of Rome's greatest statesmen, whose lives span the earliest days of the Republic to the ...

  • The Age of Alexander synopsis, comments

    The Age of Alexander

    Plutarch

    Plutarch's parallel biographies of the great men in Greek and Roman history are cornerstones of European literature, drawn on by writers and statesmen since the Renaissance, most n...