Peter Maass

This article is about the journalist covering mainly international affairs. For the journalist known for his work on organized crime, seePeter Maas.

Peter Maass (born 1960) is anAmerican journalist andauthor.

Peter Maass
Peter Maass at the 2009 Texas Book Festival.

Occupation	Journalist
Awards	Guggenheim Fellowship (2012) Berlin Prize (2009)
Website	http://www.petermaass.com

Life and career

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Maass was born inLos Angeles and graduated from theUniversity of California, Berkeley. He has worked forThe Wall Street Journal,The New York Times,The Washington Post, andThe New York Times Magazine. He has mainly covered international stories and has lived inBelgium,South Korea, andHungary. In 1996 he published his first bookLove Thy Neighbor: A Story of War. It told of his experiences covering the conflict inBosnia.^[1]

In 1996, Maass wrote an article forU.S. News & World Report which advocated liberalizing zoning laws to promote affordable housing for lower-income families. In the article he praisedJack Kemp for proposing this idea which was later rejected by both theGeorge H. W. Bush and theBill Clinton administrations.^[2]

Two years later, Maass reported on theUnification Church forThe New Yorker. He interviewed church members inKorea, theUnited States andSouth America, and was one of the few journalists ever permitted to attend church founderSun Myung Moon's talks to church members.^[3]

In 2003, Maass covered theIraq War and was noted for his relationship with Iraqiblogger Salam Pax.^[4] Later that year, Maass wrote a profile onNorth Korean leaderKim Jung Il forThe New York Times Magazine which was praised for presenting information previously unknown in the English-speaking world.^[5]

In 2005,Forbes magazine called Maass the "Dunce of the Week" for aNew York Times Magazine cover story which predicted higher oil prices due to increased demand and decreased supply.Forbes also suggested that he had aleft-wing political bias in the way he wrote the story.^[6] Maass's story indirectly led to theSimmons–Tierney bet.^[7] However, despite the mockery fromForbes, Maass' prediction seemed to be fairly accurate as crude oil was at $92.37 per barrel in July 2005 when Maass wrote his magazine story, and by June 2008 it reached a peak of $190.68 per barrel.^[8]

On June 13, 2012, Maass received the firstJohn M. Higgins Award for Best In-Depth/Enterprise Reporting.^[9]

Maass resided at theAmerican Academy in Berlin as a fall 2009Berlin Prize Fellow, where he worked on his bookWar of Icons: From Baghdad to Berlin, a Military Writer Looks at How Pictures Frame Wars. His newest book isCrude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil.^[10]