Thomas Alden Bass (born March 9, 1951) is an American writer and professor of literature, journalism, and history.

Biography

Bass graduated with an honors A.B. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1973 and earned his Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness from the

University of California Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...

in 1980. He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Blue Mountain Center, the Regents of the University of California, and the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

. He has taught literature and history at

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, Clinton, New York. It was established as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and received its c ...

and the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

and is former director of the Hamilton in New York City Program on "Media in the Digital Age." In 2011 he taught a lecture class at Sciences Po Paris on "The Political Economy of the Media". Currently Bass is a Professor of English and Journalism at University at Albany, State University of New York. Bass has appeared on ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'',

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, and other venues to promote his books. He is the author of numerous articles for ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'', The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Smithsonian'', ''Discover'', and other magazines. Bass currently lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

with his wife and three children.

Publications

The 1985 publication of his book ''

The Eudaemonic Pie ''The Eudaemonic Pie'' is a non-fiction book about gambling by American author Thomas A. Bass. The book was initially published in April 1985 by Houghton Mifflin. Overview The book focuses on a group of University of California, Santa Cruz, p ...

'' is believed to have motivated the passage of a Nevada law banning the use of devices to gain an advantage at casino games.Anderson, Ian: "Burning the Tables in Las Vegas", page 145. Huntington Press, 2003. In his preface to ''Camping with the Prince'', Bass states that he accompanied seven scientific expeditions into Africa from 1985 to 1987. This book focuses on African viewpoints to the African situation. It underlines the intricacy of Africa, more complex and more resilient than generally assumed by those looking at the continent from the outside. Among the African scientists presented to readers of this book are Oyewale Tomori and Thomas Odhiambo. Bass also mentions in that preface that when he was a teenager he traveled along Africa's east coast, down the Congo and up West Africa.

Bibliography

* ''

'' (Houghton Mifflin, 1985; Vintage, 1986; Penguin 1991). * ''Camping with the Prince and Other Tales of Science in Africa'' (Houghton Mifflin, 1990; Penguin 1991; Moyer Bell, 1997) * ''Reinventing the Future'' (Addison-Wesley, 1994, 1995) * ''Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home'' (Soho, 1996, 1997) * ''The Predictors'' (Holt / Viking-Penguin, 1999) * ''The Spy Who Loved Us'' (Public Affairs, 2009)

Notes

External links

Official homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bass, Thomas 1951 births Living people University at Albany, SUNY faculty American travel writers University of Chicago alumni University of California, Santa Cruz alumni American essayists American male essayists