Jim Frederick

Jim Frederick was a contributing editor at TIME Magazine. He was previously editor of TIME's International editions, Editor of TIME.com as well as an Executive Editor. From 2006 to 2008, he was a Senior Editor in TIME's London office and, before that, TIME's Tokyo Bureau Chief. He is the author of the critically acclaimed “Black Hearts. One Platoon’s Descent into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death” (Crown Publishing, 2010) which the New York Times Book Review called "Riveting... A narrative that combines elements of 'In Cold Blood' and 'Black Hawk Down' with a touch of 'Apocalypse Now' as it builds toward its terrible climax... Frederick's extraordinary book is a testament to a misconceived war, and to the ease with which ordinary men, under certain conditions, can transform into monsters... Extraordinary.” The Guardian called it "the best book by far about the Iraq war – a rare combination of cold truth and warm compassion.” Studied at West Point since publication, the theme of 2017’s two-day Mission Command Conference, an annual event described as a “crash course on leadership for soon-to-be second lieutenants,” was "Black Hearts" which organizers referred to as “a case study focusing on ethics and organizational breakdowns within war-fighting units.” Attendees included not only the graduating class of over 1000 cadets, but operational representatives from the 3rd Cavalry Regiment and the 101st Airborne Division who all took part as distinguished guest speakers, panelists and small-group discussion facilitators. Frederick is co-author, with former US Army Sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins, of "The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea," (University of California Press, 2008) which Commentary magazine called “one of the most important and devastating accounts of life inside a totalitarian society.” He graduated with a BA in English Literature from Columbia University and received an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business. Frederick died suddenly in 2014 shortly after he and his wife moved from New York City to San Francisco to focus on writing books and screenplays.