Ramo, Joshua Cooper 1968-

PERSONAL:

Born December 14, 1968, in Durham, NC; son of Barry William and Roberta Carol Ramos. Education: University of Chicago, A.B., 1992; New York University, M.A. Hobbies and other interests: Aerobatic flying.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Time, 1271 6th Ave., New York, NY 10020.

CAREER:

Journalist. Newsweek, New York, NY, assistant editor, 1993-95; AthenaNow, New York, NY, chief executive officer and president, 1995; Time, New York, NY, senior editor, 1996-98, world editor, 1998—; editor of Time Digital and supervisor of other electronic publications; Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, professor.

WRITINGS:

No Visible Horizon: Surviving the World's Most Dangerous Sport, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.

China and Globalization: The Washington Consensus, the Beijing Consensus, or What?, Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe (Beijing, China), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Joshua Cooper Ramo became the youngest senior editor to work at Time magazine, filling that post when he was twenty-seven years old. Upon taking over as world editor two years later, he had a sense that there was little interest among the readership in world news. Looking for a way to draw people in, he began a project that allowed them to interact with the stories they read. For example, an issue focusing on the plight of amputees in Sierra Leone was coordinated with a rescue agency so that readers could make donations to help. A feature about orphans of AIDS victims in Zimbabwe included a request for donations to UNICEF, and a story on child mortality in Rwanda included a means to purchase childbirth kits for use in that country.

In his book No Visible Horizon: Surviving the World's Most Dangerous Sport, Ramo discusses the thrill of his hobby: aerobatic aviation, which takes both pilot and airplane to the limits of their endurance. The author estimates that two percent of all those participating in this sport are killed by it, and he speculates on what might compel one to pursue the activity. The book "is a combination of history, meditation, and exaltation of the spirit," observed Edwin B. Burgess in Library Journal. Recommending No Visible Horizon in a Booklist review, David Pitt observed that "with remarkable eloquence," Ramo describes "the strange, poetic bond between a pilot and his aircraft."

Following No Visible Horizon, Ramo published China and Globalization: The Washington Consensus, the Beijing Consensus, or What? in 2005. In it Ramo delineates and analyzes the Chinese government's three central tenets, including progressive innovation and experimentation, an economy that is both sustainable and egalitarian, and self-determination. While some critics disagreed with Ramo's views and interpretations, Andrew Leonard called the book "one of the smarter analyses of China to be written in the last few years," in a Salon.com review.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Air & Space Smithsonian, August, 2003, review of No Visible Horizon: Surviving the World's Most Dangerous Sport, p. 79.

Booklist, March 15, 2003, David Pitt, review of No Visible Horizon, p. 1267.

Economist, June 7, 2003, review of No Visible Horizon, p. 75.

Kirkus Reviews March 1, 2003, review of No Visible Horizon, p. 367.

Library Journal, April 15, 2003, Edwin B. Burgess, review of No Visible Horizon, p. 95.

New York Review of Books, November 6, 2003, Roger Shattuck, review of No Visible Horizon, p. 30.

New York Times Book Review, July 20, 2003, Tom Ferrell, review of No Visible Horizon, p. 12.

Survival, summer, 2006, Kay Moller, review of China and Globalization: The Washington Consensus, the Beijing Consensus, or What?, p. 137.

Time, June 9, 2003, Lev Grossman, review of No Visible Horizon, p. 74.

ONLINE

China Central Television Web site,http://www.cctv.com/ (March 23, 2005), author profile.

Globalization and Autonomy,http://www.globalautonomy.ca/ (January 4, 2007), author profile.

New York Review of Magazines,http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/nyrm/2001/features/ramo.html/ (March 4, 2004), Devyani Onial, interview with Joshua Cooper Ramo.

Salon.com,http://www.salon.com/ (September 15, 2006), Andrew Leonard, review of China and Globalization.