Joseph Rago '05 was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing on Monday. Rago, who studied American history at the College, received the award for 10 editorial pieces he wrote for the Review & Outlook section of The Wall Street Journal that challenged President Barack Obama's health care reform.
Rago served as the editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review as an undergraduate and currently serves on its advisory board, according to The Review.
Rago's prize, which included $10,000 and was administered by Columbia University, was the first awarded to a Wall Street Journal writer since Rupert Murdoch's purchase of The Journal in 2007, according to The New York Times. Jackson Diehl of The Washington Post and John McCormick of the Chicago Tribune were also nominated as finalists in that category, according to the Pulitzer website.
Rago said in an interview with The Dartmouth that he hopes to spur serious debate over the Democrats' health care policies through his writing. He said he seeks to promote the creation of a "more rational system" in which individuals receive a subsidy to purchase health care from a "menu" of insurance providers.
"The goal of people like me is to try to steer policy in a more market-friendly direction from the path it's on right now," Rago said.
Jere Daniell, history professor emeritus, said Rago has an "awfully great mind" and ability to write with "exceptional skill." In 2002, Daniell nominated Rago's paper on the American Revolution for the Louis Morton Memorial Prize in American History, which is given to the best essay written for a U.S. history course. Daniell said he awarded Rago with an A-plus on the essay and a citation in the course.
"I only give one citation for every 300 students," he said.
Rago reduced his focus on history as he became more involved with The Review, Daniell said.
"In my opinion, he could have done a better job if his whole concentration was taking the subject matter and dealing with it as a historian," Daniell said. "His axis was turned towards political commentary he certainly wasn't going to waste his competence on being a historian of Connecticut."
Rago said his history background prepared him well for the "immersive" nature of writing for The Journal.
"Just knowing something front to back is the sort of skill that you can apply to different fields," Rago said.
Rago was selected to receive the Pulitzer through a two-part process, according to Richard Coe, an editorial writer for The Bulletin in Bend, Ore., and a member of the Pulitzer Prize Editorial Writing Jury. During the first round, the five jury members review all submissions, choosing the three best entries and three alternates. The top six submissions were then passed to the Pulitzer Prize Board for review, Coe said.
Due to a confidentiality agreement, Coe was unable to comment on the specific nature of Rago's submission.
Coe noted, however, that the process of deciding the top three submissions was conducted smoothly and with little debate.
"It was pretty obvious to all of us which the top three were we weren't arm wrestling or throwing things," Coe said. "The top ones we picked, they were powerfully, forcefully written, with strong arguments."
A majority of board members must vote for an entry for it to be selected, Sig Gissler, the board's administrator, said. In the case that none of the six submissions in a given category receives a majority of the board members' votes, no award is given for that category.
Gissler noted that Rago's submissions were "clearly well regarded" by both the Pulitzer Prize Board and the Editorial Writing Jury, and observed that although Rago is not the youngest recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, his age does make his receipt of the award "particularly notable."
The selection of Rago to receive the Pulitzer Prize has been met with some criticism from The Nation, among other liberal blogs.