LSU Manship School Professor John Maxwell Hamilton Wins AEJMC History Division’s 2021 Book Award for ‘Manipulating the Masses’

May 12, 2021

BATON ROUGE—LSU Professor of Journalism John Maxwell Hamilton’s latest book, “Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda,” is the 2021 winner of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication's (AEJMC) History Division’s Book Award.

AEJMC’s History Division presents this award annually to the author of the best journalism and mass communication history book published in the previous year. This honor follows Hamilton’s selection as a 2021 Goldsmith Book Prize winner, presented by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, in the academic category in April.

Published in October 2020 by LSU Press, “Manipulating the Masses” tells the story of the enduring threat to American democracy that arose out of World War I: the establishment of pervasive, systematic propaganda as an instrument of the state. Judges described the book as a “meticulously researched contribution to communication history” and applauded Hamilton for presenting impressive archival research “in an engaging and insightful historical narrative.”

Hamilton is the founding dean of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, D.C. The longtime journalist, author and public servant has had assignments in more than 50 countries and has written extensively on foreign correspondence. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs and The Nation, among other publications.

Hamilton will be recognized at the AEJMC History Division's gala at this year's AEJMC annual conference in August and will be featured in future episodes of the AEJMC History Division’s Journalism History podcast.

This is the second time an LSU Manship School professor has won AEJMC History Division’s Book Award. Public relations professor Jinx Broussard won in 2014 for her book, “African American Foreign Correspondents: A History,” published by LSU Press.

Learn more about John Maxwell Hamilton at https://www.lsu.edu/manship/people/faculty-staff/hamilton.php.

For more information, contact acharbonnet1@lsu.edu.

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LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication ranks among the strongest collegiate communication programs in the country, with its robust emphasis on media and public affairs. It offers undergraduate degrees in public relations, journalism, political communication, digital advertising and pre-law, along with four graduate degree programs: Master of Mass Communication, Ph.D. in Media and Public Affairs, Certificate of Strategic Communication and a dual MMC/Law degree. Its public relations students were recently ranked the #1 team in the nation, and its digital advertising and student media teams frequently earn national recognition.