Book Reviews

Journalism History reviews books related to the broad fields of mass communication history. If you are interested in reviewing or submitting a book, contact book review editor Sonya DiPalma.

2024

2024-4 – Jaffee, Larry. Record Store Day: The Most Improbable Comeback of the 21st Century (Reviewed by Sonya DiPalma)

2024-3 – Finneman, Teri and Pribanic-Smith, Erika. Social Justice, Activism and Diversity in U.S. Media History (reviewed by Pam Parry)

2024-2 – Gower, Karla. Betsy Ann Plank: The Making of a Public Relations Icon (reviewed by Sonya DiPalma)

2024-1 – Fine, Richard. The Price of Truth: The Journalist Who Defied Military Censors to Report the Fall of Nazi Germany (Reviewed by Dale Zacher).

2023

2023-12 – Shepperd, Josh. Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting (Reviewed by Jason Lee Guthrie)

2023-11 – Cox, Jordana. Staged News: The Federal Theatre Projects Living Newspapers in New York (Reviewed by Andy Bechtel)

2023-10 – Voss, Kimberly Wilmot. Vivian Castleberry: Challenging the Traditions of Women’s Roles, Newspaper Content, and Community Politics (Reviewed by Laura Meadows)

2023-09 – Rottenberg, Dan. The Education of a Journalist: My Seventy Years on the Frontiers of Free Speech. Philadelphia: Redmount Press (Reviewed by Myna German)

2023-08 – Tucher, Andie. Not Exactly Lying: Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History (Reviewed by Enrique Núñez-Mussa)

2023-07 – Smith, Emma. Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers (Reviewed by Barbara Ruth Burke)

2023-06 – Volponi, Paul and Shulman, Lenny. Phyllis George: Shattering the Ceiling (Reviewed by Kay Colley)

2023-05 – Olmsted, Kathryn. The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler (Reviewed by Benjamin Goldstein)

2023-04 – Örnebring, Henrick, and Karlsson, Michael. Journalistic Autonomy: The Genealogy of a Concept (Reviewed by John-Erik Koslosky)

2023-03 – Cassidy, James, edited by Michael S. Sweeney, NBC Goes to War: The Diary of Radio Correspondent James Cassidy from London to the Bulge (Reviewed by Mike Conway)

2023-02 – Underwood, Doug. Literary Journalism in British and American Prose: An Historical Overview (Reviewed by Erika J. Pribanic-Smith)

2023-01 – Mari, Will. Newsrooms and the Disruption of the Internet: A Short History of Disruptive Technologies, 1990-2010 (Reviewed by Sara Shaban)

2022

2022-12 – McNeil, Mary Llewellyn. Century’s Witness: The Extraordinary Life of Journalist Wallace Carroll (Reviewed by Kaylene Armstrong)

2022-11 – Prioleau, Betsy. Diamonds and Deadlines: A Tale of Greed, Deceit, and a Female Tycoon in the Gilded Age (Reviewed by Jennifer E. Moore)

2022-10 – Gregorio, Katharine. The Double Life of Katharine Clark: The Untold Story of the Fearless Journalist Who Risked Her Life for Truth and Justice (Reviewed by Ecaterina Stepaniuc)

2022-09 – Stephen, Lynn. Stories That Make History: Mexico through Elena Poniatowska’s Crónicas (reviewed by Litzy Galarza)

2022-08 – Marshall, Jon. Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis (reviewed by Pam Parry)

2022-07 – Levy, Yael. Chick TV: Antiheroines and Time Unbound (reviewed by Stephanie O’Brien)

2022-06 – Gamache, Ray. Gareth Jones: On Assignment in Nazi Germany 1933-34 (reviewed by Timothy Roy Gleason)

2022-05 – Condon, Amy Paige. A Nervous Man Shouldn’t Be Here in the First Place: The Life of Bill Baggs (reviewed by David R. Davies)

2022-04 – Ellingwood, Ken. First to Fall: Elijah Lovejoy and the Fight for a Free Press in the Age of Slavery (reviewed by Thomas Terry)

2022-03 – Aiello, Thomas. The Life & Times of Louis Lomax: The Art of Deliberate Disunity (reviewed by Pete Smith)

2022-02 – Stoner, Andrew. Dear Abby, I’m Gay: Newspaper Advice Columnists and Homosexuality in America (reviewed by Carolina Velloso)

2022-01 – Kirkpatrick, Melanie. Lady Editor: Sarah Josepha Hale and the Making of the Modern American Woman (reviewed by Paula Hunt)

2021

2021-019 – Thompson, Ethan, Jeffrey P. Jones, and Lucas Hatlen, eds. Television History, the Peabody Archive, and Cultural Memory (reviewed by Len O’Kelly)

2021-018 – Mitchell, Elizabeth. Lincoln’s Lie: A True Civil War Caper through Fake News, Wall Street, and the White House (reviewed by Gregory A. Borchard)

2021-017 – Morton, Scott A. The Sirens of Wartime Radio and How the American Print Media Presented Them (reviewed by Elisabeth Fondren)

2021-016 – Myers, Cayce. Public Relations History: Theory, Practice, and Profession (reviewed by Pam Parry)

2021-015 – Orozco, Cynthia E. Agent of Change: Adela Sloss-Vento, Mexican American Civil Rights Activist and Texas Feminist (reviewed by Melita M. Garza)

2021-014 – Cooper, Tom. Doing the Right Thing: Twelve Portraits in Moral Courage (reviewed by Willie R. Tubbs)

2021-013 – Reddin van Tuyll, Debra, Mark O’Brien, and Marcel Broersma, eds. Politics, Culture, and the Irish American Press, 1784-1963 (reviewed by Jon Bekken)

2021-012 – Washburn, Patrick S., and Chris Lamb. Sports Journalism: A History of Fame, Glory, and Technology (reviewed by Daxton “Chip” Stewart)

2021-011 – Bates, Stephen. An Aristocracy of Critics: Luce, Hutchins, and the Committee that Redefined Freedom of the Press (reviewed by Gwyneth Mellinger)

2021-010 – Smith, Benjamin T. The Mexican Press and Civil Society, 1940-1976: Stories from the Newsroom, Stories from the Street (reviewed by Celeste González de Bustamante)

2021-009 – Mangun, Kimberley. Editor Emory O. Jackson, the Birmingham World, and the Fight for Civil Rights in Alabama, 1940-1975 (reviewed by Vanessa Murphree)

2021-008 – Harris, Mazie M. Paper Promises: Early American Photography (reviewed by Jason Lee Guthrie)

2021-007 – Campbell, W. Joseph. Lost in a Gallup: Polling Failure in U.S. Presidential Elections (reviewed by Michael J. Socolow)

2021-006 – Mellinger, Gwyneth and John Ferré (Eds.) Journalism’s Ethical Progression: A Twentieth Century Journey (reviewed by Berrin A. Beasley)

2021-005 – Ness, Richard R. Encyclopedia of Journalists on Film (reviewed by Chad Painter)

2021-004 – Lumsden, Linda J. Social Justice Journalism: A Cultural History of Social Movement Media from Abolition to #Womensmarch (reviewed by Melissa Greene-Blye)

2021-003 – Martin, Christopher R. No Longer Newsworthy: How the Mainstream Media Abandoned the Middle Class (reviewed by Rob Wells)

2021-002 – Wells, Rob. The Enforcers: How Little-Known Trade Reporters Exposed the Keating Five and Advanced Business Journalism (reviewed by Joseph Weber)

2021-001 – Smith, Stephen A., comp., Freedom of Expression: Foundational Documents and Historical Arguments (reviewed by Erika J. Pribanic-Smith)