The FINANCIAL — Dr Steven Casey, a senior lecturer in the LSE Department of International History, has received the prestigious 2010 Harry S Truman Book Award for his work Selling the Korean War: Propaganda, Politics, and Public Opinion in the United States, 1950-1953 (Oxford University Press, 2008).
"Selling the Korean War, which previously won the 2009 Neustadt Award in American Politics, was selected from a record field of thirty-three entries to emerge as the winner of the Harry S Truman book award. This award recognises the best book published within a two year period that addresses an aspect of the life of US President Harry S Truman or the history of the United States under his presidency. Dr Casey is the first non-American to win this award, whose previous recipients include Dean Acheson, McGeorge Bundy, Bruce Cumings and John Gaddis," LSE says.
Commenting on the book, Dr. Jeffrey Gall, chair of the Harry S. Truman Book Award subcommittee, said:
"The committee believes that Dr. Casey's work is a unique and important contribution to the historiography of the Korean War. He explores how, at all levels, the Truman administration worked to control and shape the public's understanding of what was occurring on the Korean peninsula and to maintain both popular and Congressional support for a conflict unlike any the nation had ever seen."
"U.S. setbacks in the war clearly helped lead to Truman's plummeting approval ratings as he left office, yet Casey argues the administration succeeded on other levels. Support for the war never totally collapsed as it might have, and the administration helped the public come to better understand the long, perilous, and complex situation faced by the nation in the emerging Cold War."
Selling the Korean War has just been published in paperback.
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