The Goldsmith Book Prize is a literary award for books published in the United States.

Description

The award is meant to recognize works that "[improve] government through an examination of the intersection between press, politics, and public policy." The prize is awarded to the book published in the previous year that best exemplifies the fulfillment of this goal. The first such prize was awarded in 1993. The program was expanded in 2002 to include two separate book prizes, for trade and academic works.

Goldsmith Book Prize

The Goldsmith Awards Program, launched in 1991, is based at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, a part of Harvard University. The center also gives out the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, and the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Goldsmith Book Prize

Book Prize winners

2020

No award given

2019

Academic: Matthew Hindman, The Internet Trap: How the Digital Economy Builds Monopolies and Undermines DemocracyMargaret E. Roberts, Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China’s Great Firewall Trade: Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die

Goldsmith Book Prize

2018

No award given

2017

Academic: James T. Hamilton, Democracy’s Detectives: The Economics of Investigative Journalism Trade: David Greenberg, Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency

2016

Academic: Erik Albæk, Arjen van Dalen, Nael Jebril and Claes H. de Vreese, Political Journalism in Comparative Perspective Trade: Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

2015

Academic: Daniela Stockmann, Media Commercialization and Authoritarian Rule in China Trade: Andrew Pettegree, The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know about Itself

2014

Academic: Kevin Arceneaux and Martin Johnson, Changing Minds or Changing Channels? Partisan News in an Age of Choice Matthew Levendusky, How Partisan Media Polarize America Trade: Jaron Lanier, Who Owns the Future?

2013

Academic: Jonathan M. Ladd, Why Americans Hate the Media and How It Matters

Trade: Rebecca MacKinnon, Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom

2012

Academic: Jeffrey E. Cohen, Going Local: Presidential Leadership in the Post-Broadcast Age Trade: Evgeny Morozov, The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom

2011

Academic: Tim Groeling, When Politicians Attack: Party Cohesion in the Media

Patrick J. Sellers, Cycles of Spin: Strategic Communication in the U.S. Congress

Trade: Jack Fuller, What Is Happening to the News: The Information Explosion and the Crisis in Journalism

2010

Academic: Matthew Hindman, The Myth of Digital Democracy

Trade: John Maxwell Hamilton, Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting

2009

Academic: Markus Prior, Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections. Trade: Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

2008

Academic: John G. Geer, In Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns Trade: Ted Gup, Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life

2007

Academic: Diana C. Mutz, Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory Democracy Trade: Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of a Nation

2006

Academic: James A. Stimson, Tides of Consent: How Public Opinion Shapes American Politics Trade: Geoffrey R. Stone, Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism

2005

Academic: Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini, Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics Trade: Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications

2004

Academic: Scott L. Althaus, Collective Preferences in Democratic Politics: Opinion Surveys and the Will of the People Paul M. Kellstedt, The Mass Media and the Dynamics of American Racial Attitudes Trade: Bill Katovsky and Timothy Carlson, Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq

2003

Academic: Doris Graber, Processing Politics: Learning from Television in the Internet Age Trade: Leonard Downie, Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser, The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril