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.
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.
Book Prize winners 2025 Academic: Adam Berinsky, Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight It Trade: Laura Beers, Orwell’s Ghosts: Wisdom and Warnings for the Twenty-First Century
2024 Academic: Anita Gohdes, Repression in the Digital Age: Surveillance, Censorship, and the Dynamics of State Violence Trade: Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity
2023 Academic: Danny Hayes and Jennifer L. Lawless, News Hole: The Demise of Local Journalism and Political Engagement Trade: Deborah Cohen, Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World At War
2022 Academic: Karen Mossberger, Caroline Tolbert, and Scott J. LaCombe, Choosing the Future: Technology and Opportunity in Communities Trade: Elizabeth Becker, You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War
2021 Academic: John Maxwell Hamilton, Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda Trade: Stephen Bates, An Aristocracy of Critics: Luce, Hutchins, Niebuhr, and the Committee That Redefined Freedom of the Press
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
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
2002 Academic: Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki, The Black Image in the White Mind Trade: Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism
2001 Lawrence R. Jacobs & Robert Y. Shapiro, Politicians Don't Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness
2000 Robert McChesney, Rich Media, Poor Democracy
1999 James Hamilton, Channeling Violence: The Economic Market for Violent Television Programming
1998 Richard Norton Smith, The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880-1955
1997 No award given
1996 Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar, Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate
1995 William Hoynes, Public Television for Sale: Media, the Market and the Public Sphere
1994 Cass R. Sunstein, Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech
1993 Greg Mitchell, Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics
See also List of American literary awards List of literary awards
References
External links Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy's official Web site