The Media Offensive is a major work of scholarship throwing important light on the public politics of US strategy and operational dynamics as well as offering a significant perspective on the more general question of wartime public morale. A welcome advance in our understanding of all these subjects.”—Jeremy Black, author of Strategy and the Second World War: How the War Was Won, and Lost
“A brilliant and engaging book, The Media Offensive should be on the bookshelf of anyone who seeks to understand the relationship between the military and the fourth estate. Judicious and well-researched, Alexander Lovelace challenges narratives that claim censorship kept the American press on a short leash in World War II or that that journalists were ciphers who uncritically supported the ‘good war.’ Quite the contrary, censorship was only the beginning of the story of how generals, most notably Douglas MacArthur, adeptly sought to influence the media to gain support in DC and among the broader public for resources. News reporting mattered, and the press played an important role in stoking Anglo-American discord, especially during the Battle of the Bulge.”—G. Kurt Piehler, author of A Religious History of the American GI in World War II
“Alex Lovelace has written an excellent book. Exhaustively researched and cogently written, his most important and novel contribution is to examine how news reporting affected decision-making, both in DC and in and around the battlefield, during the tumultuous years of World War II.”—Steve Casey, author of The War Beat, Pacific: The American Media at War against Japan
