Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) in Modern History
June 1995
University of Oxford, St. Antony’s College – Oxford, United Kingdom
Faculty of Modern History
Dissertation: “Sympathy or Strategy: President Harry S. Truman’s Decision to Recognize the State of Israel, May 1948”
Dissertation committee: John Lewis Gaddis, Chair; Robert Dallek; Daniel Walker Howe
Master of Liberal Arts (M.L.A.)
August 2021
The Johns Hopkins University – Baltimore, Maryland
Master of Non-Profit Administration (M.N.A.) cum laude
January 2011
University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business – Notre Dame, Indiana
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political Science cum laude
April 1990
Brigham Young University – Provo, Utah
Minors: English and History
President
July 2025 to present
West Virginia University – Morgantown, West Virginia
Academic appointment: Professor of History with Tenure
President
January 2021 to July 2025
Coastal Carolina University – Conway, South Carolina
Academic appointment: Professor of History with Tenure
President
August 2013 – January 2020
Eastern Kentucky University – Richmond, Kentucky
Academic appointment: Professor of Government with Tenure
President
December 2006 – July 2013
Southern Utah University – Cedar City, Utah
Academic appointment: Professor of Political Science with Tenure
President
December 2001 – December 2006
Snow College – Ephraim, Utah
Academic appointment: Professor of History with Tenure
Visiting Professor
January 2020 to January 2021
The Johns Hopkins University – Baltimore, Maryland
Department of History of Science and Technology
Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
- Researched, wrote, and lectured on Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University
Professor of Non-Profit Administration (adjunct)
November 2011 – November 2016
University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business – Notre Dame, Indiana
- Taught course on public policy within the Master of Non-profit Administration (M.N.A.) program
Secretary to the University
February 2000 – November 2001
Special Assistant to the President
June 1999 – January 2000
Associate Director of Major Gifts
December 1998 – May 1999
Major Gifts Officer
December 1995 – November 1998
University of Utah – Salt Lake City, Utah
Academic appointment: Associate Professor of Political Science (adjunct)
Consulting Historian
August 1997 – December 1998
Harry S. Truman Library – Independence, Missouri
Academic Advisor and Essayist
July 1997 – May 1998
Skirball Cultural Center – Los Angeles, California
Research Assistant
May 1990 – May 1991
United States Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources – Washington, D.C.
Chair, Board of Directors
April 2024 – present
National Leadership Honor Society of Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK)
Member, Advisory Council for Education
November 2023 – present
Global Tech Security Commission (GTSC)
Member, Council of Presidents
July 2023 – present
Association of Governing Boards (AGB)
Independent Peer Reviewer
July 2023 – present
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Mentor, NCAA Pathway Program
March 2023 – present
Member, Committee on International Education
October 2022 – present
American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU)
Independent Peer Reviewer
September 2022 – present
University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
Member, Board of Directors
May 2021 – present
National Leadership Honor Society of Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK)
Independent Peer Reviewer
September 2020 – present
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland
Member, Board of Directors
January 2025 – June 2025
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC), South Carolina Delegation
Treasurer, Executive Committee
June 2024 – June 2025
Sun Belt Conference
Presidential Representative, Candidacy Committee
September 2024
On-site Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) candidacy visit
Rabdan Academy – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Member, NCAA Committee to Promote Cultural Diversity & Equity
October 2021 – August 2024
FBS presidential representative on 13-person association-wide committee
Chair, Reaffirmation Committee
March 2023
On-site Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) reaffirmation committee
University of North Carolina, Asheville – Asheville, North Carolina
Member, Sun Belt Conference Membership Committee
September 2023
Sun Belt Conference added four institutions in Fall 2021: Southern Miss, Old Dominion, Marshall, and James Madison
Chair, Substantive Change Committee
March 2021
On-site Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) substantive change committee
Midwestern State University – Wichita Falls, Texas
Chair, Substantive Change Committee
February 2020
On-site Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) substantive change committee
Appalachian State University – Boone, North Carolina
Member, NCAA Division I Presidential Forum
July 2019 – January 2020
Chair, Advisory Conference of Presidents
June 2017 – January 2020
Kentucky Public Universities & Colleges
Member, Task Force on University Partnerships
April 2017 – January 2020
American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU)
Member, The Presidents’ Trust
November 2012 – January 2020
Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U)
Chair, Substantive Change Committee
September 2019
On-site Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) substantive change committee
Miami International University of Art and Design – Miami, Florida
Chair, Substantive Change Committee
February 2019
On-site Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) substantive change committee
Texas A & M University – Corpus Christi, Texas
Chair, Substantive Change Committee
September 2018
On-site Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) substantive change committee
Georgia Southern University – Statesboro, Georgia
Co-Chair, Bluegrass Higher Education Consortium
July 2014 – August 2018
Chair, NCAA Honors Committee
January 2016 – January 2018
Member, NCAA Honors Committee
November 2014 – January 2018
Presidential Representative
September 2017
On-site Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) substantive change committee
Middle Tennessee State University – Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Presidential Representative
March 2017
On-site Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) reaffirmation committee
College of Charleston – Charleston, South Carolina
Presidential Representative
November 2015
Off-site Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) reaffirmation committee, Atlanta, Georgia
Member, American Red Cross Regional Executive Council
September 2023 – June 2025
Member, Conway Advisory Board, Coastal Carolina National Bank
January 2023 – June 2025
Vice Chair, Partnership Grand Strand Foundation Board
July 2022 – June 2025
Member, Board of Directors, Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce
March 2022 – June 2025
Co-Chair, Partnership Grand Strand, Myrtle Beach Chamber
December 2021 – June 2025
Member, Board of Directors, Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation
January 2021 – June 2025
Member, Advocacy Council, Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce
January 2021 – June 2025
Member, Executive Committee, North Eastern Strategic Alliance
January 2021 – June 2025
Member, Bluegrass Tomorrow Board of Directors
January 2016 – December 2020
Member, Kentucky Rising Steering Committee
January 2015 – January 2020
Member, Richmond Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors
January 2014 – January 2020
Member, Kentucky Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation Board of Directors
September 2013 – January 2020
Member, Leadership Kentucky Class of 2015
June 2015 – December 2015
Distinguished Citizen Honoree, Boy Scouts of America, Indian Rivers Council
February 2024
One of the Grand Strand’s 50 Most Influential People
December 2023 and December 2024
B2B: The Grand Strand Magazine
Honorary Member, EKU Society of Foundation Professors
May 2023
Horne School of Music Hall of Fame, Snow College
November 2022
Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs National Honor Society
April 2022
Master of Liberal Arts Fellowship
Summer 2021
Johns Hopkins University
Master of Liberal Arts Marshall K. Wiley Fellowship
Spring 2021
Johns Hopkins University
Master of Liberal Arts Fellowship
Summer 2020
Johns Hopkins University
Vision Award for Excellence in Education, Bluegrass Tomorrow
February 2020
Prepared for Life Leadership Award, Boy Scouts of America, Palisades District
May 2018
Honorary Member, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity
February 2017
Recent Alumni Service Award
September 2013
Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame
Father Theodore Hesburgh Founder’s Award
May 2011
Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame
Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society
April 2009
Utah Music Educators Association Administrator of the Year
May 2005
The Pew Charitable Trusts ($3.5 million grant; co-principal investigator)
November 2001
Awarded to the University of Utah to establish the Intermountain Center for Campaign and Media Legal Reforms in conjunction with the Hinckley Institute of Politics
Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship
1993 – 1994
University of Oxford and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
University of Oxford Graduate Studies Research Grant
1992 – 1994
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library Institute Research Grant
1993
Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society
1990
Books
Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022. Johns Hopkins University Press website
College for the Commonwealth: A Case for Higher Education in American Democracy (co-authored with Hal R. Boyd). Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2018. University Press of Kentucky website
Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997. Praeger website
Book Chapter
“Recognizing Israel: A Little Touch of Harry in the Night,” in Israel and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman, Michael J. Devine, Robert P. Watson, Robert J. Wolz, editors, Volume 3. Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State University Press, 2008
Monographs (selected list)
“Kentucky’s Higher Education Tradition and the Role of the University,” Kentucky Humanities Magazine, Fall 2019.
“Michael Bloomberg is Channeling his Inner Johns Hopkins,” Inside Higher Ed, January 17, 2019.
“We Can Do Hard Things,” Trusteeship, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, Volume 26, Number 1, January/February 2018.
“Big Dreams,” Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, Volume 16, Fall/Winter 2015.
“The Public University: Recalling Higher Education’s Democratic Purposes,” with Hal R. Boyd, Thought and Action: NEA Journal on Higher Education, Volume 31, Summer 2015.
“The Puzzle of Palestine: Harry S. Truman and the American Recognition of Israel,” Harry S. Truman and the Recognition of Israel, Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO, 1998.
“Harry S. Truman and the Modern State of Israel,” Amit Magazine, Summer 1998.
“The Modern-day Cyrus: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel, May 1948,” On Moral Grounds: President Harry S. Truman and the Birth of the State of Israel, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA, April 1998.
“Harry S. Truman as a Modern-day Cyrus,” Brigham Young University Studies 34 (Fall 1994).
Selected list; 2014 – present
“Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University,” Grand Rounds Lecture, Medical College of Georgia, Savannah, Georgia, April 28, 2025.
“Shaping the Future of Higher Education: What Makes the American model of higher education distinctive?” American University of Bahrain, Riffa, Bahrain, September 30, 2024.
“The Birth of the American Research University,” Louisville Free Public Library, Presented by the Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky, August 27, 2024.
“Daniel Coit Gilman and Johns Hopkins University: Beyond Reconstruction and the Birth of the Modern Research University,” University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, February 1, 2024.
“Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University,” University of Notre Dame Graduate School, South Bend, Indiana, May 1, 2023.
“Johns Hopkins University Press Meet and Greet – Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University: Michael T. Benson in Conversation with President Ronald Daniels,” Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, April 14, 2023.
“What’s the Big Deal with Daniel Coit Gilman,” Coastal Carolina University Inaugural Faculty Scholar Lecture Series, Conway, South Carolina, March 28, 2023.
“Book Session: Michael Benson’s Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University,” respondent, History of Education Society Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, November 5, 2022.
“We have come up hither to the house of our expectations”: Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the Modern American Research University, keynote speaker, Johns Hopkins University Master of Liberal Arts Annual Symposium, May 24, 2021.
“Every Epoch Requires a Fresh Start: Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the Modern American Research University,” presenter, Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs, Washington, D.C., October 11, 2019.
“Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants,” discussion moderator with author H.W. Brands, Kentucky Book Fair, Lexington, Kentucky, November 17, 2018.
“Building a Truly Diverse Governing Board,” panel discussant, Council of Presidents Annual Meeting, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), Washington, D.C., October 22, 2018.
“Higher Education Trends in 2018: A View from the Experts,” panel discussant, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), 2018 National Conference on Trusteeship, San Francisco, California, April 24, 2018.
“Current Issues Facing Higher Education,” keynote speaker, Bluegrass Higher Education Consortium Academic Leadership Academy, Lexington, Kentucky, May 15, 2015.
“Student Success Strategies at Eastern Kentucky University,” keynote speaker, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education Student Success Summit, Louisville, Kentucky, March 31, 2015.
“Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel,” keynote speaker, Eliezer Society of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, November 14, 2014.
“The Role of the Morrill Land Grant Act and G.I. Bill in Shaping American Higher Education,” featured speaker, Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut, November 14, 2014.
Graduate Seminar on the History of World War One
Coastal Carolina University
History of the American University
Coastal Carolina University
“Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War” A Century of Living with World War One and its Consequences
Eastern Kentucky University
Checks and Balances: The U.S. Congress and the Evolution of the U.S. Presidency
Eastern Kentucky University
Public Policy in the Non-profit Sector
University of Notre Dame
Mendoza College of Business
The President, Congress, the Constitution, and Foreign Policy
Southern Utah University
Capstone Course in Public Administration
Southern Utah University
International Conflict: The Middle East
Southern Utah University
International Relations
Southern Utah University
American National Government
Snow College
Introduction to International Relations
Snow College
Campaigns and the American Presidency
University of Utah
Introduction to International Politics
University of Utah
The U.S. Presidency
University of Utah
Theories of International Relations
Brigham Young University
Introduction to American History
Utah Valley State College
Athletic Accomplishments
Head Coach and Full Blue, University of Oxford Basketball Team
1993 – 1994
Member, University of Oxford Basketball Team
1992 – 1993
Member, Brigham Young University Basketball Team (JV)
1987 – 1988
Competitive distance runner
- Deseret News Marathon (2:57; fourth in age division)
- St. George Marathon (2:41; first in age division)
- Boston Marathon (2:52; one of 19 teenagers from around the world to compete and finished in top 30% of all runners)
Religious Service
Voluntary Representative: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
May 1984 – May 1986 in Rome, Italy
Languages
Fluent in spoken and written Italian
Family and Personal Interests
- Enjoy golf (11 handicap), travel, skiing, and music; trained as a classical pianist
- Eagle Scout and Order of the Arrow, Boy Scouts of America
- Married to Debi Woods Benson; five children: Emma, Samuel, Truman, Tatum, and Talmage
Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022.
Jonathan R. Cole, John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University, Provost and Dean of Faculties, Columbia University (1989-2003):
“With the opening of Johns Hopkins University in 1876, a century after Independence, the American research university was born. The force behind the great transformation was Hopkins’ founding President, Daniel Coit Gilman. Until now too little has been written about Gilman. Now, finally, Michael T. Benson has written the definitive biography of the man who changed our educational paradigm almost single-handedly. Gilman started the revolution.
With grace, insight, and rich description, Benson takes us along on the travels of Gilman. This book will allow you to rethink the history of the culture, values, and individual creativity that allowed our research universities to produce scholars and scientists of the first rank. Many of these people made pathbreaking, innovative, and useful discoveries produced at our universities from the last quarter of the 19th century until today. This book should be read by anyone interested in the history of education and the evolution of American society. You’ll find it a treat to read.”
Mary Sue Coleman, President Emerita, University of Michigan (2002-14, 2022) and Association of American Universities (2016-2020):
“Michael T. Benson has brought to life Daniel Coit Gilman and his extraordinary impact on American higher education. As the founding president of Johns Hopkins University, Gilman set into motion features that are integral to today’s research university: graduate fellowships, an academic press, academic journals and learned societies, and the training of exceptional scholars. Benson shows how, more so than any other university, the early graduates of JHU shaped the academy as it entered the 20th century. Benson’s impressive biography is a welcome addition to our understanding of a most unique institution: the American research university.”
E. Gordon Gee, President, West Virginia University, author of What’s Public about Public Higher Ed? Halting Higher Education’s Decline in the Court of Public Opinion:
“The history of Johns Hopkins University is the history of the modern American research university. And, the architect of that modern university was Johns Hopkins President, Daniel Coit Gilman. Michael Benson has written a much-needed biography of Gilman, while at the same time providing a very insightful history into the growth and development of the American research university. This may be a biography about Gilman but, more importantly, it also represents a critical contribution to the history of higher education in twentieth century America.”
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, author of The Empowered University: Shared Leadership, Culture Change, and Academic Success:
“In his latest book, Benson chronicles the life of a true pioneer in American Higher Education. In doing so, he tells the story of one of our country’s great universities and shows how its emergence after the Civil War helped transform the educational landscape. Readers will appreciate the chance to learn about Daniel Coit Gilman’s life and his leadership, and they will come away with new insights regarding research universities and how they can – and must – adapt to society’s changing needs and interests.”
Sally Mason, President Emerita, University of Iowa (2007-2015):
“For those who might be curious about how our American Research Universities evolved to become the best in the world, the history of Daniel Coit Gilman’s rise to the presidency of Johns Hopkins and his visionary leadership are key to setting the stage for the evolution of research and creative activities as integral parts of American higher education. A man well before his time, Gilman was clearly gifted with vision and strength of conviction, both of which have inspired generations of growth and upward mobility in the much larger enterprise of higher education generally and the intimate intertwining of research and scholarly endeavors.”
James K. Stimpert, Senior Reference Archivist, Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries:
“Michael T. Benson fleshes out the knowledge surrounding Daniel Coit Gilman by providing the first full-scale biography of Gilman in over 100 years. Given that no single individual is more responsible for what Johns Hopkins University became—and is now—than Gilman, this book contributes to an understanding of the forces that shaped our founding president and, through him, JHU. Historians of higher education should find this book fascinating, as would anyone interested in the early history of Johns Hopkins.”
John Thelin, Professor, University of Kentucky, author of A History of American Higher Education:
“Michael Benson’s fresh biography of Daniel Coit Gilman shows how an inspired president helped to transform the ideal of a great university into a reality with the founding of the Johns Hopkins University.”
Brennen Jensen, The Johns Hopkins University Magazine:
“In Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University, Michael T. Benson, A&S ‘21 (MLA), presents the first major biography of this singular figure in some 50 years, a pioneer who upended the country’s moribund collegiate system, fusing the best aspects of German and British academia into a New World original. Gilman’s career began humbly and included setbacks (a rocky and comparatively brief stint heading a fledgling University of California). But his skills as visionary, orator, and recruiter led him on. Making use of Gilman’s personal papers, Benson gives us the man behind the muttonchops, showing how diverse aspects of his life—from an insatiable love of travel to the early death of his first wife—shaped the man who reshaped the collegiate landscape.”
Michael T. Nietzel, Senior Contributor, Forbes Magazine:
“Michael T. Benson’s Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American University is a masterful biography of Gilman, the third president of the University of California and the first president of Johns Hopkins University. Benson, the president of Coastal Carolina University, explores Gilman’s encouragement of the American research university and its unique combining of the British emphasis on undergraduate education with the German focus on original research and graduate training.
Benson documents Gilman’s impact on Hopkins during its early years and the influence the school’s model has had on higher education ever since. Initiated in 1867, along with an affiliated hospital, by a bequest of $7 million from its namesake benefactor, Hopkins became the prototype — under Gilman’s leadership — for many qualities that define the modern research university, including its organization, graduate education, disciplinary expertise, and emphasis on original scholarship.”
The Coastal Business Journal, July 2024:
“Benson’s work conveys Gilman’s monumental and lifelong pursuit to establish the research university in America. His comprehensive research of relevant private and public records and the portrayal of important events places the reader in the historical, political, economic, and social contexts. One gains an appreciation for the timeless demands and opportunities for higher education. Benson sought to tell Gilman’s story and express his contribution to higher education in America. He succeeds in more than that. As we find ourselves in the midst of a technological, economic, and social revolution, Benson reminds us that the ideals of our free and democratic society demand a deep understanding of higher education’s merits and the devotion necessary for advancement.”
College for the Commonwealth: A Case for Higher Education in American Democracy (with Hal R. Boyd). Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2018.
From the Foreword by E. Gordon Gee, President, West Virginia University:
“There is no shortage of books about higher education. There may be, however, a shortage of concise, insightful, relevant, and useful books about higher education. Benson and Boyd’s fine work goes a long way toward filling that gap. Thanks to them, now whenever I think and talk about the importance of value of public higher education to American democracy, I will have an excellent resource on which to rely.”
Daniel Walker Howe, former Rhodes Professor of American History, Oxford University, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815 - 1848:
“Michael Benson and Hal Boyd present a convincing case for why higher education needs and deserves public support. From practical examples they demonstrate how investment in higher education enables a society to rise to the opportunities presented by the future. Their argument is focused on Kentucky, but its lessons are as applicable to the United States as a whole. As these two wise men put it, ‘Kentucky is at a crossroads, but so is the nation.’”
Robert M. Daines, Pritzker Professor of Law and Business, Stanford University:
“A vigorous and thoughtful defense of the public value of education. It is definitely worth reading in an era where it is sometime thought fashionable or prudent to reduce expenses on education.”
Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel. Westport, CT: Prager, 1997.
Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum and publisher of Middle East Quarterly:
“Everyone knows that Harry Truman provided help to the Zionists because he could count votes, and there were few Arab votes in 1948. That, anyway, is the thesis developed by John Snetsinger in 1974 and since repeated ad nauseum. Well, it turns out not to be true. In a masterful and exciting presentation, Michael Benson proves that Truman’s policies resulted not from nose-counting but from deeply-held beliefs. His pro-Israel outlook ‘was based primarily on humanitarian, moral, and sentimental grounds, many of which were an outgrowth of the president’s religious upbringing and his familiarity with the Bible.’ Extensive research into Truman’s biography and earlier career shows his impressive consistency.
Benson, of the University of Utah, establishes Truman as a studious child and deeply religious young man who, when he unexpectedly found himself in the Oval Office, lived faithfully by his precepts. In the case at hand, he expressed sympathy for Zionism as early as 1939 and reiterated his views many times subsequently. Truman’s determination had great importance; of the many momentous issues in his presidency, he personally involved himself most directly with what he called the ‘puzzle of Palestine.’ In Benson’s words, these personal interventions against the entirety of the American foreign policy establishment ‘constantly rescued’ the Jews from defeat. The author concludes that the standard account of Truman risking U.S. security interests for cheap political advantage is deeply unfair to this most moral and honorable of American presidents.”
From the Foreword by Stan A. Taylor, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University:
“Benson has blended the best of political and historical research skills in this work. In clear and lucid writing, [he] makes a powerful argument that neither raison d’etat nor the exigencies of domestic politics are adequate to explain President Harry Truman’s decision to recognize Israel.”
Robert Dallek, Professor Emeritus, UCLA; author of The American Style of Foreign Policy: Cultural Politics and Foreign Affairs:
“A worthwhile and interesting book which makes a strong case for Harry S. Truman’s moral considerations in deciding to recognize Israel. Benson’s research and writing are exemplary.”
Noah Lucas, Emeritus Fellow Oxford University Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies:
“Benson’s enthralling narrative captures the drama of high politics while richly portraying the human greatness of Harry Truman. A salutary work which will enlighten and move the reader.”
Updated July 2025
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