GSPM Professor Wins Prestigious Book Award


February 10, 2017

Matthew Dallek

Congratulations to Matthew Dallek, Assistant Professor of Political Management in the Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM), for winning the 2017 Henry Adams Prize from the Society for History in the Federal Government. This annual award is given for an outstanding major publication on the federal government’s history.

He will be presented with the award at the society’s annual meeting on April 13.

His book, Defenseless Under the Night: The Roosevelt Years and the Origins of Homeland Security (Oxford University Press, 2016), shows that before Pearl Harbor Americans feared foreign invasions, air attacks and biological warfare. To meet these threats, President Franklin Roosevelt established the Office of Civilian Defense, the precursor to the Department of Homeland Security. Dallek explores constitutional questions about civil liberties, the role and power of government propaganda, and the depth of militarization of civilian life that swirled around the Office of Civilian Defense when it was established before World War II and that continued through the war.

For more information visit the August 2016 CPS Leads story about his newly published book.