Professor Casey is a specialist in U.S. foreign policy. His books include Cautious Crusade: Franklin D. Roosevelt, American Public Opinion, and the War against Nazi Germany, 1941-1945 (Oxford University Press, 2001; paperback 2004), which explored American attitudes toward Nazi Germany during World War II; Selling the Korean War: Propaganda, Politics, and Public Opinion, 1950-1953 (Oxford University Press, 2008; paperback 2010), which won both the Truman Book Award and the Neustadt Prize for best book in American Politics; and When Soldiers Fall: How Americans have Debated Combat Casualties, from World War I to the War on Terror (Oxford University, 2014) which also won the Neustadt Prize.
His recent books have explored US war correspondents during World War II. War Report, Europe: The American Media at War against Nazi Germany (Oxford University Press, 2017; paperback 2021) won the American Journalism Historians Association 2018 book of the year, the panel judging it "a landmark work for scholars, an engaging and compelling account of journalists dedicated to reporting the Allied campaigns to dislodge the German forces from Europe." War Beat Pacific: The American Media at War against Japan (Oxford University Press, 2021) was a finalist for both the Tankard Book Prize and the Frank Luther Mott Award, the judges applauding "the meticulous research in a range of archives" and its telling of "a complex story with precision, power, and grace."
Professor Casey studied for his undergraduate degree at the University of East Anglia before moving to Oxford where he completed an M. Phil and then D. Phil in International Relations. Between 1998 and 2001, he was a Junior Research Fellow in Politics at Trinity College, Oxford. He joined LSE in 2001.
In 2004-5, Professor Casey was the recipient of the Truman Scholar's Award. In 2006 he was awarded a Marshall/Baruch Fellowship. In 2008 he was one of the inaugural Visiting Fellows at the Australian Prime Ministers Centre in Canberra, as well as the Visiting Scholar at the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library in Perth, where he presented the annual Curtin Public Lecture entitled, 'A Missed Opportunity: The Curtin-Roosevelt Meeting and Australian-American Relations during World War II.' In
2009 he received a Mathew Ridgway Grant to research at the U.S. Military History Institute in Carlisle Pennsylvania. In 2010 he was awarded a British Academy Small Research Grant, in 2011 a Moody Grant from the Lyndon Johnson Library, and in 2013 a Research Grant from the Eisenhower Foundation.
Expertise
20th-Century United States
Publications
No results found
Teaching
*Sabbatical Leave 2025-26*
Professor Casey usually teaches the following courses in the Department:
Professor Casey also supervises the following PhD students:
Research student
Provisional thesis title
Harriet Solomon
Beyond the Headlines: The Representation of Islam in Western Media – a Four Case Study Approach
Maliha Ahmed
Bangladesh’s Path to Recognition, 1971-1974
Hammad Al-Qadri
Unfulfilled Promises: An Analysis on U.S.-Pakistan Foreign Relations between 1998-2003.
Engagement and impact
2025
Professor Steve Casey appears on new documentary
Professor Steve Casey has appeared on the Channel 4 documentary, 24 Hours: The Fall of Nazi Germany.
He spoke about the mood, motives, and pressures inside General Eisenhower's headquarters in the period leading up to Germany's unconditional surrender in the early hours of May 7, 1945.
Professor Steve Casey has published a new article: "Remembering Roosevelt - a president who made America great again"
In his recent article, Prof Casey looks at the current effort to destroy what remains of FDR’s legacy and how it threatens to weaken the US and fuel global instability. The 80th anniversary of his death is an ideal moment to remember his achievements.
In the "War Reporters in the Pacific" episode, Professor Casey introduces the correspondents who covered America's war against Japan in the Pacific theatre. He took us through their experiences and their impact on the home front, shining a light on the critical role that journalists on the frontline played. Listen to it here,on Apple, Google or Spotify.
New book
Professor Casey’s new book The War Beat, Pacific. The American Media at War against Japanwas released in the United States in early May. The book covers the history of American war reporting in the Pacific theater of World War II, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Read the review published in the Wall Street Journal(19 May) and other reviews in the publisher's website. The hardcopy was released in the UK in September.
2019
Book award interview
Professor Casey was interviewed in the January issue of Historiography in Mass Communication (5:1) about his American Journalism Historian Association Book of the Year Award received last year for The War Beat, Europe: The American Media at War against Nazi Germany (Oxford University Press). The book provides new insights into what American war correspondents witnessed, what they were allowed to publish, and how their reports shaped the home front’s perception of World War II. Read the interview.
2018
New publication: "The Unprecedented President"
A new article written by Professor Steven Casey was published by the H-Diplo/ISSF Policy Series America and the World – 2017 and Beyondon 2 October, edited by Robert Jervis, Joshua Rovner, and Diane Labrosse. The article, entitled "The Unprecedented President: Donald Trump and the Media in Historical Perspective" chronicles the relationship between the White House and the media in the twentieth century. Professor Casey observes that, since the start of the twentieth century, when the White House first became "a full-time propaganda machine," the president’s relationship with the media has been in a state of constant flux. Past presidents, whether Republican or Democrat, whether dealing with print, radio, television, or the Internet, have all recognized the costs, as well as the benefits, associated with interacting with the media. Despite that, Professor Casey argues that Trump’s use of the media has been too continent, too undisciplined, too unprepared, too untruthful to fit into any pattern of previous behaviour. In this area, he is proving himself to be an unprecedented president.
AJHA 2018 Book of the Year Award
Professor Casey won the American Journalism Historians Association Book of the Year Award for 2018 for his latest book, The War Beat, Europe: The American Media at War against Nazi Germanypublished by Oxford University Press in 2017. The award, which recognises the best book in journalism history or mass media history published during the previous calendar year was presented at AJHA’s Annual Convention 4-6 October in Salt Lake City, Utah. Based on a wealth of previously untapped primary sources, Professor Casey’s book chronicles a group of highly courageous and extremely talented American journalists as they reported the war against Nazi Germany for a grateful audience back at home. War Beat, Europe, provides the first comprehensive account of what these reporters witnessed, what they were allowed to publish, and how their reports shaped the home front’s perception of some of the most pivotal battles in American history. "Our panel of judges agreed that Steven Casey’s work once again established that good history at its best should be good reading," said Aimee Edmondson from Ohio University, chair of the book award committee. "They also agreed his book provides a landmark work for scholars, an engaging and compelling account of journalists dedicated to reporting the Allied campaigns to dislodge the German forces from Europe." Read more about the AJHA 2018 Book of the Year Award.
2017
Professor Steven Casey on Trump's nuclear bluster precedent
"The closest a US president has come to anticipating Trump’s shockingly bellicose statement was Harry Truman, during the Korean War", argues Professor Steven Casey in his 11 August piece for the The Interpreter. Much alike Donald Trump's bluster, Truman’s words also sent shockwaves through the world. Read the full piece, "Korea: Trump’s nuclear bluster has just one precedent", in the Lowy Institute website.
Lecture at Ohio State University
On 21-22 April, Professor Steven Casey attended a conference at Ohio State University’s Mershon Center on War, Media, and Public Opinion. The conference brought together leading political scientists, communications scholars, and historians in the field, as well as journalists and policy makers. Professor Casey spoke on "The Media and Military at War, from World War I to Korea," which highlighted some of the themes of the three major monographs he has published in the past nine years.
New Book released in the US and UK, The War Beat
Professor Steven Casey’s newest book, The War Beat, Europe: The American Media at War against Nazi Germanywas released by Oxford University Press in the United States on 3 April. The book was later released in the UK in June of the same year. War Beat, Europepresents the challenges faced by World War II American correspondents mediating between their battlefield reporting and the US press management. Based on a wealth of previously untapped primary sources, Professor Casey provides the first comprehensive account of what reporters, such as Ernie Pyle, Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White and Walter Cronkite, witnessed, what they were allowed to publish, and how their reports shaped the home front's perception of some of the most pivotal battles in American history. Order the UK edition on Amazon UK.
2016
LSE Excellence in Education Awards
In June 2016, Professor Steven Casey won an LSE Excellence in Education Award. Designed to support the School’s aspiration of creating ‘a culture where excellence in teaching is valued and rewarded on a level with excellence in research’ (LSE Strategy 2020), the Excellence in Education Awards are made, on the recommendations of Heads of Department, to staff who have demonstrated outstanding teaching contribution and educational leadership in their departments.
2015
New edited volume, Mental Maps in the Era of Détente and the End of the Cold War
Professor Steven Casey’s new book, Mental Maps in the Era of Détente and the End of the Cold War, was published in October. The book, edited jointly with Professor Jonathan Wright, is the final volume of a trilogy that explores the ‘mental maps’ of key leaders during the twentieth century. It features thirteen studies, including chapters on Nixon and Kissinger, Brezhnev and Gorbachev, Allende and Deng, Nyerere and Mandela. Read more about the book from the publisher, Palgrave-Macmillan.
Professor Steven Casey wins 2015 Richard E. Neustadt Prize
Professor Steven Casey has just published When Soldiers Fall: How Americans Have Confronted Combat Casualties from World War I to Afghanistan(New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). Buy this book from the publisher: Oxford University Press. To coincide with the publication of this major new book, which transforms our understanding of how American society has confronted major wars since 1914, Professor Casey has appeared on the American public radio show, ‘Roundtable,’ and has also published a number of opinion pieces, including "Obama was Right to Have Republican Robert Gates as Defense Secretary,"U.S. News & World Report, 19 January 2014,"What Bob Gates' Memoir Tells Us about Casualties,"The Interpreter, 14 January 2014, and "America's Love Affair with Technowar,"History News Network, 30 December 2013.
2010
2010 Harry S. Truman Book Award
Dr Steven Casey has received the prestigious 2010 Harry S Truman Book Award for his work Selling the Korean War: Propaganda, Politics, and Public Opinion in the United States, 1950-1953 (Oxford University Press, 2008).Selling the Korean War, which previously won the 2009 Neustadt Award in American Politics, was selected from a record field of thirty-three entries to emerge as the winner of the Harry S Truman book award. This award recognises the best book published within a two year period that addresses an aspect of the life of US President Harry S Truman or the history of the United States under his presidency. Dr Casey is the first non-American to win this award, whose previous recipients include Dean Acheson, McGeorge Bundy, Bruce Cumings and John Gaddis.
Commenting on the book, Dr. Jeffrey Gall, chair of the Harry S. Truman Book Award subcommittee, said:
"The committee believes that Dr. Casey’s work is a unique and important contribution to the historiography of the Korean War. He explores how, at all levels, the Truman administration worked to control and shape the public’s understanding of what was occurring on the Korean peninsula and to maintain both popular and Congressional support for a conflict unlike any the nation had ever seen."
"U.S. setbacks in the war clearly helped lead to Truman’s plummeting approval ratings as he left office, yet Casey argues the administration succeeded on other levels. Support for the war never totally collapsed as it might have, and the administration helped the public come to better understand the long, perilous, and complex situation faced by the nation in the emerging Cold War."
